31 Days: The Book of Centuries

I’ve mentioned my Book of Centuries before. We now have two copies of Laurie Bestvater’s BoC, my son’s is the basic black, and mine is bonded leather. I’m pleased with the quality of both.

Ptolemy is pretty lonely in the 2nd Century CE...

Ptolemy is pretty lonely in the 2nd Century CE…

This page was inspired by the chapter on Ptolemy in Ball’s Great Astronomers, used in the upper years of Ambleside Online. This is my son’s book (age 12).

The Battle of Hastings on one continent, Native American tribes on the other.

The Battle of Hastings on one continent, Native American tribes on another.

I’m including this to show you that I have taken my Book of Centuries into a museum, and drawn something. (The drawing came out well, I think. I credit The Drawing Textbook.) I had read about people being asked not to draw in museums, so I furtively crept about like a criminal. I’m pleased to report that my caution was unneeded.

War in the 14th Century

War in the 14th Century

The entry on the left was inspired by Mark Twain’s Joan of Arc (a very cleverly written book, the one my son connected with the most last year). Again, this is my son’s book. You can see more is happening as we advance in history. As a loving mama note, this book has small spaces. I actually bought super fine-point pens for it, as my son has large handwriting. And the last thing I want to do is make him afraid to mess it up!

A book of centuries, with its rigid one page spread per 100 years layout, has a way of showing you the vastness of time. Don’t be quick to discount the format, or to add more pages for modern times. Later this month I’ll take some pictures of my younger son’s table of centuries.

4 Comments

  1. Celeste

    Thank you for posting this! For whatever reason, people often share nature journal entries and commonplace entries, but not so many BoC entries, so this is great! And I am cracking up at you sneaking out of the museum with notebook in hand–can you even imagine docents getting upset with sketchers?? So weird. ๐Ÿ™‚

  2. dawn

    Very cool. I’ve not heard of being asked to not draw in a museum, though.

    1. Amy Hines (Post author)

      I think it must have been an art museum maybe? Or perhaps the employee was from an art museum – because I have seen signs that you can’t take photos of the art, and of course you shouldn’t copy it. It was just such a new activity for me, having this huge book and my little pen! I loved it. ๐Ÿ™‚

  3. Mystie

    I love this peek into your BOC! I haven’t gotten into drawing in mine yet, but that was an aspect from Living Page that I loved.

Comments are closed.