Another one similar to SM is Math in Focus. The textbooks are easily found inexpensive on the used market and we only purchased the workbooks new. As long as I went through the textbook with them I didn't feel like I needed anything else to teach it well. I added the Enrichment workbook for a harder challenge.

I found Rod & Staff spelling with my oldest and used it with the next four kids too. Natural spellers buzzed through and did even better. Not so great spellers were met where they were at and steadily moved forward. It's painless to implement, teaches spelling rules, requires *using* those rules, no busywork or fluff exercises, and it averaged 10-20 minutes a day at any level. Then came the youngest. He's 8 now. He began R&S 2 around the same level everyone else began the series. It was so hard for him I shelved it after a month. Dude could read middle school books but struggled to spell cvc words. A year later it was pretty much the same. He'd only learned words like the, you, are, etc because of Duolingo. (Studying Spanish but couldn't spell the cat sat on the mat; asynchronous much?) This January I started him on Writing Road to Reading's spelling. It's not "fun" and it's parent intensive. After a couple months he can spell simple words and he's getting good at breaking words into syllables. It's a forward direction and confidence at last. 🙂

Jump In gets my vote. I've used Jump In and Cover Story but not the other one you listed. Cover Story was well loved here and I'll totally use it again, but I think Jump In is more what you're after. 🙂

When my older kids were around that age we had very memorable years with Adventures in the Sea and Sky (Winter Promise) and Further Up and Further In (Cadron Creek). I think this coming school year is the year to pull one or both back out for my youngest two! One will be 6th and the other 3rd. Either both of them in Adventures or little guy in Adventures and bigger girl in FUFI.

The baby of the family is here. Again I haven't put much thought into it and I'm making this up as I go. 😄 Grammar: continue First Language Lessons 3 and go into 4, none of his siblings made it to 4 but it's been a fabulous match for him. Lots of oral and minimal writing is his jam. Spelling: continue in Writing Road to Reading Writing: Writing With Ease 2? It's the pencil to paper he needs; he does the questions and narrations blindfolded. Reading: pile of really good books in various genres, lengths, and difficulties to read and discuss Math: same Horizons/Singapore combo he's using now, and we'll try Beast Academy online Science: ....crickets, maybe joining sister for chemistry History: Story of the World 2, real books, videos, etc (he was due to use it for this year but the whole family randomly fell into US history) Spanish: just Duolingo for now, he's doing okay with it and he's not ready for something too serious

My fifth kiddo will be sixth grade this fall but I haven't given planning any brain effort yet. I'm totally making this up as I type. 🤐 The current school year has been a rocky road aside from the actual school, and we've done a lot more flying by the seat of our pants than normal. Grammar: R&S English and/or Fix It, we've bounced between them this year and it's working, I think Lit: pile of really good books of various genres, lengths, and difficulties for her to read and discuss Spelling, R&S 6 or a fast track through Writing Road to Reading, her choice (she's a decent speller, but not quite ready to be done with the separate subject) Writing: um..... History: probably Middle Ages, Oxford books, loads of real books, movies, etc. Science: Guesthollow's free chemistry? Spanish: yes, something Bible: continue in the God's Great Covenant series

An average 5th grade child with no formal grammar study will be fine in R&S English 5. While book 4 is "enough" for some 5th graders there's nothing magical-not-to-be-missed about it. 🙂 Fwiw I don't remember a large jump in any level of the English. There comes a point where a child without any grammar study may want to drop back when starting the series, but I'd say that's more around the 7-8 level.

Yes! I used it with 8th and 9th graders one year. We fluffy purple heart loved it. If we did any of the fill in the blanks exercises it was orally. The discussion questions, essay suggestions, extra units, etc were fabulous. I started skipping the vocab but that became one kid's favorite part. 😄 We read an extra book on the side to correlate with the units. It was a fabulous year.

He's so asynchronous a day by day, graded schedule would drive us both mad. 🤐 Before winter break he was asking for help spelling really basic one syllable words for his letters to big sis. Today he broke the word Spanish into syllables and spelled it orally for something else. I'd say it's working. (If he had to write it the p might be a 9 though. 😄 )

If I only had $30 I'd spend it on math. A library card and tablet paper will cover the rest. 🙂

😂 I didn't actually re-read the "this many words this often" part and forget specifics, so perhaps schedule was the wrong word. I'm running on one of the old versions, vinyl audio help in the back cover sort of old. I remembered enough from older siblings to know he needed it more relaxed at this point. He's learning fast from the discussions, but his writing ability isn't quite at 8yo with the rest of him.

My 3rd graders typically had a pile of high quality literature, a spelling book, a grammar book, and they worked on writing. Specifics depended on the kid. Some were ready for actual writing curricula and some weren't. My youngest is currently 2nd grade, 3rd this fall. He's a very asynchronous little person. Writing and spelling are his nemeses and he's well "ahead" in most other subjects. Right now his LA looks like: -a pile of high quality literature, he reads from this pile daily and we'll chat about what he read, no formal study -Writing Road to Reading for spelling, working until he seems spent rather than using the schedule -writing is either Writing With Ease 1 or letters to big sister at bootcamp (he rarely misses a question in WWE but it's worthwhile pencil to paper practice) -First Language Lessons 3 for grammar, just started this week (lots of discussion, minimal writing) Next year for third grade we'll just continue with the same books, moving up a level as needed. 🙂 Spelling may switch to Rod and Staff if he seems ready for the 4 book. I never used FLL 4 with my older kids, but he's really taken to it. We'll see when the time comes.

www.math-drills.com ?

You might get some ideas from the free Guesthollow chemistry schedule. We LOVED that plan. My kids were older when we used it, so we dropped some of the younger looking books and added some more challenging ones here and there. You could do the opposite.

Personally we enjoyed WP far more than MFW, but I haven't used either of those specific sets. MFW's history felt like it was spreading itself too thin trying to reach too many grade levels, and not getting any of them particularly well. One spine would only hope to hold the older kids, but left holes filled by another spine that the little kids liked but the big kids felt was babyish. There weren't many hands on projects and the notebooking pages were underwhelming. In the end the big kids moved on and the little ones finished it. I passed it on and didn't buy from MFW again. When I bought WP it was only for one kid to use and he was in the middle of the grade range they listed it for. There was a LOT of reading, but we liked nearly all of the suggestions. We love lit heavy anything. The notebooking pages weren't exactly meaty, but they were engaging and enjoyable. He was able to do many of the hands on projects himself, and he chose which ones he'd rather skip on his own most of the time. He finished the whole set, still thinks fondly of it years later, and it's sitting in the closet waiting for little siblings to grow into it. This is just one family's experience with one year from each of them. It may not be very helpful since it wasn't the specific years you are looking at, but at least it'll give you a bump? 🙂