Placement in Shurley + general LA conundrums

[Wolf Pack]

This is my first post on here, so have patience with my newbieness.

 

Next year, my somewhat advanced 7yo will be in 2nd grade and I'm going back and forth on what I want to do with her for LA. Her 18 months younger sister will be tagging along on whatever we do. I was curious about Shurley English because people really seem to love it, but I'm not sure I understand how the different levels work or where I'd place the 2nd grader. Can someone who's familiar with it explain where I might place her? And what you actually need to buy to make it work.

 

We did FLL 1 last year. Almost anyway. I bailed on the last little bit because we couldn't handle the repetition anymore. My daughter is very quick to pick up LA concepts, so she probably doesn't need that style of repetition. But she knows about nouns, verbs, pronouns, capitalization, periods, and bits of other language stuff that we've picked up. We do copywork and narration as well.

 

She's been reading since she was 4, so she's pretty fluent unless she encounters a word she's just totally unfamiliar with. Because of her high reading level, I struggle to decide what I should even be doing with her at this age. She's very curious and loves learning about language and poetry, but gets frustrated with repeatedly going over the same thing. Especially if she can't see why we need to know it. I don't want to frustrate her....but I also don't want to hold her back when she's clearly able to learn some things quickly and happily.

 

I'm also considering MCT island level as an option for next year. But really, I'm just going around in circles. Lol. I'm probably going to do bravewriter jot it down with both of my girls next year. And spelling wisdom from SCM with my 7yo. She's probably ready for partnership writing with BW at this point, but I'm thinking I don't want to go there right now.

 

7yo loves thinking up stories and poems, and I'd just love to give her some more skills to get her ideas from her head and onto paper.

 

So in all, I'm planning to do

Jot it down

Spelling wisdom

Some kind of writing/grammar lessons

[Tiramisu]

She's been reading since she was 4, so she's pretty fluent unless she encounters a word she's just totally unfamiliar with. Because of her high reading level, I struggle to decide what I should even be doing with her at this age. She's very curious and loves learning about language and poetry, but gets frustrated with repeatedly going over the same thing. Especially if she can't see why we need to know it. I don't want to frustrate her....but I also don't want to hold her back when she's clearly able to learn some things quickly and happily.

 

 

I'm writing as someone who does phonics but not to the point of overkill, but I really haven't had to. But I'll just share that there is a school of thought that not doing phonics at all can cause problems later, around fourth grade or after, because one doesn't learn necessary skills to attack "totally unfamiliar words."

 

Once when I was had questions related to one of my children's reading, ElizabethB helped me by providing a link to a test which checks both phonetic and sight reading skills. Fortunately, my dd did great, but if there is an imbalance where sight reading is strong but phonetic reading is not as strong, it could indicate a potential for reading or spelling problems. (It turns out my dd has a visual problem, not a reading problem.)

 

Anyway, that's just something to think about. We use Modern Speller and I love it. It's a little similar to Spelling Wisdom so I understand the appeal. But some might suggest that a child your dd's age might benefit from doing a phonics based spelling program to make sure she has some foundation in phonics.

 

It's completely your decision but I thought I'd throw that out there as just something else to think about.

[Wolf Pack]

I'm writing as someone who does phonics but not to the point of overkill, but I really haven't had to. But I'll just share that there is a school of thought that not doing phonics at all can cause problems later, around fourth grade or after, because one doesn't learn necessary skills to attack "totally unfamiliar words."

 

Once when I was had questions related to one of my children's reading, ElizabethB helped me by providing a link to a test which checks both phonetic and sight reading skills. Fortunately, my dd did great, but if there is an imbalance where sight reading is strong but phonetic reading is not as strong, it could indicate a potential for reading or spelling problems. (It turns out my dd has a visual problem, not a reading problem.)

 

Anyway, that's just something to think about. We use Modern Speller and I love it. It's a little similar to Spelling Wisdom so I understand the appeal. But some might suggest that a child your dd's age might benefit from doing a phonics based spelling program to make sure she has some foundation in phonics.

 

It's completely your decision but I thought I'd throw that out there as just something else to think about.

I tried doing reading lessons through literature with her a while ago for the spelling benefit, but it felt weird going through it when she could already read so well. Aside from that we've never done an official phonics program aside from me teaching her letter sounds and blends, and writing out common suffixes to learn. Her sister learned to read the same way at age 4.

 

Should I want to go the route of a phonics based spelling program, are there any recommendations?

[Tiramisu]

I understand how you feel. And spelling never seemed to be worth it for my kids either.

 

Rod and Staff is an easy to implement, inexpensive that people seem to really like.

[Wolf Pack]

I feel more motivated to do spelling of some sort, just to expedite the process of my daughter being able to get her thoughts onto a page. She has such amazing stories!

[SilverMoon]

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Edited March 9 by SilverMoon

[Wolf Pack]

I haven't used Shurley, but it appears many use it somewhat ahead and/or only do the odd or even levels.

 

Phonics can be taught to a fluent reader through a rules based spelling program. So All About Spelling instead of All About Reading. My personal favorite is Rod and Staff's Spelling by Sound and Structure. It starts at 2, which is a very gentle introduction to spelling. 3 is slightly more challenging, and 4 really kicks it up a notch. The word lists may seem light, but the strength of the program is in the exercises themselves. I wouldn't get more than a grade ahead in this program regardless how easy the word lists are.

 

For second grade last year my sturdy reader did use First Language Lessons, the old combined 1/2 book. We doubled and/or skipped redundant lessons and she went through the whole book in a few months. She started out using Primary Lessons in Language and Composition by Maxwell (vintage, free to download on Google Books if you're in America), which we were both very content with. When she finished FLL 1/2  we started doing some Rod and Staff English 3 lessons, and she liked the change so well we ended up just doing that instead of Maxwell. So there are a few more options for you. She also used Rod and Staff spelling 2, some cursive penmanship workbooks, and a pile of high quality children's literature to round out her language arts.

 

Thank you for your input! I'm looking up the Rod and Staff spelling for consideration.