[Greek & Roman History?]

Have you looked at the Truthquest guides? There is one for Greeks and another for Romans. You can pare them with a couple of the suggested spines and then add some literature in to round them out. It's how we are doing history, and we really enjoy it. 

[Nintendo DS or iPad Mini?]

When I recently asked about them in a Game Stop, I was told to wait for a new 2DS to come out before buying. Supposedly, the "new" 3DS has new internals and new games coming out will only be compatible with the new systems. The old games will still be playable on the new stuff, but new games won't work on older versions. 

My 11yo son said he would choose the iPhone/iPad over a DS (he has an older DS XL and my old iPhone that doesn't have cell service). His reasons (All of these apply to the iPad as well):

There are a lot of free games available for the iPhone.

The games you buy are much cheaper on iPhone.

 

He likes the games on the iPhone because there is more variety. They have all kinds of games like physics puzzles, room escapes, and digital versions of board games (Pandemic, Catan, Carcassonne, Agricola, Eclipse, Tigris & Euphrates, Dominant Species, Through the Ages, etc) that are not available on the DS. 

The iPhone is much more versatile. He uses a pomodoro program when doing school work to track his time; he has a sports app that gives him alerts about the Red Sox games; he uses it for his Bible; he has a weather app on it that he likes to use; and he likes to use it to be able to text us when we are away working (we are photographers). 

[Teach English Grammar or Latin instead?]

I think you'd be fine either way, honestly.  There is enough grammar in most Latin programs to give you fairly thorough coverage, although you do still need to address English-specific things like punctuation.  

 

We finally made the switch from R&S to MP's Grammar Recitation.  I wrote a review of it here and compare the two grammar programs here.  I like how our grammar is streamlined and works well with our Latin studies.  Feels like we're getting the best of both worlds- mainly learning grammar through Latin but also memorizing English grammar usage.

I like this suggestion. There still seem to be two levels of the work books that need to be written, is that correct?

[Teach English Grammar or Latin instead?]

I heard Martin Cothran speak and he, as well, made an excellent case for teaching Latin to teach grammar. I asked him if I should teach Rod and Staff grammar if I am teaching Latin and he said that was like watering the lawn while it is raining.

He was very convincing.

 

I just had this experience as well and left the conference decided that we could do without a formal grammar program. Now that I am home with my Rod & Staff grammar books I am beginning to doubt. We have done two years of MP Latin and I can see how there is a lot of grammar content in it, but there is a lot that R&S teaches that is not addressed at all. I really like how R&S teaches the difference between good & well, lay & lie, raise & rise, etc. How does a child learn punctuation from Latin, particularly comma usage? For example, how would a child learn to set off appositives and nouns of direct address with commas from a Latin program? I like the idea of one less curriculum to buy and one less subject to cram into the day, but the more I think about it the less certain I am that Latin will cover everything I want it to grammatically. Can anyone who has actually done it assure me?

[Macbeth for 4th grader?]

I am using the Shakespeare can be fun with my fourth grader. Just purchased the Macbeth one and am really excited to go through it with him. I don't have a problem with going through a "kid's version" when they are young. I agree with the reasoning that they can learn the story when they are young by reading an easier translation, which will help them to deal with the language of the originals when they are older. We are doing this with Homer and Virgil as well by reading Alfred J. Church's translations of their work. I don't see why Shakespeare deserves to be treated differently.