Author: Asim Qureshi

The latest twist is that my youngest daughter, Sabeen, who’s 15, has been given an unconditional offer from Cambridge to study Land Economy, one of the hardest courses to get into, commencing in two and a half years. Remember, we’ve spent perhaps US$10k in GRAND TOTAL on her (mostly-online) education, and put in very little time as parents teaching her.

BTW the photo is one of my favourites, it’s a good 5 years old, but it gives a good idea of how our family ‘works’.

Anyway, it does mean she somewhat has a problem, she’s got to find something to do for the next two and a bit years, but we’re sure she’ll find something constructive to do, and given after whatever she does she’ll be off to Cambridge, she’s got some fun teenage years to enjoy after having worked really hard.

If there is one thing my experience with homeschool has taught me apart from the fact it can work, it’s that there is little point trying to teach kids these days. We need to inspire them, that needs to be the focus, because if we can do that, given all the material is available online such as on YouTube, it’s then hard for them not to achieve incredible things.

Oxford University comprises 44 colleges. All students are attached to a college which is where they live and have tuition, lectures are done centrally by the university.

I had the privilege of studying at one such college, Somerville, it’s the college that Indira Gandhi and Margaret Thatcher went to. I was in the second year that men were admitted, prior to that it had been a women-only college.

There I met Isabelle, and soon after we graduated we became the first ever Somerville graduate pair to get married.

And then, 18 years ago, our first child, Maryam, thus became the first Somervillian baby. Maryam grew up homeschooled, and by her mid-teens had ‘completed’ her education and was working in the company I co-founded, Jibble, a time tracking software, set to become a tech entrepreneur, the path I kind of laid for her.

But she didn’t really give her 100% at Jibble, eventually rejected this path, and went back to studying to pursue academia.

Fuelled with passion like I’d never seen in her before because now she knew exactly what she wanted in life, she did an extra two A-levels achieving A*s in both, applied to Oxford, and ended up eating both Oxford entry tests for breakfast, scoring the highest mark in at least one test, and possibly both.

Oxford gave her an offer conditional to her getting an A in her A-level Arabic, but the timing meant that she had to do the two-year course in four months flat, and she’d be one of the few non-Arabs taking the exam.

After studying 15×7 for 4 months, I was massively relieved to find out a few weeks ago that Maryam got not just an A, but an exceptionally high A*, in her A-level Arabic, thereby securing her place to study French and Arabic at Oxford, and also showing the power of passion and the effectiveness of homeschool even if the goal is to go to university.

Oh yes, Maryam’s college at Oxford? SOMERVILLE 🤣

I thought I’d give a quick update as I haven’t given one for a while.

So, what’s been happening?

Let’s start with my youngest daughter, Sabeen, who’s 13. She has been on a roll! A few weeks ago she found out she got an A* in her Accounting A-level! In both her modules she managed to get 300/300, which is pretty insane. She’s now got two A*’s in her A-levels.

So she’s trying out a few things, such as programming, which Danyal is guiding her with. I suggested she think about doing medicine as I reckon she’d make a good doctor – she communicates very well and has an amazing memory – but she’d rather not, and so now is her time to kind of enjoy her success and take her time in deciding what she does next. I doubt she’ll do accounting, like her mother before her, but who knows.

Danyal, 15, is now a decent coder, he’s loving it, gets up at 6am and just starts coding for hours – because he enjoys it so much he’s probably the equivalent of a coder with perhaps 3 or 4 years work experience – he’s really found his passion (for now!).

And last, but not least, Maryam, 17, after a promising start she hasn’t really enjoyed her work in my tech company – money or technology seem not to interest her – and she is considering going into teaching or academia – more details soon – but, yes, that probably means… she’ll be off to university! Oh no!!! Well, that’s her choice, and if she wants to go down that career path, a degree is what she needs and should go for.

It’s great, they’re finding out what they want to do early on their lives by exploring areas they are interested in. They have very few pressures with no exams nor competition – perhaps the way kids should enjoy their teenage years.

Otherwise, I’ve been super-busy with work (as has my wife, Isabelle), so gotta go. BTW the photo is about 4 years old. BYE!

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.

A-level results came out last week, we were delighted to find out that Sabeen managed 100% in her accounting module, which is half the A-level, and 90% in her mathematics modules, which is two-thirds.

She’s heading towards getting two A*s, which are the kind of grades that would get an 18-year-old into any university in the UK, yet Sabeen just recently turned 12.

Isabelle taught her accounting and says she picked it up really fast. I guided her with her mathematics, not taught her as she learned most of it herself, but frankly she’s perhaps only top 30% in terms of natural mathematical ability – way behind where her elder-brother-by-two-years was two years ago.

Sabeen’s results are, in reality, the product of belief. In Sabeen’s belief, and trust, in her parents, which most kids have, and her parents belief in her.

Now, I get that many parents don’t want this for their kids, I understand that, but, listen, most children can do just as well as Sabeen, many could do much better. They do, however, need parents who believe they can.

The older I get, the more I see it – belief, more than anything, drives outcome.

Allow me to suggest a different way of living.

My wife and I work from home, our 3 kids are homeschooled.

But this is where we’ve taken it further…

Maryam, on the right, is 15, she finished her school exams two years ago, she’ll probably never go to university, out of choice.

She’s tried coding and data science, didn’t enjoy them, then tried digital marketing, loved it.

So she’s got a job at a startup – as startups focus on skills – and is working from home, earning a graduate salary.

So, does she meet 100 kids every day? No.

Does she have friends? Yes, plenty.

Is she missing out on her childhood? No, she’s missing out on an antiquated education system.

Does she work all day? No – she works when she wants – she’s paid hourly. She reads, rides horses, runs, learns languages, and meets her friends.

What if she wants to become, say, a doctor? She’ll do a degree in medicine.

Is she happy? Very.

No exams, bullying, drugs, 9-5 job, rushed commutes. We’re saving the planet as well as ~US$400k in education fees per child.

Yet we’re all doing stuff we’re passionate about – learning and earning – but without pressure, without rigidity.

Technology has made this possible, but few know this way of life can work. I mean, I didn’t until it just happened.