We’ve scrapped all goals for this year, except one – Maths & Further Maths A-levels. If you read my post about the kids’ A-level results you’ll understand why.
So I’ve decided that the programming, business, sport and language goals are scrapped. They’re still going to do the sports and languages, but without goals. No programming or business at all until they finish their Maths A-levels.
BTW the girls have given up badminton and are playing squash instead.
Sabeen is struggling to keep up with the maths with the other two, so she’s now doing it her own pace. She may well just do the Maths A-level in 2018 without doing the Further Maths A-level. I want her to enjoy it, not feel under any pressure – she worked hard for the last two months of her IGCSE Maths and it wasn’t fun.
So Maryam and Danyal are teaching Sabeen her maths. It’s quite funny watching Danyal struggling to teach Sabeen. He once said “she never understands anything” in frustration. I said “Danyal, she’s the youngest girl to have ever got an A* in her GCSE. Have you ever thought that perhaps you’re not teaching her properly?” He didn’t have an answer to that!
One last thing, I’ve hired a tutor in the Philippines to help Maryam and Danyal with maths. Basically, I’m too busy with my business to help them. The tutor charges US$12 an hour, and whenever the kids are stuck on a question, they set up a Skype session with her. And if they’re stuck with any topic they can arrange one-to-one sessions. So it’s pay-as-they-need. This seems to be working out very well, but early days as they’ve only had one session.
The Wonder Years 
In a way, it’s kind of sad to read these posts – it’s like reading about some far-far-away heaven, where kids understand everything from the first mumble, gently swift through the curriculum, from clicking tough physics problems to writing amazing essays, and go from easy A’s to hardest parties, while grooming themselves for top jobs or successful businesses.
Once again, you do a magnificent job describing the experience, but there is an obvious undercurrent of naivete. But it’s still better than the typical generic-pupils-are-idiots attitude.
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Nikita, you tend to make things a lot more difficult than they are!
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