How to Use Timelines in Your Homeschool

Do you love timelines? Do your kids? I think they are one of the most fascinating ways to explore history. I even have half of a shelf of books just about timelines! But it’s so easy to reduce timelines to a simple list of facts and dates that we often miss the incredible learning potential they provide. Let me show you what I mean.

Wilbur and Orville Wright changed history on December 17, 1903, when they made a twelve-second flight. This flight was the first controlled flight of a machine that was piloted, power-driven, and heavier than air. Three more flights that day would include their longest one which covered 852 feet (260 meters) and lasted 59 seconds.

Move forward to July 20, 1969, and we see Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin land and walk on the moon for the first time. Their entire flight lasted eight days, covered hundreds of thousands of miles, and again significantly impacted history.

Those two separate dates may not look spectacular when you simply glance at them, but if we take the time to slow down, we can see something startling. They happened just sixty-six years apart. How did aviation change so radically that men went from a flight that lasted less than one minute and traveled a few hundred feet to a flight that left Earth’s orbit, lasted more than one week, and reached the Moon?

One of the most important things you and your kids can do to really start to learn from timelines is to stop and ask questions. How did what happened before an event enable or cause the next event to happen? How does it connect to what happened next? What people, events, and forces (political trends, new ideas, religious revivals, etc.) were involved? How did the people of the time period respond? How can you see God at work in the events of human history of this time?

I think you’ll be astounded as you start to ask questions and look at history more closely. For example, if you look at a list of dates and see that Sir Isaac Newton was born in 1642, it may seem interesting but not terribly exciting. We know that it would be many years before he would start to leave his mark on science, and it’s easy to skip over the year of his birth. However, in that same year, explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman reached the island of Tasmania off the coast of Australia. He was the first European to do so. How did an explorer navigate thousands of miles when mankind did not yet understand gravity? How did explorers cross extremely dangerous oceans when one of the most fundamental laws of science had not even been articulated? (If you’d like to dive into the fascinating way the English Civil Wars impacted the work of men such as Sir Isaac Newton, Edmond Haley, Robert Boyle, and William Harvey, I encourage you to check out Magna Carta Unlocked, a video documentary hosted by Philip Quenby. It’s available from Vision Video and provides a fascinating look at how events that are little-known to many of us had a profound impact on our world today.)

Do you feel excitement and curiosity starting to spark and grow? Let’s consider the mind-boggling questions we can raise by comparing a few more dates, several of which seem insignificant on their own. We know that the Pilgrims landed in what became the United States in 1620. What we often skim over is that the first university in the colonies, Harvard, was founded just sixteen years later in 1636. Two years later, the first library in the colonies was established, and two years after that, the first English-language book was printed in the colonies. With all the challenges the colonists faced merely to survive, why did they put such importance on learning? How did the students conduct their studies at a university before a library even existed in their land and all their books had to be brought from overseas?

There’s one part of history that fascinates me more than any other. Acts 17:26-27 says, “From one man He made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us” (NIV). 

All history before the coming of Jesus was leading to His arrival. Nations, travel, philosophy, and much more all shaped the world and time He came to. The entire Old Testament records how God slowly unfolded His plan of salvation until Jesus came. But we also know that every moment of history following His ascension is leading to His Second Coming. It is paving the way for His return.

No matter what part of history your family is studying, stop and ask questions. Don’t just ask historical questions, though. Ask spiritual ones as well. God is authoring history as you read these words. Let’s dive deep and learn all we can from what He has already done. What part in this history do you and your family have? If you start asking questions and seeking the answers, you’ll never look at timelines or history the same way again.

If you’re looking for some timeline-themed resources or resources that incorporate timelines, check out these titles!

• Timeline of . . . Chronological Copywork series
• Construct a Timeline of the 1920s
• Timeline of Famous American Artists and Timeline of Famous Artists From Around the World Copywork
• Famous American Authors Facts, Timelines, and Notebooking Pages
• Favorite Authors Timeline & Puzzles
• Exploring the United States Timelines, Critical Thinking, and Map Work Bundle
• State Report Templates: United States History & Geography

Leave a comment and tell me how you use timelines in your homeschool!