I can hear you snoring! However, homeschooling is a big part of my life & I don't want to neglect that in this blog. From time to time I receive emails & calls from other homeschoolers or want-to-be homeschoolers with questions. I'm no expert, but I'm now on year 4, so I feel that experience, coupled with years as a preschool teacher and even a phys. ed. teacher, as well as many, many education classes in college can at least qualify me to write a curriculum review for the public!
Shurley English.
www.shurley.com
To back up, Noelle began her home education in 3rd grade with Abeka. Language Arts is an area she excels in. I found the grade 3 Abeka curriculum to just not be challenging enough for her.
My very good friend, Susan, was using Shurley, so I switched to that for grade 4 and have been using it since then. I ordered it through Homeschoolers of Maine, (HOME), because I was placing a large order through them. The lady in charge tried to discourage me from ordering it because she did not like the curriculum. However, I am very thankful that I did.
The best thing that Shurley English does is teach the parts of speech, how to diagram a sentence and how to use this information for good writing. I have learned things teaching Noelle that either I never learned in school or I don't remember covering. The "jingles" that come with the curriculum, (little ditties put to music that help you remember all the possessive pronouns, prepositions, what an indirect object is, etc.), are super-catchy and probably the key to the true learning and remembering that I have seen occur in Noelle and Micah.
The Shurley books have about 32 chapters, usually with 5 lessons a chapter. The 4th lesson is usually a test and the 5th lesson is usually a writing assignment. There are 8 vocabulary words for each chapter. Shurley is NOT a curriculum based on worksheets. I think that in 1st and 2nd grade Micah needed those worksheets, but at this age they would just be busy work. There are usually sentences to diagram for lessons 1-3, plus some practice for new concepts. Shurley is not flashy or visually stimulating. (Reminder: I have the homeschool version.) It can seem a bit wordy, but this has not been a hindrance to us.
To back up, Micah-wise, I used Abeka language arts for him for 1st, 2nd & 3rd grade. I can't speak for the younger grade Shurley material, but I think the Abeka material was right on target for 1st and 2nd grade. Micah is a good reader and I credit a lot of that to the ease and repetition of that curriculum. Language Arts usually also includes literature, spelling, and writing. By grade 4, when my children were beginning Shurley, I no longer needed to buy "readers", because they could choose-or I can choose- books that are appropriate for reading at their current level.
I thought that Micah might have a hard time with Shurley because it is geared toward auditory learners, and he is not one. However, having heard the jingles that Noelle had done, for two years, he was ready to jump in and do it too,. The writing comes harder to him, but I don't really want to compare because Noelle excels in that area.
Noelle started Shurley 4 in 4th grade. Halfway through that year, at age 9, she came to me and said that she had found a book by Ralph Fletcher on writing. She requested to take a break from her language arts curriculum so that she could read this book and learn more about writing.
I was amazed at her initiative and resourcefulness and I encouraged her to do so. Because of this and other ways she worked on writing, we took 2 years to do the Shurley 4.
I had read that the curriculum is quite repetitive, so this year, grade 6, we went right to Shurley 6. This transition went so smoothly that I am unsure what to do with Micah! He is doing well in Shurley 4. If I skip Shurley 5 with him, it will be to work on his writing, penmanship, and other skills he seems to have a harder time with.
We have already purchased Shurley 7 for next year. Should we educate at home for 8th grade, which is the plan at this point, I will have to do some research and see what I think we should use for curriculum. When I was a student we did literature in the middle school years, at least for a couple of years. This especially makes sense with what we've done with Shurley. Once the student knows inside-outside-upside-down all the parts of speech and how to use them, they can focus on reading and writing. For Noelle, she wants to learn Greek, (!). I'm willing to let her try because if she "fails" it is not really a failure because she tried. So perhaps that would be a great 8th grade thing to begin on.
So wordy I am!
Hope this was helpful. I feel that Shurley will have well-prepared my children for all that they need to know in this area.
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