History Timeline Supplies: Book of Centuries, Wall Timelines, and Figures

Introduction

A timeline is the one history tool that does something a textbook cannot. It takes the names and dates a child meets scattered across years of reading and lays them out in order, so that the fall of Rome, the printing press, and the moon landing finally sit on the same line. The idea is old, and it is central to the Charlotte Mason tradition: children record events as they encounter them and watch the shape of history fill in over time (My Homeschool, on the Book of Centuries).

The trouble is that the supply aisle offers a dozen products that all claim to be “the timeline,” and they are not interchangeable. A bound notebook a child keeps for years does a different job than a paper scroll taped to a hallway wall, and the figure sets that fill either one come in formats that suit some programs and clash with others. This guide sorts the category into three formats, explains what each one is for, and names what to buy. Prices on these items move, so the focus is on the format rather than a dollar figure; where a number appears it is stamped with when it was checked.

Three formats, three jobs

Before comparing brands, it helps to see that the category splits into three distinct tools. They overlap, but each answers a different question a family is trying to solve.

The Book of Centuries

The Book of Centuries is the format with the deepest roots. It is a bound notebook in which each century gets a two-page spread: one page for dates and brief entries, the facing page for drawings, maps, or notes. A child begins it around age ten and adds to it for years, recording people and events as they come up in reading rather than filling it in all at once (My Homeschool, on structure and recommended age). Because the entries accumulate slowly and in the child’s own hand, the finished book becomes a record of what that particular child actually studied, which is the appeal for families drawn to the Charlotte Mason method.

You can buy a ready-made one or build your own. The published versions differ mostly in how much scaffolding they print on the page. Some are nearly blank, leaving the child to rule and label; others divide each spread into categories such as politics, religion, and the arts. A purpose-printed Book of Centuries notebook gives you the two-pages-per-century layout already ruled, which spares a younger writer the setup work. The Wonders of Old blank timeline book is a common pick for families who want a less prescriptive page. If you would rather make one, a sturdy blank hardcover sketchbook ruled by hand does the same job for less, and a 96-page book maps neatly onto the centuries most curricula cover.

Blank timeline books

A blank timeline book sits between the freeform Book of Centuries and a wall display. It is a notebook with the years already printed along the spreads, so the child writes or pastes entries onto a structure that is spaced for them. The advantage over a true Book of Centuries is that a younger child does not have to ration space across a century they have not studied yet; the dates are laid out evenly, and they fill the gaps as they go.

These come in a few flavors. Some are spine-based and date-driven, like a My Timeline Book of World History, which gives a child a portable, page-bound version of the wall experience. Others are sticker-driven workbooks that pair the dated pages with a figure set, so the child reads about an event and then places its figure on the right page. If your program already supplies its own timeline pages, you can skip this category entirely; if it does not, a dated notebook is the lowest-friction way to give a child a place to put what they learn.

Wall timelines

A wall timeline answers the question a notebook cannot: how do all of these eras relate to each other at a single glance? Strung along a hallway or above a bookshelf, it makes the distance between the pyramids and the present physical, and it is the format that works best for younger children and for a family teaching several ages off one display. The trade-off is space and permanence. A wall timeline wants a long uninterrupted stretch of wall, and once it is up it tends to stay up.

The honest news here is that this is the easiest format to build from scratch. A roll of white butcher or kraft paper unrolled along a wall, marked in even increments, gives you a timeline of any length for a few dollars, and the child does the marking, which is part of the learning. If you would rather buy a finished display, a printed world-history wall chart arrives pre-populated and laminated, which suits families who want the reference value without the building. For a reusable surface a child can mark and wipe, a blank laminated timeline poster splits the difference: structured like a bought chart, but empty for the child to fill.

Timeline figures and stickers

Figures are what turn a ruled line into a populated one. They are small printed illustrations of people and events that a child colors, cuts, and glues or sticks onto the timeline at the right date. The case for buying a set is speed and coverage: a good collection spans creation or the ancients through the modern day, so a child is never stuck without an image for the event they just read about. The case against is cost and the quiet fact that a child who draws or writes the entry instead often remembers it better. Figures are a convenience, not a necessity.

If you do buy a set, match it to the era your program covers. The best-known collections run as sticker or cut-and-paste books spanning world history, and a timeline figures sticker book is the lowest-effort way to start because there is no cutting. For a deeper, reusable library, the printable figure collections from specialty publishers are the standard reference, and they sort their figures by era and by the curriculum each figure belongs to (Home School in the Woods, History Through the Ages). Those are covered in the where-to-buy section below, since they are not stocked the same way the trade items are.

Paper, supplies, and the cheap route

Whichever format you land on, a short list of ordinary supplies makes it work, and most of them you already own. The point of naming them is to keep you from buying a specialty kit for things a junk drawer covers.

• A roll of paper. Butcher or kraft paper is the backbone of any wall timeline and costs almost nothing. One roll outlasts several years of history.
• Colored pencils, not markers. A basic set of colored pencils keeps the entries legible and the page from bleeding through, which matters in a notebook the child keeps for years.
• A glue stick and small scissors. If you use cut-out figures, a washable glue stick and a pair of child scissors are the whole craft kit. Sticker-format figures skip even this.
• A ruler. Even spacing is what makes a timeline read as a timeline. A long ruler or a yardstick keeps the increments honest.
• A pencil with a real eraser. Children revise where an event goes once they understand it better. Buy the entries to be erasable, not permanent.

Every Homeschool keeps free printable charts and reference sheets on its printables page, which covers the ruling and spacing work for families building a timeline from a paper roll rather than buying a finished one.

Matching the timeline to your method

The fastest way to buy the wrong thing is to buy a format that fights your approach. Timeline practice varies sharply by method, and a tool that anchors one program is clutter in another.

Charlotte Mason

The Book of Centuries belongs to this tradition, and a Charlotte Mason home leans on the personal, slowly-filled notebook rather than a pre-populated wall chart. The work of recording an entry by hand is the point, not a step to be skipped with a sticker. If you are building a Mason-style history plan, the classical and Charlotte Mason method guide explains where the timeline sits in the wider approach, and the classical-and-Charlotte-Mason blend guide covers families running both at once.

Classical and chronological programs

Classical history is taught chronologically and cyclically, which makes a timeline almost a requirement rather than an enrichment. Many classical programs supply or recommend a specific figure set keyed to their sequence, so check what your program already names before buying a competing collection. The best history curriculum guide notes which programs are timeline-heavy and which leave it to you.

Teaching several ages at once

A single wall timeline is one of the most efficient shared tools in a multi-age home: the same display serves a six-year-old placing a figure and a twelve-year-old adding a dated entry. If that is your situation, the teaching multiple ages guide explains how one timeline can carry several children, and the room setup guide shows how to give a wall timeline the uninterrupted run it needs.

Where to buy the specialty pieces

The trade items in this guide are widely stocked, but the printable figure libraries and the bound Book of Centuries editions come from a smaller set of specialty publishers. Two are worth knowing by name.

For figure sets, Home School in the Woods publishes the most-referenced printable collection, History Through the Ages, which spans creation through the modern day and breaks into era-based packs plus a master collection of more than a thousand figures (Home School in the Woods, timeline materials). Because the figures are printable, one purchase covers every child in a family. For bound notebooks and finished wall charts, Christianbook carries the largest single catalog of timeline products, including several published Book of Centuries editions and the long Bible-and- world-history wall charts (Christianbook, homeschool timelines).

Bottom line

Building a history timeline comes down to one decision made early: which format fits the way your family already works. Choose a Book of Centuries if you want a keepsake a child fills slowly by hand, a blank timeline book if you want that structure without a wall, and a wall timeline if you want the whole span visible to everyone at once. Add figures only if the speed is worth the cost; many families are better served letting the child draw and write the entries.

Whatever you pick, the cheapest honest version is a paper roll, a ruler, and a pencil, and it teaches the same thing the bought kit does. If you are still settling the history program the timeline will serve, start with the curriculum finder and the editors’ picks, then come back and buy only the format your method actually asks for. For the rest of the shelf, the globe and geography supplies guide and the homeschool supply list by grade cover the maps and consumables that round out a history corner.