Doing BJU Algebra I honors track after completeing Saxon Algebra 1- redundant or beneficial??

[housemouse]

Ds is on track to finish Saxon Algebra 1 with 90 or above for the year. He is 13. I was thinking of doing BJU Algebra 1 honors track working through all those word problems.
We started with BJU and all the word problems were way over his head so we switched to Saxon math and he is doing very well- I think in part because he has been doing BJU math 2nd through pre-algebra and much of it is a review for him. The low score of 90 is because of careless mistakes like forgetting to include a negative or adding two numbers wrong but he knows the material itself and gets upset over carelessness.
My thinking is that if he goes through BJU algebra 1 and does all those word problems (that is his weakness, especially multistep ones) and the rest of the material as the review, he will have that extra time to get solid ground in material and then move on.
The goal is to give him solid math foundation through at least pre-calculus as he plans to go into engineering.
Would it be overkill to do 2 algebra courses in a row? Would love some advise as high school planning is all new territory for me.

Thank you in advance

[OnMyOwn]

My dd finished Saxon algebra 1 last spring and she is on the young side like your ds. I picked up a copy of Foerster's algebra and had her go through it this summer. Both she and I felt it was beneficial because it gave her a better understanding of the big ideas in algebra and it reinforced what she had learned in Saxon. It was also good for extra word problem practice. I didn't have her do all the problems. In most sections, I had her do every 5th problem. Some sections, we did orally. After she finished, she began Saxon algebra 2 and I've been pleased to see how easy it is for her. She did very well with algebra 1, but she is just really even more solid with algebra 2 and I think going through Foerster's contributed to that. I'm not familiar with BJU, but if I had that text on hand, that's what I'd use. I think most kids could benefit from another run through algebra, just to solidify things, even if it's done quickly.

Edited December 31, 2015 by OnMyOwn