Mamas who used Shurley for 2+ years - a ?

[BlsdMama]

I am considering switching to Shurley.  I *big puffy heart* FLL, however, I am thinking the jingles might sit *really* well with my DS.  Plus, I suspect I can combine my kids in jingle time.

 

I have a very advanced 8yo daughter, a fairly advanced (incredible memory, great writing ability, but mild dyslexic) almost 10yo daughter, and then I have a severely dyslexic 11yo boy.  I don't think they'll have any problem (emotionally) being combined.  The 8yo and 11yo really get along well and like to be a pair in schooling anyway.  The 10yo is a good fold in for a group grammar time.

 

Thoughts?

 

I own FLL and the student sheets PDFs so the temptation to *not* make an outlay of $$ is very tempting.  However, it is hard for DS to get things to "stick" because of his working memory and jingles might really help?

 

Thoughts?

 

I am completely unfamiliar with it.  *However* I do have a lending library and I can get my hands on it and use it for 2-3 weeks if ya'all recommend it. 

[tm919]

We have used Shurley levels 1 through 3. I think you could use it but (I think I mentioned this in another recent thread, can't remember) once you get up to level 3 the writing output expected on day 5 is extensive.

 

A few other general thoughts... (1) If you try it for 2-3 weeks, perhaps don't start with level 1 OR skip the beginning of level 1-- I don't think level 1 was representative of the later books until month 2 or 3. (2) Shurley has a lot of stuff in it that seems designed for a classroom so you might be able to combine the entire thing, not just the jingles. (3) So much of the activity time seems like busy work to me that I skip it but if your kids like to work together on activities, it might work. (4) My older daughter uses SE at a lower level than most of her curricula. She just finds it hard relative to other work of that level, but I'm not sure why.... maybe it gets to a high a level of abstraction for young kids around level 3? Perhaps others can chime in, it may be challenging to most on level or it may just be my experience...

Edited June 13, 2016 by tm919

[AdventuresinHomeschooling]

I have three thoughts.

 

1. Look heavily at the samples of the workbooks to make sure your dyslexic children could handle the small type and cluttered format of the pages. The homeschool versions of the workbook can be clunky. They may only even do one section of a page one day and be assigned a page and a half the next day. There is a LOT of flipping back and forth in the books for reading different sections of lessons on different pages. Shurley is not all oral, and the presentation is not visually appealing.

 

2. You could easily combine grades. Some moms even do every other level because there is a lot of review with a bit added each year. Look at the scope and sequence.

 

3. Do you like diagramming? Shurley parses out sentences with a question and answer flow and does not diagram. I found my son could label sentences with this, but he was lacking understanding and retention in their true functions and the relationships of the parts of speech. After a couple of years, we got tired and switched. That's not to say the program is bad at all. However, if FLL is working well but you want peppy jingles instead of repeating a boring definition 3x, you could easily get the jingle cd and use in place of the definitions in FLL. I considered that myself since I have both on the shelf.

[Meriwether]

I have used Shurley English and Rod and Staff. Shurley English works better for my kid who has trouble with parts of speech. The parsing is better for him, I think. I think the organization is horrible, but I've used 6 levels of it anyhow. If I was going to use it in your situation, I would put all three of them in the same level, probably 4. (My 9 year old is *NOT* advanced and is doing 4 right now.) I would buy the CD that has the sentences instead of a book for each. That way you would be buying only one teachers manual with jingles CD, one sentence CD, and three workbooks. I'd tear the reference pages out of at least one of the workbooks and staple them/bind them together into a book that the kids can lay open next to them as they are working.

[tm919]

I have used Shurley English and Rod and Staff. Shurley English works better for my kid who has trouble with parts of speech. The parsing is better for him, I think. I think the organization is horrible, but I've used 6 levels of it anyhow. If I was going to use it in your situation, I would put all three of them in the same level, probably 4. (My 9 year old is *NOT* advanced and is doing 4 right now.) I would buy the CD that has the sentences instead of a book for each. That way you would be buying only one teachers manual with jingles CD, one sentence CD, and three workbooks. I'd tear the reference pages out of at least one of the workbooks and staple them/bind them together into a book that the kids can lay open next to them as they are working.

One thing on the organization issue... I actually photocopied the needed pages and then cut them up, then reattached them, again and again. e.g., if I needed reference 32 and practice 3 for lesson 2, I attached them with tape. I know some might argue that having the references separate from the practice helps children to learn to "look things up," but it was just too frustrating for mine.