It's finally here and I'm super excited to share today's post!! For the last couple of years, we've been using A Visual American History Timeline of Books. Recently, I teamed up with the author, veteran homeschooling mom Bonnie Anderson, to bring them to you!
I met Bonnie a few years back at a homeschool conference and I totally fell in love with her used book collection. She's been instrumental in my love of living books and inspirational in the vision of our personal home library. We've traveled to her home, three hours away, on several occasions to view her personal library and purchase books as we built our collection. Here's her story....
During the years I was home schooling my sons, I began collecting history books. I have a personal passion for American history, having traveled with my family throughout the United States where we visited many historical sights. I enjoy collecting used and out of print books and learning about history from them. So instead of a textbook approach, we began loving to read history from “living books”. Thus our library began.
It is set up in chronological order – with biographies, famous events, historical fiction, and non-fiction books all together in the time they happened. Our library teaches us when events and people lived. It is a timeline of books and when questioned about an event or person, we can see it on the shelf and recall where it belongs in history.
Seeing this chronological arrangement of books, the idea of a visual timeline took shape. I have always believed in the importance of the timeline to retain historical information as it relates to special events and people. I know a visual picture has been easiest for me to remember. Thus I came up with a new approach to a historical timeline by choosing pictures of favorite books and placing them in chronological order. My desire in creating this timeline was to excite both old and young in the beginning study of American history.
Bonnie's Timeline of Books has definitely excited our household in the study of American History!!Included in this timeline are biographies, historical fiction, and historical non-fiction books. I have chosen a variety of old and new books that can be obtained in local libraries, inter-library loans, and from new and used book dealers. Some of these older books are now available in new reprinted versions. Many of the books show God's intervention in history. You could even add your own favorites to make the timeline a family treasure.
There are two editions of A Visual American History Timeline of Books. The Primary Level can be used with elementary age children. Each century is defined by a different color horizontal bar in the middle of each page.
Blue – 1600’s
Red – 1700’s
Green – 1800’s
Yellow – 1900’s
Black - Overview/Early Explorers
Blue – 1600’s
Red – 1700’s
Green – 1800’s
Yellow – 1900’s
Each 17-page timeline is printed on heavy card stock and can be hung chronologically on a wall or hole-punched and
placed in a ring binder, which is the way we keep ours. A bibliography has also been
included, sorted alphabetically by page for your convenience in finding the
books. This is a great book sale shopping list!
Below is a sample of the first page of each timeline:
Primary Level
Primary Level
Intermediate Level
We've read many of the books on each timeline and own copies in our personal homeschool library. They are wonderful! RileyAnn has the timelines memorized! Some of the books used are listed in the TruthQuest History guides, some of them are used in curricula like Sonlight and Beautiful Feet, others are just wonderful living books that have been long since forgotten.
Love, love LOVE this idea!!!!!!!!! I think this is just excellent, and will help visual learners (our dear gifted, dyslexic sons)! Thank you for sharing. I wish I could meet you and Miss Bonnie.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much Shannon!...it would be a pleasure to meet you as well. Please feel free to leave a review here when your timeline arrives.
ReplyDeleteBlessings,
Melissa
I sure will! :)
DeleteWhat a great idea!
ReplyDeleteDoes the Intermediate Level also cover selections in the Primary Level? Thank you, Gina
ReplyDeleteThanks for your inquiry Gina. No, they are two separate timelines. Each uses totally different books. However, I have seen some overlap in the level of difficulty in that some of the books on the intermediate may be read to/by upper elementary students. For example, our 5th grade dd read a couple of the books on the intermediate last year. The intermediate timeline is really an extension of the primary timeline. They are very complimentary to each other. Hope that helps...
ReplyDeleteBlessings,
Melissa
Hi there, this is really fabulous. I was curious if I could purchase a PDF or Word version that I could print myself. We live overseas and that would be easier. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHey Emily, I'm sorry, there is not PDF or digital copy available. They are printed in hard copy and shipped.
DeleteHi, I just found your blog and I'm absolutely loving all of your resources! We are two years into our homeschool journey, and this timeline/booklist you've put together is exactly what I've been looking for to help us add more living books to our American history curriculum. Since this post is a few years old, I wanted to find out if this Visual American History Timeline of History is still available for purchase? Do you ship a hardcopy, or is a digital download available? Thanks so much!
ReplyDeleteHey Melissa, thanks for reading and your kind words! Yes, both the primary and intermediate timelines are available. There are no downloads available. I ship it as a hard copy. It is printed in color on a high quality card stock type paper. I store mine in a binder, but some families hang it on the wall like a timeline. Hope that helps, Melissa
DeleteThank you! I'll be ordering it shortly :)
DeleteI'm looking for a visual timeline just like this for the years 500 to the 1500's. Can you recommend one? Thanks
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry, I don't know of one that exists...although, I hope to assemble one in the future. :)
DeleteHi Melissa, I'd love to buy both of your book timelines, but I can't figure out how to place them both in my Paypal cart (and end up paying double shipping otherwise!). Could you let me know if you are still selling the hard copies, and if I can order both at once? Thanks so much!!
ReplyDeleteI do have copies available. Unfortunately, there is no way to combine "shipping" cost, which actually covers more than postage. It includes packaging and other fees associated with buying/selling/shipping the product. Thanks for your inquiry.
Delete