Keeping Company - Our Century Charts

Hi friends,

I am linking up with Celeste today to share a peek at our Century Charts.

When we first started implementing the CM philosophy in our home education, we tried Book of Centuries. It was something I was really looking forward to, and I thought my children would enjoy it, too. I was wrong. We stuck with it for almost 2 years, but they simply didn't enjoy it; it almost seemed burdensome to them. I was so disappointed because I loved the idea of recording all those important dates in timeline form.

Then I remembered reading about something similar to Century Charts, only a wall-version type of thing, in Volume 1, page 292 of the CM Series. It sounded like a wonderful idea, so I decided to give it a try. And my children immediately loved it!

Here is how we do it...


I took 2 pieces of poster board and divided each one into 6 columns.
At the top of each column I wrote the centuries that that column would cover, beginning at Creation, of course. :)

The why: to help my children visual the important events in history, and where those events fit into a timeline.

The when: at the beginning of each school week, I set aside a piece of paper to list all the important events that we read about that week. We list each one as we read about it. Then, on Friday, we add the events in the appropriate column on our century charts.

Sometimes we just record the date and event.

But sometimes we also we like to spice it up a little by adding a picture relating to the event.

While my children are filling in the century charts, I often hear them say things like, "Wow! The Great Awakening began only 31 years before The Revolutionary War began!" Or "Did you know that David Livingstone arrived in Africa exactly 20 years before the Civil War began?" They are making connections with these charts. History is unfolding right in front of them. And they are locking it in their memory.

Mission accomplished.  :)

Also sharing at the CMBC.