The Aleks thing sounds pretty intriguing.
I realized I didn't add that we do so much of the "manipulative" stuff and the Harcourt books are mainly to practice the output, for test taking which is part of academic life and so I can see whether she can "prove" on paper that she can do the problems.
But my DD loves the manipulative stuff, and she tends to get stuck on word problems so alot of time we act it out or have a pretend store for all the money stuff. For the online stuff she loves anything that has sound effects.
I suppose it doesn't sound very sophisticated but it gets the ideas locked in there and it's fun.
