I have mixed feelings about EM. The "elliptical learning" works about as well as "spiral software development" (unevenly). But H-M math does the same thing so changing books is no panacea.

My daughter and I also found the EM supplemental games (for early elementary students) boring and repetitive. We liked the Montessori math manipulatives better. We are both visual learners.

I like the way EM introduces deep mathematical concepts to kids at such an early age. But, many elementary school teachers and parents don't get the point of many of the EM exercises. One teacher at my daughter's school says that the district gave up on EM because so many of the teachers "don't get it".

It's too bad, because
"I took a poll at lunchtime at work the other day. 100% of parents of school-aged children who also hold PhDs in science prefer the Everyday Math curriculum.* For inexplicable reasons, our own neighborhood school, and the entire school district, had stopped using EM despite more than respectable standardized test scores and teachers who loved the teaching method. Perhaps EM pushed some parents out of their math comfort zone (read The Math Moron)?"
Read the entire post:
http://badmomgoodmom.blogspot.com/2006/11/who-is-keeping-score-and-why.html

Anyway, I am not a math educator or a home-schooling mom. I managed to earn a BA in pure math and a PhD in theoretical physics, but that doesn't make me an expert at raising kids. YMMV.

FWIW, my daughter enjoys the math puzzles in the "Penrose the Mathematical Cat" series. They really are engaging stories with interesting math puzzles. She read them in K, and is still re-reading them today (at age 8/5th grade). She is now able to solve more of the puzzles than she could 3 years ago.