I used to ask DS8 to do one Aleks pie item a day, which translated to an average 15mn/day, including the review question(s) from the day before. If I let him go for one hour or more the review questions piled up so much he would be exhausted before reaching new material. For him slow and steady seems best, especially since this is all afterschool work for him.
But it can vary wildly. Yesterday he spent nearly 40mn on "division involving quotients with intermediate zeros" because he kept misaligning his columns, not writing down the intermediate steps and *then* forgetting to put in the zeros where they belonged (I finally stepped in when frustration reached max and told him to use the d@mn lines on his board). He managed to unwind himself and finish with minimal fuss after that, always big for him. A few days ago he did prime factors in less than 12 mn. He loves new concepts and those tend to fly into the pie.
We also print worksheets and he will do 4 items per day (I have to limit him, he loves the worksheets and we use them as carrots to get him through the LA...).
This is a child who rates at bright but not quite gifted on perceptual reasoning and flunked the EPGY screening test. YMMV.
