I have a question for Shurley English users....

[mommy25]

I actually have 2 questions: 

 

Have you found the writing instruction to be effective? Especially if I am using it in conjunction with HOD which focuses a lot on narrations.

 

Also, I have a son who struggles with grammar and writing. He is coming out of school and does not have a good grasp of either. He will be going into 6th grade. What level of Shurley would you put him in?  I will be using level 2 with my 2nd grader.

 

Thanks!

[mumto2]

First off my dc's are older so we haven't used it in a long time but I will try...

 

One huge positive with Shirley is all the books have basically the same order so both will be studying the same basic topic at the same time. Also if they enjoy the jingles (mine did) they can do them together. We generally just did my older child's CD and both learned them.

 

I have never used HOD so I can't compare. I did try many other curriculums and Shirley was my favourite. The writing is very much to formula which my kids liked. It was very clear what expectations were. It tells exactly how to write a topic sentence for instance, gives a model of what they need to do, then gives at least 3 starter ideas.

 

Since the books say level not grade my dc's were not as sensitive about where they were. I would definitely do at least level 4 from my content memories for your older dc but if he needs level 6 to be comfortable because of the 6 I would get that. The sentence diagramming part does get more significantly complicated as the levels increase. He could learn the basics with the younger dc, try level 2 sentences, then move to his own assignment. More parts of speech are introduced the higher the level but they should be doing nouns at the same time etc.

 

I hope this helps. I keep getting interrupted so am not sure how clear this is but need to post. If nothing else I have bumped you! ;)

 

Just remembered, I did buy a copy of WWS when it came out and we have used that with ds, I like that one too. No grammar component in WWS.

[mommy25]

Thank you so much for your reply! 

 

I see that levels 1-6 are homeschool editions and 7 and up are not. I wonder if 7 and up are harder to use? I thought of doing level 4 for 6th grade, level 5 for 7th grade and level 6 for 8th grade. What do you think? Without seeing it, it is hard for me to plan. 

[MooCow]

You can also skip every other level, we did 2, 4, 6.

 

Totally agree with mumto2.

[AdventuresinHomeschooling]

We have done some of the writing, but now that we started CAP Writing and Rhetoric, I do skip most of the writing assignments.  We did WWE in second.  We have done the friendly letter, and we did some of the paragraphs in level 2.  These are 7 sentence paragraphs about "My Two Favorite BLANK" that are very formulaic.  In Shurley 4, they are four paragraph writing assignments with topic sentences, etc.  

 

If your son is going into 6th, I think you could go into 6.  The books are very incremental and review a lot from year to year.  We actually skipped 3 and went to 4 with no issues.  Shurley 7 has a LOT of new material, so make sure you go through that one thoroughly.  If you want to give him a little more time before he got to Shurley 7, you could do 4 or 5 first and then do 6 before 7.  That would give him two solid years of parts of speech and learning the question and answer flow before they got into the more advanced level 7.  

[mumto2]

We did levels 2,4, and 6. We did them at a pretty leisurely pace as opposed to the week 1 done in a week, each book took closer to a year and a half. Veritas Press offered Shurley as an option at one time and I first spotted it there. I believe they were proponents of the every other year being ample for most. As I remember Level 7 is considered review so your plan sounds perfect to me.

 

Just a warning....when I received my first copy, level 2, it confused me greatly. So much so I put it away for later, much later. ;) A friend had a question and I pulled it out in quiet house and really studied what I needed to do and it clicked. I think we started using Shirley the next day with dd. I have heard a couple of similar stories so wanted to prepare you. It may not be love at first sight but after you figure out the routine it is very easy.

 

Also they do make a workbook with all the sentences separated for the diagramming. Dd loved copy work but those notebooks were lifesavers with ds. A whiteboard with markers would work well too.

[mommy25]

Thank you ladies!  You have been a tremendous help! Have a nice evening. :)

[raristy]

I think I would do level 5 or 6. I believe those were the original levels and 7 was added later to fill this void. Some of my friends told me 7 was not as good as the elementary levels. On our first year homeschooling right after coming out of PS, we did Shurley and HOD (Preparing Hearts). They blended very well. We loved Shurley although at first the kids felt a little overwhelmed not having grammar background, but in two months or so we got a hang of it. The writing portion gave them a good structure and a solid background to go into more challenging writing curriculums in the coming years. I love Shurley and was amazed at how much grammar they learned in the first year. We did it for 3 years. Just his past week my daughter, who is now in 9th, told me she had a thank you mom moment at an English class she's currently taking and thanked me for all the years of Shurley grammar teaching. A delightful feedback😊. It really was time well spent. Rosa

[PeterPan]

Yes, 7 is totally different, lobs a ton at them, and covers it very oddly, without what I loved out of the lower levels of Shurley.  I would put your rising 6th grader into the Shurley 6 and do something else for writing.  You can do their writing if you wish, but maybe pull the projects into your history time, etc.  I skipped the writing and did other programs instead.  The Shurley writing is pretty perfunctory.  

 

A 6th grade boy would enjoy IEW, maybe SWI B.