The Timeline Tool



A Sample of My Book of Time

Have you ever wondered why we should use a timeline? If you are a Sonlight user, you have timeline figures in your program - at least for Cores A through H - and a Book of Time that is a required resource. But you may have asked yourself (or others) why we need it.

Think back to your years in school. If you are like me, you studied history primarily from textbooks which may have bounced around in time periods. I don't recall having history texts that covered the whole world chronologically, so we may have studied one area's history and then moved to another continental area, but we did not necessarily connect the people we read about in order to be able to identify which were contemporaries. It wasn't until I was using Sonlight Curriculum that I discovered that Archimedes was studying mathmatical equations at the same time that Hannibal was crossing the Alps with his elephants, and the Chinese were building the Great Wall to keep out invaders. I don't think I would have even connected these facts if it were not for the timeline that we kept as we studied different people in history.

You see, putting events, places, and people on our timeline, enables us to "see" what was happening at the same time, even if our books don't point this out in the narrative. As you add timeline figures, the whole world converges in one place and you are able to make connections - actually form additional brain synapses that tie information gleaned on separate occasions together and hang it on a hook. That hook will actually aid your retention of the information. So pull out that Book of Time that you may have ignored until now and set aside some time to assemble your timeline.

As you do, let me share an idea that a friend of mine gave me years ago. When you place the timeline figures on the pages in the A.D. portion of the Book of Time they tend to blend in to the paper. We found it beneficial to trim the figures with a small border (perhaps 1/8") around the picture and then place it on the page. Then, depending on the color associated with your Core program, use a marker to draw around the edge of the figure. If you are using Core B, the associated color is red, so you would use a red marker to draw a line around the figure. This not only helps to see the figure on the page, but also identifies what Core level you studied that particular person, place or event. If you encounter that same person, place or event in another Core, you can add another line around the figure in that Core's color. If you don't know the color associated with your Core program, search for "book labels" in the sonlight.com search engine and you will find a full list with the colors.

As your Book of Time is assembled, use it for weekly review. You can simply flip through the pages and point to a figure, asking your child(ren) to tell you what they remember about it. The more you review, and talk about the events and people in the same time period, the more you will help your child remember what you have studied.

Enjoy the adventure!

Kelly