Shurley English

Shurley English is a K-8 grammar program built around jingles, Question-and-Answer flow, and old-school sentence diagramming. In our assessment, it suits families who have the will to run its daily oral drill.

Last updated: 2026-04-24 · Every Homeschool Editorial Team

At a glance

Method	Traditional grammar / oral drill / subject specialist
Worldview	Christian-ecumenical (faith-neutral content)
Grades	K-8 (Levels 1-8)
Formats	Print teacher/student sets; audio jingle recordings; optional video course
Cost tier	Standard
Parent intensity	3
ESA-common	Yes
Accredited	No
Established	1991 by Brenda Shurley
Website	shurley.com

Our scoreboard (1-5)

Criterion	Score	One-line reason
Academic rigor	5	Systematic grammar instruction with sentence diagramming
Ease of teaching	3	Scripted and legible, but daily oral component requires parent presence
Content quality	4	Thorough sentence analysis and writing instruction; composition component light relative to grammar
Flexibility	3	Standalone language-arts spine; pairs adequately with separate spelling and literature programs
Value for money	4	Complete kits; kits reusable across siblings
Worldview scope	5	Faith-neutral content usable across every homeschool worldview
Visual/design	2	Workbook-plain aesthetic; function first
Support resources	4	Active publisher support, training videos, convention presence, reusable audio jingles

Who the publisher is

Shurley English was founded by Brenda Shurley.

Content-wise, Shurley is faith-neutral. The jingles, the Question-and-Answer flow, the diagramming exercises, and the writing samples do not reference Scripture, church history, or any theological content. The program does include American-patriotic and moral-virtue themes in its reading passages.

The core pedagogy

Shurley's method has three moving parts, and all three must run together for the program to work. Part one is the jingle: a short memorized rhyme or song that defines a part of speech, phrase type, or grammatical concept. "A noun is the name of a person, place, thing, or idea..." is an example of such a jingle. Students learn dozens of jingles across eight levels; the jingles are not decorative but serve as a reference library the student carries in memory.

Part two is the Question and Answer flow, Shurley's signature mechanic. The teacher presents a sentence, "The tall boy ran quickly.", and the student answers a prescribed series of questions aloud: Who ran quickly? The boy, subject noun. What is being said about the boy? The boy ran, verb. Ran how? Quickly, adverb. By the end of the oral flow, every word in the sentence has been classified by function. The student then diagrams the sentence using Reed-Kellogg-style diagramming, the classical line-diagramming system that mostly disappeared from American schools after the 1970s.

Part three is composition. Each Shurley level includes a writing sequence that applies the grammar skills to paragraph and multi-paragraph writing, working through narrative, descriptive, expository, and persuasive forms. In our assessment, the composition strand is adequate but lighter in weight than the grammar strand.

Signature mechanics: (1) Jingles as memory pegs anchoring every grammatical concept. (2) Oral Q&A flow that requires the student to analyze every word in every sentence out loud. (3) Sentence diagramming from Level 2 onward. (4) Cumulative review, each level reviews and extends the prior; a Level 4 student is still drilling Level 1 jingles. (5) Classroom-to-home consistency, the homeschool kit reproduces the classroom teacher experience almost exactly.

The program assumes a parent who can be present and vocal for the daily session. Shurley does not self-run. The publisher sells an audio jingle CD and, for some levels, a video instructional component that reduces parent load for the grammar portions.

What they do exceptionally well

Grammar fluency. Students who complete Shurley Levels 1 through 6 can identify every word's part of speech and function in a sentence, diagram the sentence, and explain the relationship between clauses. In our assessment, this grammar foundation is valuable for families whose long-term aim is strong writing or classical language study (Latin especially benefits).

Retention through the jingles. In our assessment, the jingles are a durable pedagogical device.

Publisher reliability. Shurley Instructional Materials answers the phone, sells direct, provides training videos, and maintains convention presence.

What they do poorly

Parent time cost. The oral Q&A flow is non-negotiable to the method and is non-trivial in daily time. The audio-and-video options help; they do not eliminate the cost.

Thin composition strand. The writing portion of Shurley is adequate for the paragraph level but does not carry a student into strong expository, persuasive, or research writing above Level 6. In our assessment, families using Shurley as their only language-arts program through middle school should add a dedicated writing curriculum, IEW, Essentials in Writing, or Writing with Skill, from about sixth grade on.

No high school continuation. Shurley ends at Level 8. Families wanting the same systematic grammar-and-diagramming approach for ninth through twelfth grade must transition to Analytical Grammar, Our Mother Tongue, or a classical rhetoric program. The transition is workable but not seamless.

Who it fits / who it doesn't

• Pick Shurley English if: you want systematic grammar instruction with traditional sentence diagramming; you are willing to run a daily oral drill with your child; you value a faith-neutral program usable across secular, Catholic, Protestant, classical, and traditional homeschools; you are preparing a child for Latin study or for serious academic writing; your child thrives with rhythm, rhyme, and oral memorization.

• Skip Shurley English if: you cannot sustain 45 to 60 minutes of parent-led oral instruction daily; you prefer an inductive or literature-based approach to language arts; your child resists rote memorization and oral recitation; you want an integrated reading-writing-grammar program such as The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts or All About Learning Press; you are homeschooling through high school and want a single language-arts publisher from K through 12.

Cost honest assessment

A complete Shurley Level 4 Homeschool Kit, teacher's manual, student workbook, jingle audio, and Test Book, runs approximately $85 to $100 as of April 2026 from the publisher's site. Replacement student workbooks for a second or third sibling run approximately $35 each. The teacher manual and audio are reusable across siblings, which materially changes the per-child cost for larger families.

Compared to Analytical Grammar (approximately $95 for a complete grade-seven-and-up kit), Michael Clay Thompson Language Arts (approximately $150 to $200 per level when complete), and Rod and Staff English (approximately $25 to $40 per grade, textbook-only), Shurley sits in the middle of the grammar-program market. Shurley covers grammar only; spelling, literature, and reading are purchased separately.

A realistic all-in family budget for two elementary students using Shurley plus a separate spelling and literature program runs $200 to $350 per year.

ESA eligibility notes

Shurley English appears on most state ESA marketplaces that fund print curriculum, including Arizona's ClassWallet, Florida's Step Up For Students marketplace, West Virginia's Hope Scholarship program, and Utah's Utah Fits All. Because Shurley content is faith-neutral, it clears most states' religious-content filters without complication. Families in states that restrict religious curriculum but permit faith-neutral Christian-school-aligned publishers should find Shurley approvable.

Alternatives

• Analytical Grammar, a family would choose Analytical Grammar over Shurley because Analytical Grammar compresses the full diagramming sequence into grades 7 through 9 in a high-intensity format, freeing up elementary years for literature and composition rather than daily grammar drill.
• Rod and Staff English, a Mennonite or plain-community family would choose Rod and Staff over Shurley because Rod and Staff teaches the same classical grammar content through textbook independent work at roughly one-third the cost, though without the oral jingle-and-Q&A method.
• Michael Clay Thompson Language Arts, a family wanting an integrated grammar-plus-literature-plus-poetry-plus-vocabulary program would choose MCT over Shurley because MCT weaves the four strands into a single aesthetic package designed for bright and gifted students, at significantly higher cost and with less diagramming structure.

How we verified this

Our editorial team reviewed the Shurley English curriculum pages at shurley.com, the publisher's scope-and-sequence documentation by level, and sample lessons available on the publisher site. We cross-referenced with founder biography material, Cathy Duffy Reviews' published write-up on Shurley, and HSLDA's publisher directory. Prices and kit contents verified April 2026.