We got this Timeline Card Game for Christmas.
I was really excited, because I love educational games!
Yes, a little for me, but mostly for my children. If they can learn important facts while having a bit of fun, we all win!
This game is really simple, almost any age can play it. My 3 year old jumps in sometimes and puts random cards down, and you know what, sometimes he actually does it right!
But I would say, realistically, it is best for those who can read.
No Former Knowledge Of History Required!
The thing I love about Timeline, is that you don’t have to initially know anything about history, you can do pretty well by just guessing.
And it helps to have an older person who takes the time to connect history facts for the younger ones as you play.
How To Play Timeline:
- You start out with 5 timeline cards infront of you with the picture and the title facing up. (on the other side is the picture, title AND date, but you are not supposed to know the date yet)
In the middle, with plenty of space to add cards on either side, you put one card Date Face up. That is the starting card. Your set up should look like this:
The first player starts by taking one of their five cards and putting it on either the left side of the starting card (which represents earlier in the timeline) or to the right (representing later in the timeline) whichever one they think it goes. then they flip the card over to see the date. If they are correct, then the card stays there, and they are one step close to winning.
If they got it wrong, then they put the card back into the bottom of the draw pile, and grab the top card (date facing down) and adds it to their cards, making it back to 5.
It’s then the next person’s turn and they pick which spot one of their cards go. (to the right, to the left, or in the middle) And so on until someone loses all 5 of their cards.
Tips: My strategy is to put my cards in order of easiest to hardest. And I put the hardest cards down first Because at the beginning it’s harder to get wrong, but by the end, there are so many places that your card could go in between, that you want to keep your easiest ones till it gets hard. get it?
You pretty much win the jackpot if you get something like “Dinosaurs” or “moon was formed.”
Also a good idea is to require everyone to say the title and date of what they are putting down, so that the names/dates become more familiar with the group as time goes on.
An alternate way to play is to create a smaller deck. So maybe pick out the most common cards and start with those till your family is familiar with them, and then add in others, or pick about one card from each Century, and they can then easily see how the basic Timeline is formed. I’ve done both of these, and it helps in getting the facts into their heads better when they use the same cards over and over again.
I put in a video of us playing the Timeline Card Game. I warned the kids to be quiet in between their turns, and to speak clearly when they do speak. So it doesn’t seem all that fun. But I promise, it can get pretty exciting!
The Timeline Card Games are also pretty inexpensive, and they have a bunch of other versions. My goal is to buy them all.
Check them out!
If you are interested in other educational games. Check out our Solitaire Chess Review!