{Blog Hop} 5 Days of … Memory Work–Day 3

 

Organizing for a Timeline

I’m very excited that the boys (and I) will be learning a timeline.  Two years ago, we worked on memorizing a timeline with some friends, and it floored me how much kids can learn.  My boys have always enjoyed learning to music – it is one of the more lasting ways I taught the boys our phone number – but it was very eye opening to see them memorize historical events in such a manner.

I’m not going to wax on about the beauty of Classical Conversations Timeline cards.  No, they are not cheap ($22 a set and you’ll need all four sets for the entire timeline).  But I’ve discovered they are pretty durable and have a lot of information on the backside so that I can expand on them during the week.

I knew I wanted to have our weekly set of 7 cards visible to help us with our memory work.  It’s  been years now since I had seen a blogger share her dining room/ school room CC display – gosh, I don’t think Pinterest was up and running yet – so I have no idea where I saw these ideas, but here’s my interpretation of a Timeline wall clip board:

The supplies I needed for this project were:  a piece of wood. This is a 1x4, I think,and was 47” long (which worked out perfectly).  I also had on hand some cup hooks.  All I needed to purchase was some clips which I found at Staples on their clearance table – only 50c each instead of $1. The wood  was recycled from a hastily installed coat hook rack in the basement.  I just sanded it down and ran a coat of stain over it.  Fortunately, my dear husband had already drilled holes in it at 16” on center, so I was good to go for installing upstairs.

Next I laid out the cards for spacing, and twisted in the cup hooks.

Almost done!  I’m just leveling it now.

These clips ended up being perfect, as they are not grabbing on to the timeline cards so hard as to mar them.

Now, the boys and I can randomly remove a card from the display and sing our weekly timeline song, gradually learning the sequence of events.  I’m thinking we might also have scavenger hunts around the house as we search for timeline cards under a couch or behind the TV.  We can also mix them up and the re-order them correctly.  I’m sure I’ll glean lots of ways we can learn our timeline in a fun way!

Tomorrow’s post:   Organizing my Foundations Guide for Memory Work

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