Whew. Where do I begin? They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, and that's a good thing, because I'm truly at a loss for words, after just scratching the surface of this graphics-packed CD set.

I have to confess, I was already a fan of Amy Pak's beautifully-rendered timeline figures. They look like old pen-and-ink drawings, or the woodcut illustrations or engravings you find in old books from past centuries. Even my husband was impressed with their quality, and that's something, coming from a proponent of finding your own on the Web and tailoring it to your needs. Of course, he is a lot more computer-savvy than I am, and he also doesn't have to worry about meltdowns occurring in another room while he's on the Internet. I'd rather keep in contact with friends, reading and answering e-mail, in my limited online time, than cruise the World Wide Web looking for just the right image.

You can buy the same figures in separate sets, already printed, but now having explored the CD set, I'd recommend it over the printed sets as something you can use over and over, for years of academic work, for multiple children in your family, in many different ways.

These are not only timeline figures. Just one example of their multiple uses: I just inserted a figure of Christopher Columbus into a Word document "Historical Report Form" all ready to print out. One child will fill in the blanks with a pencil, and another will fill it out on the computer and print it out. I could also print out the graphic and let the youngest cut it out and glue it on the paper, if I wanted a little more hands-on work. We'll be able to use these figures in lap books and on posters, on report forms and report covers, even, yes, even in our timeline book and on our posterboard timeline!

The two CDs in the set are easy to use, though my computer's security was a little standoffish at first, warning me of "active content" and asking if I really wanted to access the CDs. "Active content" means, I guess, that the CDs are interactive, about as easy to use as reading a webpage and clicking on links.

The first CD contains PDF pages of all the figures in the four History Through the Ages Timeline sets, from Creation to the 21st Century, people, places, events, dynasties, kingdoms, and more, together with bonus figures that are new, not included in previous sets. These PDF images come in two sizes, the smaller to fit a timeline book (specifically Home School in the Woods' Record of Time but suited to any) and the larger size for wall posters. The images also come "with text" and "without text," and I guess I had better go into a little more detail if you're not familiar with History Through the Ages timeline figures.

"Without text" is a graphic, a picture that represents a person or event. It might be taken from a portrait (Christopher Columbus, Ronald Reagan, George Washington, etc.) or simply symbolic (a steaming locomotive, for example, for the year there was a "Standardized Railroad Gauge" in the United States. "Without text" is not completely without text: These contain a title and date in addition to the illustration. "With text" has a short, descriptive paragraph to help place the figure in context.

The second CD includes figures, in GIF format, of more than 1,260 timeline images. Now before you start to feel overwhelmed, as I did before exploring the CD, let me reassure you. These are stored in such a way as to be easy to find. They can be accessed in several ways: chronological, alphabetical, categorized by historical era, and more. The GIF images are clear and very clean, ready to be pasted into a document as noted above, or whatever else you might use GIF files for. For another example, I have already put together a memory game, having opened the images I wanted in MS Paint, wiping out all text (names and dates included), and printing on cardstock. This has been such a breeze, compared to finding graphic images in old books and using a copier to enlarge or reduce until I had a standardized size! (Those were the days...)

The copyright permission allows you to use the figures for your own family, or for one small co-op class of up to twelve children and fifty images.

Both CDs contain "Timeline Helps" from the Home School in the Woods website, with lots of information on making timelines, using the figures for games, and tips for coloring and gluing the figures. (We use glue sticks, having found from experience some years ago that liquid school glue makes wrinkles in paper.)

When I compare the price of this product against the cost of my time, locating figures for timelines and reports, scanning them in from books or filling up my hard drive with images from the Internet... When I consider that this is a product we'll be using for years to come... When I add in its usefulness in teaching a co-op history class... I consider this CD set a good investment.