Jewish Student's BOOK OF CENTURIES Printable PDF Homeschool History Scrapbook

A staple of Charlotte Mason and other homeschool philosophies of education, the Book of Centuries is like a timeline in a notebook. When you start it, it’s blank because you will create it yourself with your child(ren), literally writing your own book of history as you go along!

When I wanted to use one with my kids, I found several lovely templates for Century Books online, including one that provided useful headings for each major era of history.  However, I also wanted to be able to incorporate Jewish dates, and Jewish eras of history.  I don’t want to isolate our spiritual history… I wanted a history book that included both.  So I created one!

Sample pages:

Table of contents

Tips for how and when to add to your Book of Centuries:

• Studying an artist, composer, rabbi / commentator? Add them to the Book!
• Celebrating post-Biblical holidays like Purim or Chanukah – add historical events related to the festival
• Family field trips teach history, too – remember to add any relevant learning
• Any historical reading – even historical fiction – can be added to the timeline!

This Book of Centuries includes many blank pages with dates and eras written at the top.  Earlier eras include on century per two-page spread; later eras double the space, with 50 years per two-page spread (because most historical events you will learn about take place closer to modern times).

Also, because it's intended to be 3-hole punched and stored in a binder, you can always insert extra pages if you run out of room!

Dates across the top of the page include both the secular (Gregorian) and the Hebrew date, generally reflecting Jewish tradition that time began with the Creation of the world.  For Gregorian dates, I have used the abbreviations BCE and CE, rather than the more common BC and AD, to reflect the strong Jewish preference for this dating system.

The last couple of pages give valuable tips and hints for using the Book of Centuries.  There is also a printable "spine" page at the very back of the book which you can insert into binders that have a clear insertable spine.

I recommend, for durability, that you have this Book of Centuries printed and hole-punched professionally on higher-quality paper.  It's a small investment that will go a LONG way towards your kids' spiritual and historical education!