I loved the teacher's manual and think it's a solid program, but my son hated it. There was too dry, and introduced concepts too slowly for him. It reduced my math loving son to tears daily, so we needed to switch.

So far, Sequential Spelling is the only thing that has helped my oldest spell at all. Meanwhile, my 8 yr old seems to be able to spell anything after seeing a word twice, and is doing great with Spelling Workout. I'm not quite ready to let go of the curriculum with him yet, though he might do fine without it. :p

I used the primary Amer. hist. a few years ago with my oldest. We enjoyed: **the books **the coloring and pasting, but he was really into that kind of stuff **the guide set up as lesson 1, lesson 2... there was no pressure to do it every day, or catch up if "behind"... you just work through it at your own pace I didn't like: **the lack of teacher helps... the guide might say, "Discuss Patriotism" and then give you no idea of what to talk about **lots of coloring and pasting... my son didn't mind, but lots of young kids would get bored quickly **strong emphasis on Providential history, though you can work around it at this stage It would not be enough for a 4th grader. If you are looking for a program that includes books, I would look into Sonlight, Winter Promise, or My Father's World. Personally, I wouldn't try to combine your 4th grader and your 6yr old. They are almost too far apart to combine. You could have them cover the same topics, but it would be hard to find a program that would be appropriate for both, IMHO.