In defiance of Saxon’s recommendations (:O can you imagine that?!?) I never made them do EVERY single problem, nor did they do all the speed drills. I see no point in being able to do it fast. I’d rather have them be right. Fast will come with practice and knowledge and nobody has to do that in real life anyway.
If they had something down pat, I considered doing the problems just busy work and hate busy work, BUT I always insisted on them doing stuff I knew they were not sure about.
We had to go up two grade levels. You can always slow down when they get really stuck. One thing I did was let them do the work that they understood and told them to let me know when they got to something they didn’t understand and I’d help them. After a while of working on it together, the light would go on and I’d get “I get it now. You don’t have to help me any more.” That’s such a good feeling.
If you don’t mind, I’d like to e-mail you privately on another issue ... .