Almost Like a Charlotte Mason Book of Centuries

My kids and I weren't feeling well today. Everyone seemed to be at a different stage of a respiratory "thing". Fortunately, we didn't HAVE to go to work, otherwise known as our family bookshop. This usually never happens. For some reason we always seem to be sick on days when things really HAVE to get done and that my friends, as I'm sure you all know, is no fun at all. Anyway, I was thankful for this little blessing today. As a result, I didn't push myself physically today and allowed myself extra time to mentally work on the curriculum for our Spring Session.

One of the things I would like to incorporate into our studies is the creation of a history timeline book. The springboard for this idea is the Charlotte Mason Book of Centuries, which is something I've always wanted to do with my own children, but we have never gotten around to it. The book for our Spring Session will be different though, because I want it to only span the time period of 1860-2013. So I'm tossing around the idea of a decade book, but then I'm thinking about the decades we are going to be covering and I'm saying, "Holy information, Batman!"

I know the idea behind the Charlotte Mason Book of Centuries is to not include everything, to only include the things the children find really meaningful and to be a collection of lists, but my purpose will be different. I want to record as much as we can and I want room left over for my students to record more in the future. I also want it to be more creative than a book of lists. I want to include some of the projects we will be completing. I'm even thinking it may be a big part of the students' portfolios which we will use for assessment purposes. Are you starting to envision the biggest three-ring binders you've ever seen? Yeah, me too! The only problem is, I really detest three-ring binders. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's due to seven years of reselling used Sonlight instructor's guides. I like the Sonlight program, but those blue binders I can do without. So, then I start thinking about my love of scrapbooking and I feel something start to merge in my mind. You're feeling it too, aren't you? Well, I will keep you updated on the idea. I'm actually a bit giddy as I plan it out and I spent a good deal of time today making my own timeline spanning 1860-2013. I didn't get much past 1875 and we won't cover everything I'm outlining, but I want to see what all of my choices are... This may take awhile.