Knowledge Quest's TimelineBuilder for iPad (TOS Review)

 

 So what comes to mind when you think of timelines? Personally, I love the concept of doing a timeline whether in book form or on the wall, but in reality for some reason they seem impossible to do. I'm not sure why, but in our house we have yet to really get one going. But not any more! We have been reviewing the TimelineBuilder for iPad app produced by Knowledge Quest and let me tell you never has doing a timeline been so much fun and educational!

 

 

The TimelineBuilder for iPad allows you to build a custom timeline using any date (backwards or forwards) that you desire. After setting up your dates you can begin to add events or people by entering the information and then finding a picture. The program offers a button that takes you to the best Wikipedia page that matches your event or person and you can copy and paste a picture from there. You can also add a picture from the iPads photos. As the events are being added you can move them around and put them in the position that you like best. When you are finished adding your events to your timeline you can share the timeline, events, or pictures through email or through iTunes file sharing folder. You can see more screen sand a video about the TimelineBuilder at Knowledge Quest.

 

I had all three kids Chantry (10), Destini (13), and Caleb (17) use the TimelineBuilder to make a timeline that was from their current history books. It  only took a few minutes to show the Caleb and Destini how to use the program and they were immediately off and running making their own timelines. They were able to work this program without any problems and didn't need much assistance.

Caleb's timeline from All American History Unit 3
 

Caleb worked on two timelines from All American History Vol. 2 Unit 3 and 4. He had done the two previous units in a timeline book, but using the Timeline Builder was sooo much easier. We have a CD-ROM with timeline images on it and even with that there were many of the people and events the he needed that were not available on the disc. We usually spent quite a bit of time copying and pasting images from the internet into a Word document, adding the vital information, and printing it off to complete his timeline.

Destini's "George Washington - Farmer" Timeline
 

Destini worked on a timeline using her history book, George Washington's World by Genevieve Foster. She made a timeline for each section of the book. While doing her timeline I was able to figure out how to add pictures to our iPhone photos and add them to the timeline. This was easily done by browsing the web for a picture, copying the picture into iPhone photos, and then entering the picture using the "import image from library" tab.

 

Chantry's "The Thirteen Colonies" Timeline
 

Chantry did a timeline on The Thirteen Colonies (This is what happens when you ask mom too many times which colony was first, second, etc.!). Before letting Chantry work on his own I worked with him a little longer and together we added about 4-5 events before he worked on his own to finish his timeline. He struggled the most with adding pictures, but that was due to just remembering how to do it or not touching the screen correctly.

When they had completed their timelines I tried several of the different ways to share the timeline. I first sent the timeline to my email address. I was not crazy about how it looked in the email, but I could download it to my computer and it looked fine once it was opened from there. I also used the iTunes shared folder by connecting my iPad to my computer, going to the shared folder and saving them onto my computer. If I had any complaint about this program it would be that it saves all the timeline pictures along with the timeline itself. For me, I would rather have just the timeline. Several of the other options didn't really interest me such as the saving of the timeline images to iPad photos or saving the events to email so I did not use those options.

TimelineBuilder was a big hit in our house and there were many times my husband or I couldn't get the iPad away from our kids. Another big reason why I loved this app was that it really helped Destini not be so afraid to look things up online. Before this she would absolutely refuse to look anything up using Google. When she started using the TimelineBuilder she began to search around in Wikipedia and on Google. It also led her to take rabbit trail and learn more about different people not even listed in her book. I think out of all the kids she enjoyed this app the most and had so much fun making her timelines.

 I highly recommend Knowledge Quest's TimelineBuilder which is available in the App Store for only $6.99. With this iPad app you can make timelines for anything and everything. The TimelineBuilder timelines are a great learning device, easy to use, and fun to do. The Timeline Builder truly has taken away this mom's frustration with getting those timelines not only started, but finished!