Making a timeline

[Grace and Granola]

I know this could be simple or very complicated, but has anyone made a timeline for marking history events?  I think I want a blank timeline that we can add people/places/events to as we go, but I'd like to hear from some seasoned homeschoolers on what you use for a timeline.  My boys are 4 and 6 and we're sort of in the middle of K/1st grade.  The things I'd like to put on the timeline are the artists that we study, inventions that we read about, etc. 

We are Charlotte Mason inspired, and I know she recommends the Book of Centuries, but for my little guys I think I'd like to start with a linear chart on the wall.  I have about six feet of space to work with.  WWYD?

[Attila the Honey]

We have a timeline in a binder.  I just don't have the wall space for any other kind. :/  Anyhow - we really like it and use it a lot!  I recommend making one.

[Lovesong]

If you can, I would draw a timeline in magnetic blackboard colour on the wall. Just a straight line with space to write. Use a chalk to mark the middle with the year 0 (or whatever year you feel appropriate). Then use magnets, to fasten drawings etc. of the person/invention you are working on on the timeline.

After a while, as things get crowded, put the drawings into a binder in chronological order. So that dinosaur drawings come first, then perhaps the first stone arrows, followed by a roman emperor etc.

[happy1nluv]

I have a 4 and 6 year old too...  We started with a timeline on posterboard of just family events starting the year I got married -- just weddings and births and a few family moments but things that they'd know...  then we went to a binder timeline.  I printed pages from guesthollow.com

http://www.guesthollow.com/homeschool/history/timeline.html

and we use that as we come across stuff of note.  We're really just starting, but I think the one on the wall is helping them relate to the one in the book better -- and we spread out pages to see how far apart things are if they have questions...  (its really new still but i think they're getting it).  And I like that it will be a keepsake of sorts and not wall art that will be recycled at some point...

I'm terrible at scale though, so i've been using blue tape to stick stuff in.  We may have to either scrap some of the stuff we've already done or redo it because its too big... 

And... not to hijack... but where do you put people?  Birthdate? Death date?  Year of import to them?  (We haven't put Ben Franklin in yet because I'm just not sure where to put him...)

:)

[SundayCrepes]

I just found this: http://www.amazon.com/Timetables-History-Horizontal-Linkage-People/dp/0743270037/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1319864933&sr=1-1

Edited by SundayCrepes - 10/28/11 at 10:12pm

[Grace and Granola]

Thanks, Ladies!  I appreciate your perspectives.  I think the reason I want to start with a linear timeline on the wall is to help the children get a "picture" of how time looks.  I can see how later it would be better to have it in a book/binder so that it doesn't become a piece of tattered wall art.

SundayCrepes- that book looks fantastic!  I could totally get sucked into something like that!