Color The Classics Review

Color The Classics provides multi-sensory coloring books and CDs that help your young children understand the history behind various pieces of classical music – and appreciate classical music.  Most of the curriculum is faith-based.

I absolutely love multi-sensory products – and of course, I like music, so I was excited to learn about this product, and to have the opportunity to do a Color The Classics review.

FYI – I received the Godly Composers I book and the accompanying CD and the Christmas Classics book/CD.

Color The Classics Review – Here’s some really important info about all of the Color The Classics books/CDs:

• You don’t need a musical background to use/teach Color the Classics – if you can read you’re good to go.  Whew!  That’s great!!
• Color The Classic recommends you take a year to go through four of their books. If you choose to do the one year program, you should start with the Godly Composers I book.
• The illustrations are reproducible – so you can use the coloring book for one or more children in your household.  That’s nice!  I like curriculum that’s economical, don’t you?
• You can start this program with kids as young as four years old. The stories are interesting for any age, and the music works for any age, so there is no top end.  This is super, especially if you have multiple children of different ages.
• You can easily teach history alongside this program (why a composer’s era impacted his compositions), as well as art – or you can use the program as-is.

So, how do you use the Color The Classics curriculum?  It’s easy (if you use the program as-is and don’t supplement, there’s no prep time involved) and it’s a TON of fun!  Supplementing isn’t difficult either.

This is how I did it (BTW, I used this curriculum with my two girls, ages 8 and 11):

• As suggested, I started with the Godly Composers I book. I looked over the book ahead of the first lesson – to become acquainted with the resource. It didn’t take long – maybe ten minutes.
  • I checked out the Table of Contents and the Suggested Schedule for the lessons. Also, I perused the Recommended Reading in the back of the book.
  • I took note of the illustrations and how they coincide with specific parts of the composer’s biography.
  • I read over the first lesson to get a feel for it. That’s it.  Really, that’s all I did.  Maybe less than ten minutes!
• Since this curriculum was new to me, I followed it precisely. (However, I decided to supplement for the Christmas Carols book.)
• I gave my girls an illustration to color (I copied the page from the book, so each had their own page).  My  youngest colored with crayons, my oldest used colored pencils or markers.  The medium is entirely up to you and your kids.
• For each lesson, I re-told the info from the book – kind of as a story.  Per the directions, I didn’t read the info that describes the illustrations – I  retold it. Re-telling gave me the flexibility to paraphrase the stories to match my girls’ level of understanding.
• I then played the music that coincided with each illustrations.  Although, not required, I re-played it several times during the day.  Why not?  The music is nice, and of very good quality, and much of it is soothing.
• During both the story-telling and the music portion of lessons, I encouraged discourse.
• During and after the discourse, my kids finished their pictures.
• I put their pictures on the refrigerator and we discussed what they learned at the dinner table, as their Dad wanted to be a part of the conversation.

FYI, here are the four books that make up the recommended year-long educational program, and the suggested order for the books:

• First Quarter – Godly Composers I (September-November)
• Second Quarter – Christmas Carols (December)
• Third Quarter – Hymn Writers (January-March)
• Fourth Quarter – Patriotic Songs (April-June)

Godly Composers I

Included composers: Vivaldi, Bach, Handel, and Haydn.

From the Godly Composers I book – We have written Color The Classics to plant a seed within the hearts of children for music that honors Christ.

You’ll learn the answers to these questions and more:

• Why were Venetians enthusiastic about “new music” and why was this stressful for musicians?
• Was Johann Sebastian Bach’s second son, Carl Phillip Emanuel a more popular musician during his life than his father?

FYI – here are a few pages from the Vivaldi lesson

Color The Christmas Classics

A multitude of Christmas carols are included! Songs on the Christmas Classics CD include: O Come All Ye Faithful, Angels We Have Heard on High, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, For Unto Us A Child is Born, Hallelujah Chorus, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, Joy to the World,  O Holy Night, O Little Town of Bethlehem, Silent Night, What Child is This, and more.

And you’ll learn the answers to these questions, in addition to other questions as well:

• How/why did it take over 115 years to write the carol we now know as “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”?
• Was there was a time in England when caroling and celebrating Christmas were against the law?
• Was “Oh Little Town of Bethlehem“ was a poem before it was a song?

A few of the pages from the Silent Night lesson

We LOVE, love, love this book!  Because I’m supplementing this book with additional info, we’ll probably go through half of it this year and half of it next year.  My girls are so interested in the subject matter.

Hymn Writers

You’ll learn the answers to these questions and more:

• How was Charles Wesley almost eaten by an alligator?
• Why did Fanny Crosby lose her eyesight?

Color The Patriotic Classics

Included songs: Yankee Doodle, The Star Spangled Banner, My Country ‘Tis of Thee, Battle Hymn of the Republic, and America the Beautiful.

You’ll learn the answers to these questions and more:

• What famous lawyer defended 2 traitors and went on to write the most well-known hymn ever written?
• Who mistakenly stole another nation’s anthem, and made it “American?”
• What do Ferris Wheels and the Colorado Rockies have to do with the patriotic song, “America, the Beautiful?”

Here are some additional books that are available:

Composers II

Color the Classics II includes the biographies of: Telleman, Mozart, Mendelssohn, and Dvorak.

You’ll learn the answers to these questions and more:

• What impact did Mendelssohn have on introducing us to Johann S. Bach?
• Why couldn’t Mozart balance his checkbook.

Composers III

Composers III includes: Beethoven, Strauss,Jr., Brahms and Tchaikovsky.

You’ll learn the answers to these questions and more:

• Why did Beethoven lose his hearing?
• Why wasn’t Strauss’ Blue Danube accepted in Europe?
• And more.

Color The Classics Review – What do I like about these books and CDs:

• I appreciate the multi-sensory approach – tactile, auditory, and visual.  This is good for all types of learners – and definitely makes the info easy to remember.
• I also like the multi-subject approach – a little music, a little history, vocabulary, art, etc., all rolled up into one curriculum.
• It’s easy and fun (who doesn’t like to color!).
• Plus, your children (and you) can learn interesting info. For instance, did you know that Johann Sebastian Bach served time in prison?  I did not.
• If you have multiple children, it’s easy to adapt for the different age groups.  I appreciate easy, don’t you?
• If you have multiple children, you can reproduce the illustrations for use within your family, which of course, is a money-saver.
• The books are nice.  Specifically, I like that-
  • The books are of nice quality with nice paper and wipe-able covers.
  • There is scope and sequence in the front of each book that gives you a recommended plan for moving forward.
  • There is a timeline that gives you a quick reference of when a composer was born and in what musical era.
  • Lessons are organized nicely-biographies are broken up into sections and each section has  a specific illustration.
  • The sidebar contains interesting information, as well as definitions to italicized words included in the lesson/biography.
  • There’s a reference section if you want to find out more about a composer.
• The included music is of very good quality.  You might want to listen to it through the day, and even in the car.
• If you follow the lesson plan, no prep time is needed.  Such a plus!
• If you choose, you can easily supplement and teach other subjects with this curriculum.
• I like these options. I also like that you can purchase the book and CD together, the CD only, or the book only.  (For the true multi-sensory approach, you’ll want the book and the CD combo.)

If you want your children to appreciate classical music, this is a great program to look into/try.

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