"Let your fingers do the walking." 

      Not only can your fingers walk through the yellow pages,  your fingers can walk through the centuries of time.   Are your history studies a bit dry some  days?   We've found a fun way to incorporate history,  reading comprehension,  narration/composition skills,  handwriting/keyboarding and art.  Making a Book of Centuries is not an original idea.   But I thought if I detailed how simple this project can be,  other homeschool families may enjoy starting their own Book of Centuries.

      Each week my kids make a story page about a person,  place or event studied in history.  Filed chronologically in a very large 3-ring binder,  they can literally

turn the pages of time!

 I have placed divider pages every 500-1000 years from 5000 B.C. to 500 A.D.    By placing bible story pages and ancient history pages in chronological order,  we learned to appreciate the biblical backdrop provided by ancient cultures.   When the kids were younger,  they wrote a title and a one/two sentence explanation.

     Now they are older,  so I ask them to write a paragraph.    We inserted dividers every 100 years from 500 A.D. to present.   The kids must research the exact location for a new story page not only by century,   but in context with other events within the century. 

     I use blank copy paper for our story pages,  but others have been much more creative.    Maureen Wittmann graciously shares the forms  she incorporates in their Book of Centuries.

     A  Book of Centuries can be anything you want it to be.   Making a  Book of Centuries  is a fun way to record your history studies.   My kids can thumb through 5000 years of story pages,   laughing at their early artwork,   critiquing their crooked primary handwriting,   and recalling the rabbit trails we chased.    Are you ready to turn the pages of time in your homeschool?

This entry is featured in the 17th Carnival of Homeschooling .

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Posted by happyheartsmom

Maureen, these are wonderful, and I love the creativity that comes out in each child's different work. Beautiful blog, I'm so glad you posted at mine so I could find you!!

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Posted by chickadee

i love to see other kids' work. that looks great. we do something very similar and i haven't even made them write the year on it. when i saw your kid's page with the date on it i thought, i should be doing that!

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Posted by writmm

What a cool idea! We love history! And currently we are reading about Virginia history. We live in an amazing state that had amazing people in it at the beginning of the U.S. history.

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Posted by Anonymous

I've been wanting a creative way to time-line our history studies and this is it! Fabulous, Maureen! Thanks. Lesa

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