CC at Home Book Club – Echo in Celebration Review

“Teaching reading is best done with a child on someone’s lap. Teaching math is best done sitting near a student as they work through a text. Teaching writing is best done through sharing the joy of words on paper.” (p.63)

Oh, friends, I was due a reminder that teaching my children at home is a JOY! I often feel the weight of the responsibility and work and planning, but can quickly forget it is worthy of my excitement.   Leigh says she realized that not only can she as a parent teach her children, but she is her children’s best teacher because she is their parent.


In Echo in Celebration: A Call to Home-Centered Education, Leigh shares the journey her and her husband took in learning to teach their children.  Thankfully, for them and us, she discovered classical education and works to share her learning with us.  

Here are some of my favorite snippets from the book: 

“All of the educational models throughout history until the Enlightenment emphasized the idea of catechesis. It began with memorizing a set of facts and having the student echo the facts to a teacher.Then a discussion could begin that celebrated that information as God-given, and then used to initiate a student into a new world of thought. Knowledge wasn’t designed to be left on the mind’s grocery shelf.Instead,students need to pay attention to the many ways the rest of the ingredients at our disposal can be combined with new knowledge, so we may delight in preparing a nutritious recipe that adds the savor of Christ to our community. Holy laughter results from feasting on words and ideas with friends!” (p.89)

“This model can be used to teach anyone anything with an expectant sense of joy when the knowledge is made personal, but more importantly when the information brings forth doxology, the desire to praise God for the order He has created. Biblical faith supports and enriches intellectualism. It rejects fragmentation that stops at specialization. Instead it rejoices in the unity of the whole person as they find God everywhere in creation.” (p.89-90)

“I want to teach my children to set catechesis as their goal. I want to teach them to take an encyclopedic approach to learning by gathering up nuggets of facts, while weaving them through the grand themes of life, and developing a heart that sees God’s blessings and provision everywhere. Learning makes you laugh, it makes you cry, and it can make you fall to your knees in humble repentance. Resounding Scripture, seeing it in larger and newer contexts,and teaching it to someone else allows us to echo His joy.” (p.92)

Through this life of learning, we celebrate our life’s purpose — to know God and to make Him known! 

Echo in Celebration was good for my soul.  If you’re in need of a pep talk or looking to understand why Classical Conversations is designed to work the way it does, check out Echo in Celebration.  Remember, you can download a free copy.  

Echo in Celebration was the second book selection in the CC at Home Book Club.    Be sure to check out Brandy’s and Melody’s thoughts too!