TOS Crew: Amazing Bible Timeline

We have been studying ancient history since last January; recently, we studied about Alexander the Great, Cyrus, and Hannibal.  We learned all about some of these central characters in ancient history, and, of course, Jacob was fascinated with their stories; he even plays dress-up now, as a Greek, Trojan, or Roman.  He cracks me up.  Anyway in Bible, we have also been using the Grapevine curriculum off and on, which takes us through Bible stories, chronologically.  So, when we received the Amazing Bible Timeline in the mail, we were excited to check it out.

Basically, the Timeline goes back 6,000 years to the beginning of humankind, with Adam.  It coordinates some of the more major historical events with Biblical events.  It’s kind of neat just to sit down and go back through, find a familiar name, and then look to see what else was going on in history, throughout the world, at that time.  Jacob wanted to look for Alexander the Great, and through looking for him, we also found the Trojan War and Cyrus and some other greats that we had studied.  We’ve been studying about Job in Bible, so he also wanted to look for him, but I honestly couldn’t find him….he may be there, but we haven’t found him yet.

I love the idea of coordinating what was going on in the Bible with what else was going on in history at the same time.  Things I don’t even think about, I notice now in history.  For example, I didn’t know that the Trojan War was around the same time as Gideon’s era.  The map colors coordinate and take you down through Shem, Ham, and Japheth’s history/descendants, all the way to our present century.  It’s a circular timeline, so that you can easily follow around the length of the line, and you can look at different historical topics all in one shot, with the lines that divide the centuries.

Now, the only kick that I did find is that there are a few  references used from the Mormon faith, but, as with any curriculum you use, you have to pick and choose which things you want going into your children’s hearts and minds; if you are using this timeline solely as a supplement to help you find when a certain event you’re studying occurred, then it would not be as worrisome, in my opinion.  For myself and Jacob right now (with him being so young), we pay more attention to the actual names and events on the calendar, not so much the references, since we are using other curriculum and the Bible for our reference guides.  Honestly, I look forward to having this timeline in the future with Jacob, because I myself struggled with learning dates when I was younger.  I really think that with this visual instrument he can look at and study, it will make it slightly easier to remember.  He can look at the location on the timeline, the coordinating dates on the timeline, and the surrounding events, and those three things will hopefully just reinforce those dates in his studies.

The Amazing Bible Timeline is available from Bible Charts and Maps, LLC for $29.97.  If you order now, you can also get 2 bonuses for free: The Interactive Maps of the Holy Land and the Digital Amazing Bible Timeline, both worth $14.97 each.  To see a close-up of the timeline, click here.

To read more reviews, check out the TOS Crew Blog.