Is Shurley too intense for 2nd grade?

[prim*rose]

I would like a comprehensive program for my 2nd grader (this is our first time doing a grammar program), but Shurley seems like it takes a lot of time and I'm wondering if it's almost too much? But if we wait and do Shurley in a few years, will I have to start at a low level?

 

I was looking at GWG, but wasn't sure if that would be enough.

 

Thanks for any feedback!

 

Amy

[Academy of Jedi Arts]

We did Shurley for 2nd grade. It is a good program. The lessons are very thorough and the assignments are not too long. The lesson part is what takes the most time.

 

The reason we aren't using it anymore is that my dd is good with grammar and didn't need all that. We are now using Easy Grammar.

[prim*rose]

Thanks for the information. How do you like Easy Grammar?

 

Any other thoughts?

[Academy of Jedi Arts]

LOVE easy grammar. It takes dd 10-15 min. to do EG, plus she gets additional grammar with Latin and a bit with Literature for some extra umph! It's really easy to compact and skip things that don't need extra practice. We're doing the 4th grade level, and there is plenty of practice and review.

 

EG is comprised of a big book, with all the teacher and student pages. You can just copy this off for your student, or you can order a separate WB and test booklet. I have all 3, but haven't opened the teacher edition except to read through it before we started since dd picks it up very quickly.

[kls126s]

I have a first grader. We started with Shurley 1 this year. I think it's a thorough grammar program, which we wanted. We only did it for a month or so though and we just switched to Growing with Grammar 1.

 

My thoughts on Shurley - it's thorough. It's not pitched at a level that's too hard for a younger. The jingles work well for us. However... it's not very teacher friendly, imo. The flow of the program feels choppy to me. It may be that I didn't stick with it long enough to get in a groove with it, but I dreaded doing it every day and dd wasn't really enjoying it either. There's a lot of flipping back and forth in the book and it just did not feel cohesive to me. We did a lot of FLL and the material was all repeat to her. I skipped pretty far into the book and it was still not working for us.

 

I looked at GWG because of all the rave reviews it gets here on the boards. I was also worried that GWG was not thorough enough for us. I looked through all the scope and sequence pages and showed them to my husband, who has had a lot of language and grammar experience. He said it looked good to him. Once we got it and started using it, my daughter really loved it. She tells me every day now that she loves grammar. That's nice to hear. A plus to me is that it's more independent for the student too. We still talk through the material covered, but then she does the worksheets and brings it back and we talk through the answers. That's much easier than doing a Shurley lesson, I felt like.

 

If you really like Shurley but aren't sure about implementing it, there was an interesting post from OhElizabeth a while back about using it differently - you can read that here.

[prim*rose]

Thanks so much for the feedback!

[Margo out of lurking]

I hope you don't mind more feedback!

 

My dd was taught Shurley in 2nd and 3rd grade through a cottage school. She learned a TON from it. When we quit the school in 4th grade, I was reluctant to spend the $$ and time on Shurley, so we used Easy Grammar.

 

She did fine on the worksheets, passed the tests without effort. But there was never any retention a few weeks later. She's not that kind of learner, she likes everything laid out, likes everything to make sense. I also found EG to be completely lacking in any helpful notes for the teacher.

 

We then switched to GUM (based on WTM recommendations), but that was a huge bomb and we dropped it after a few weeks.

 

The following year, I started dd on Shurley 5, and she picked it up like she'd never stopped--even though it'd been 15 months and she skipped a level completely.

 

It worked so well that I started ds on Level 2 that same year, and he did Level 3 the following year. Near the end of this past school year, we got a head start of Level 5. (I figured I wasn't going to buy Level 4 at this point.)

 

What I like about Shurley: the freedom to pick and choose. My kids hate the jingles, but my dd needs to know them. My ds learns them because I want him to, but he doesn't need to use the patterns taught in Shurley to label his sentences. My dd did not need the vocab; my ds did. I particularly like Shurley's thoroughness in teaching grammar, capitalization and punctuation rules.

 

What I don't like about Shurley: the cost (but it's worth it!). We skipped Shurley's writing completely, I just don't care for it (and it's still worth the cost!). You have to understand it at least a little before teaching; I was fortunate that dd knew it, and that went a long way toward teaching ME how to use it (but it's scripted!). It's teacher intensive (but it's flexible and you can use it to best fit you and your family).

 

However, I don't think it's the end-all, and that everyone should use it. It just works well for US.

[prim*rose]

I hope you don't mind more feedback!

 

 

 

Of course not! Thanks for the thorough review!

[arcara]

When I saw the samples of GWG online, I didn't think it looked thorough enough either. However, I finally decided to order it because of the great reviews I read on this board. I'm so glad I did. I order Grades 1&2 and Grade 4 and have read them both. I'm very impressed with it! They look very thorough to me. Actually I've been wonder if I should have ordered 3rd grade instead of 4th for my oldest. We're gonna give it a try when we start back in August. I think she will do well with it, though. The student manual is well written with many examples.

 

I have no experience with Shurley, but I thought I'd give you my initial impressions of GWG. Good luck with your decision!

[stacey05]

I have a friend who uses this with all her children and they do very well with it.

[Linda...inOwasso]

I agree with Kristine and we use Shurley as well. However, I just don't know that it's necessary for 2nd grade. My oldest dd started Shurley in 3rd and I thought the timing was perfect. In 2nd grade, I taught grammar through reading & copywork and it was perfect! Best of luck to you!