I confirmed the 2 hour number as an upper limit for the entire lesson. That includes meeting book, quizzes, the actual lesson and both sides of the homework sheet. That was only for a handful of lessons. There were many lessons that we completed in under an hour. Especially when Saxon introduces new multiplication facts. But if you do it properly then there will be some that take two hours.
You simply can't learn math in 20 minutes a day. I have read so many people on this forum state that they would skip the meeting book, skip the first 35 lessons or so, and then two years later they would have to go back and repeat or at least supplement with another program. That confirms my thesis.
That's the great thing about Saxon. You never need to supplement. It is all encompassing. And like I have observed, yes there are a few meeting book, quiz, lesson, homework combinations that take two hours but these are few and far between.
Sometimes, the process of data gathering, plotting, and observation combined with the meeting book really does take that long. Most of the time we broke each lesson over two days. Day 1: homework sheet from the previous lesson, meeting book, (skip counting, clock, money, word problem, etc) and quiz. Day 2: lesson and homework sheet side A. If we saw a big lesson coming we would break it over a three day stretch instead of two.
There is actually very little drill in Saxon. The only drill we did was the flashcards before a quiz. We certainly never did two hours of repeated drill.
Sigh, there is always going to be sometimes when dc complain. We like Saxon because there is 90% review and 10% new material in each lesson. The review builds up confidence in dc so that they are encouraged and up to the task of learning a new topic.
In my original post, I affirmed the value of Saxon. I never placed value on this or that approach or this curriculum or that curriculum. If dc is in the public school they are already doing more than 20 minutes a day and if you supplement then you are approaching the 1 hour mark already. I only stated that math cannot be properly learned on 20 minutes a day.