Dottie,
I like the word problems that Everyday Math seems to emphasize. They do a wonderful job of getting kids used to picking the facts out of a story in order to solve a math question. That is a skill which will become very useful when planes start flying at 550 miles per hour with a northwest wind blowing 15 miles per hour <smile>... or with physics word problems. And they do a great job of introducing ideas early on in a very general way... like fractions. But sometimes I think they have decided that the whole, big picture for something like division is too complex for the wee little minds, and that they need to approach the topic from a circuitous manner. That is the only issue that I have.
DS's school does a fair amount of time drills. I don't know if this is supplemented by the school or if it is part of the Everyday Math curriculum.
