A-level Maths – Final Result…

A couple of days ago, Sabeen found out she got an A* in her Maths International A-level. Aged 12, I believe she’s the youngest girl in the 50+ year history of the exam to have done this. 🎊

Sabeen isn’t particularly good at maths (she’s clearly not too bad either!), my help was limited to an hour a week as most of the time I just told her to look things up when she was stuck, I have no teaching qualifications, and am I not a good teacher.

I’ve come to the view that schools are great for parents unable to guide their kids, but for parents with a good level of education and who are working from home, there is no comparison – and that’s before factoring the ~US$250k of school fees.

Isabelle and I went to ‘top’ high schools in France and the UK respectively, so we know what our kids are ‘missing’.

The argument that many parents make is that school is much more than grades, which is odd because those same parents will do everything they can to get their kids into schools that deliver the best grades.

Besides, homeschool isn’t all about grades either – Sabeen, for example, can speak 6 languages, she recently won a national storytelling competition, she’s a great swimmer, a fantastic cook, and she is a very confident sociable child with plenty of friends.

For parents considering, let me get this misconception out of your head – for your kids to get the stellar results Sabeen achieved (and I’m not saying that’s the right goal) one parent needs to put in ~20 minutes a day per child – once they can read, you’re mostly telling your kids where to look – textbooks, YouTube, past paper solutions, etc…

But you must get your kids’ buy-in, they must want it else it can’t work. A key reason it has worked for us is that our kids were initially sold on studying in their pyjamas, and throughout they have really enjoyed their homeschool journey.