Structuring a Timeline

Depending on the scale and time period covered, timelines can quickly become very long.

When creating our timeline, I wanted something we could use to continually record events from our studies, and wanted the kids to have a visual reference of when they were born, when cars were invented, when the Romans lived and when wooly mammoths and dinosaurs roamed the earth. Since these events span a large time period the timeline includes several different scales.

570 million BC to 70 million BC -  1 inch = 100 million years
70 million BC to 200,000 BC - 1 inch = 10 million years (the last inch was a little short)
200,000 BC to 10,000 BC - 1 inch = 10,000 years
10,000 BC to 2,000 BC - 1 inch = 1,000 years
2,000 BC to 2,050 AD (it goes into the future) - 1 inch = 50 years

The entire timeline is 10 feet long. The length the sections are as follows: .4, .6, 1.6, .7 and 6.8 feet respectively.

We have recorded historical events for two years of school and there is room for at least two more years. It wraps around the kitchen table, so it is constantly in view and each time we add an event we look to see what else happened at the same time.

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This post is linked to:
Hip Homeschool Hop
All Things Beautiful 
Saturday Show and Tell