Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Once in a Timeline

Nicholas has a timeline project to do.

He had to pick out 7 events in his life and place them on a timeline. It's a pretty great project, as it teaches kids how to read a timeline graph, how to measure out even spaces for each year, how to find out where an event would land on the graph, and it also give them a chance to go through their own lives and tall a little bit about themselves. They can begin to have a different grasp of time, which is so difficult for younger children.

The problem is, Nick is only 9. His teacher's example timeline had her birth, her graduation, her wedding, and the births of her children. Nick hasn't had any kids yet.

I let Nick pick the events he used, and hung around as he plotted everything on his timeline, just to avoid one of those impulsive yet catastrophic "I think I'll draw a cat right here" moments. He was speaking out loud as he wrote down years. Nate and Andrew, captivated by the fact that Nick's project included baby photos of THEM, hung over his shoulders.

"1794?" Nate said, repeating something he heard Nick say.

"No!" Nick said. "Not 1794! 2004! If I was born in 1794 I'd be almost as old as Mom!"

And suddenly the timeline project seems much less effective.

1 comment:

Lindax0x0x0x0x said...

Ah ha ha ha ha ha! You are old mommy, but not as old as I am! ha ha ha ha ha!