Life Beyond School…

So Danyal (12) and Maryam (14) are enjoying retirement (ha ha!).

Well, Danyal spends a few hours learning to code (programming), an hour or so for his languages on Skype, plays tons of football and squash, and spends the rest of the day reading, playing video games or meeting friends. He also goes for a swim with me most mornings.

Maryam has taken a liking to public speaking, so she’s doing a lot of that. She too is learning her languages, does a bit of self-defence, some coding, and spends most of the rest of the day reading – she loves reading. Of course, and I do seem to need to mention it as otherwise people get concerned – she too meets up with her friends.

Both of them are constantly looking for one-off courses or activities near us – Maryam recently entered into a debating competition, Danyal’s been playing football with some Korean team as it’s the Xmas holidays.

Sabeen (10) is studying for her IGCSE French which she’ll be taking in mid-2019 – but she doesn’t seem to be studying much – we have taken it easy with her. She’s doing her other languages too, but it hasn’t been the same push we had with Maryam and Danyal – as someone told me “You proved that it works, now you’ve got nothing left to prove to yourself with Sabeen” and there is, unfortunately, an element of truth to that. She’ll probably start studying for her A-level Mathematics pretty soon.

One thing is clear – the kids now have incredible levels of freedom and lots of time. They arrange lessons for when they want, they do what they want where they want (home, cafes, my office, with friends), and they work as much as they want.

Without the huge exam pressure we put on Maryam and Danyal a few months ago, it all feels rather chilled. And we want to keep it that way.

Else, all is well! Hope you are too…

Author: Asim Qureshi

Passionate about tech startups, home schooling, barefoot running and squash. View all posts by Asim Qureshi