Homeschool Timeline

How to Create a Timeline

Thinking of making a timeline for your homeschool?

Make it easy for yourself!

Timelines are a fantastic educational tool but can be time consuming.  There are many different ways to make a timeline - and many different ways to make it difficult for yourself! 

So take some time to stop and think which type of timeline and what approach would work best for your family and homeschool. It is easy to create a version that suits your homeschooling style if you know the pitfalls before you start.

Not sure which one would suit your style? Read on!

Make a Timeline that Suits your Homeschool

Timelines are a wonderful way of introducing children to history - and the flow of time. They give children a frame of reference, and are a very visual way of presenting the past.



An important aspect of timelines is adapting the idea to suit your family. If your timeline is wrong for you (no matter what wonderful success your friend had with hers!), then you will find it peters out after a short time.

As I discuss in my ebook, Stick-ability, some of us find a regular schedule hard to stick to and we need more creative ways to get through our homeschooling.

To work for you a timeline needs to be:

• Easily set up - if the timeline is complicated to set up the chances are you will keep 'putting it off'.
• Fits your space and preferences. Be sure to make a timeline that suits your available space. The resources and templates on that page will make it easy for you to find a timeline that is perfect for you.
• Accessible - If you decide to do a wall-timeline but the only space you have is the back of the door in the spare bedroom - then think again. Unless the timeline is accessible you will all forget about it.
• Suits your homeschooling styles. Do you work better on projects sustained over time - and can add to your timeline ever day or so? Or do short burst type projects work better for you?
  
  We tend to think of timelines as something you work on over a long period of time. But sometimes this just doesn't work! You may need to set aside time when you all work on the timeline in a chunk. This doesn't mean you can't add to it later - but that you will work on it in short bursts of maybe a week at a time.
• Suits your child - Timelines are great for visual learners, but the can be adapted to other learning styles too. Sometimes small children struggle with the concept of centuries. But timelines don't have to cover the whole expanse of history! You can highlight one aspect of history.
  
  
  • Make a timeline of someone's life - someone famous, or even better, someone in the family.

  Photo courtesy of Dumbledad

  
  
  
  
  • Time line an invention - computers, or food, or math.
  • Make your timeline of a period in history - Victorians, or Vikings.
  • Timeline a place. What has happened in your town throughout history?

Ready to make a timeline? Check out how to make a timeline. Get some homeschool timeline templates and resources. Read about other homeschoolers timelines - and add your own!

Wondering what other ideas this site has?

I have lots of ideas for projects and activities on my homeschool ideas page.

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