alternatives to timelines -- I need a sounding board..

[Kate in Arabia]

I'm trying to sort some things out in my own mind (a difficult prospect) vis a vis our Islamic history studies, but maybe someone out there has dealt with something similar in Western civ and can maybe help me work through it?

Basically, in Middle Eastern history (specifically after the advent of Islam) there are successions of dynasties, often alternating between Sunni and Shiite. Really it isn't all that different from the changing leaders in Europe, or probably in China (I'm not up on Chinese history) or anywhere else.

So I have summaries for these dynasties, where they fit in on the timeline, important people, art and science, etc. I'm really trying to make them like pegs, I don't want to get bogged down on dates and long lists of Caliphs, etc. What I'm trying to grasp is a way to help my kids see progressions, but not in a timeline because I think (and please correct me if I'm wrong) a timeline wouldn't give the geographical visual I feel is important.

I do have the kids do mapwork, but we have just finished the period of the "Rightly Guided Caliphs", and the mapwork was more focused. Starting after our break the progression of history is going to get faster, and with more pockets in distant areas (Mesopotamia, North Africa, South Asia, etc.). I was hoping to have a method to keep the big picture but with detail?

I'm kind of toying with a large map maybe with overlays? Kind of like that progressive map of the Middle East that is linked to now and then which shows different dynasties.. but then that seems ungainly at the same time.

Has anyone worked through anything similar with Western civ? We're in vol 3 of SOTW, and there has been lots of shifting of kingdoms, people loyal to different rulers, Protestant/Catholic, geneologies that impact family loyalty, etc. We talk about it, but I don't really have a "timeline-esque-but-not" method to encapsulate that either. Does anyone else?

I don't know that I'm being very clear, maybe part of my problem is that I'm not 100% clear to myself either. I was hoping to have something visual, simple, that I could keep displayed longterm, that could show geographic and temporal changes.

I find that as I'm doing my research I keep coming across historical things, and I think, "Wow! That's why this is like that today!" I want that for my kids too, kwim?

Any thoughts? Help?

tia!

[jenadina]

I like the overlay/map idea...would it be possible to do both a timeline and the maps? it might make for a more complete picture.

I'll think on this some more and see if I can think of anything!

[OhElizabeth]

Not much of a history expert myself, but what about a timeline with lines for each continent? Otherwise yes, you could do overlays on a map to show changing boundaries, rulers, etc., each with their own colors. Seems like it would be helpful to you to have a book that already pulls these things together for you.

[Julieofsardis]

I totally understand what you're trying to accomplish. The Brimwood Press timeline comes the closest I know to help with what you're describing. Their timeline is color coded for different geographical areas. They also use hats to show the different rulers.

I have also considered actually putting little map inserts right on a timeline, so that it's easy to see where the thing happened.

I think timelines along with maps are the clearest way to really SEE how things work out in history. I have started keeping short timelines in our current notebook instead of trying to put everything on one large one. I'm not sure why that works better, but for us it does. Then when we're through with one section we can put it together with the last one.

I'm looking forward to some other opinions or ideas.

Julie

[ElizabethB]

If you did things in power point, it's easy to put them together into a maps of war type movie...it sounds like you might need some kind of 3-D thing, really.

http://www.mapsofwar.com/maps.html

(At least it's easy with a mac. However, I heard the PC moviemaking software is getting better. You could also just automate your power point.)

[Kate in Arabia]

Thanks for the responses..

What if I used a large laminated wall map, and we could draw boundaries (and adjust them) as we went along? Maybe use something like timeline figures to put on the map in the right areas, and when we move far enough ahead that old ones need to be removed, we could put them on a more traditional wall timeline above/below?

Hmm.. perhaps I could have some kind of coding to show sect, etc.? So have the dynasty name there, and pick out a very limited number of important people/things for the timeline? This should be much easier now that we're further from the birth of Islam period, which had too many crucial (imo) people to learn about for this kind of method..

I think I prefer something that stays on the wall to something in like a scrapbook, which is what we do for SOTW (the scrapbook).