Why Timelines Matter When Teaching History

When I was in school, I learned a lot of piecemeal history.  While I could remember small bits of the lessons, I always felt like history was some giant puzzle that I would never put together – and I hated it.  That’s the main reason I decided our homeschool would follow a four-year cycle of chronological history. I knew if someone had just taken me through history from start to finish, I wouldn’t be so confused.

Wait.  History Isn’t Awful?

So, you can imagine my surprise to find how wonderful and exciting the history of our world really is when it’s taught well!  Not to mention, how much sense it makes.  In fact, I LOVE teaching history now – and my children think it’s one of THE most interesting subjects!

One important tool we’ve used to help tie history together is the timeline.  We haven’t used a single consistent timeline format over the years, but have used various types in various situations instead.  In one way or another, the different timelines have provided us visual cues and have enhanced comprehension immensely.

Why Timelines Matter

I tried to pinpoint the reasons why timelines have worked so well for us and I ended up with seven big deal things that they’ve done for our homeschool.