Book of Centuries

We have kept a binder timeline for a while now, and even added to it pretty regularly recently. But I've had this nagging feeling that it was more of a timeline than a Book of Centuries. We started with this simple printable a long time ago, and even though it's labeled a Book of Centuries, since then I've seen a couple things that made me think maybe this isn't what Miss Mason was talking about when she said "Book of Centuries". It's nice, and I'm glad we do it, I'm just not sure that it's the same thing.

See, Miss Mason would take her kids to the museums, and they'd draw stuff. Museums like that are far away... but we have the internet, which is almost like having a museum, if you close one eye and squint. And I've read how she would have them draw stuff they saw, and that they were especially encouraged to pick one type of item and draw that thing from a bunch of different cultures and times. Which is a pretty cool idea. The sample I remember was shoes. Draw shoes from all over. Not very inspiring.

Enter Pinterest.

This morning, I was looking for a blackline map of Mesopotamia for another project, and I came across this cute little guy.

And all the sudden I thought, what if I did birds, instead of shoes?! Oh, that could be cool. I wonder if I could find paper thick enough to use watercolor sometimes, if I had the time and inclination?

All the sudden, it sounds very interesting. So I went and started reading some more about Books of Centuries. I'm not the only one that is too far from a museum, Brandi of Afterthoughts is, too. And I found some lovely pictures from another blogger, and she's got a great idea for how to lay it out -- I may have to try something similar in mine. Here's another sample and free download, this time with boxes for each of the years, and sample pages. They all seem to emphasize drawing, which is interesting. And the one that was my favorite to look at had drawings all over the place.

I want to put that cute Mesopotamian birdie in my book. And I want to keep an eye peeled for other birds as we look at other periods of history. I like birds.

And I want to read more about how other people do this, and figure out what we're doing with ours and make them a little more purposeful. This could be fun.