Tag: mathematics

A Morning Run…

Yesterday, Danyal put behind him a pretty amazing chapter in his life. He finished his A-levels (UK 18+ exams) aged 11.

So, he taught himself Mathematics mainly from YouTube videos, and, of course, last year he did his Physics A-level and got an A.

This morning we went for a run and discussed what he’ll do next with his life. He’s thinking about a combination of:

1. Play football up to 3 hours a day to see if he has a realistic chance of playing in the Premiership one day.

2. Try to get his squash to national-level.

3. Try to break the world record for 5km for an 11-year-old – he’d have to go damn intensive as he’ll turn 12 in 4 months.

4. Become damn good at coding – to start a tech startup.

5. Brush up his 6 languages – some have been very low priority in recent months due to exams.

6. Spend a lot of time loafing around with friends.

Now, all of this was possible because my wife and I just decided to TRY to homeschool our 3 kids 5 years ago. We just gave it a two-week TRIAL after which all of us loved it.

If we hadn’t TRIED he’d still be learning algebra at school.

You gotta try in life. And keep trying. Sure, trying usually gets you nowhere but if you keep at it, embrace it in every aspect of your life, it will eventually pay off in ways you never imagined possible.

Learning 18+ Maths via WhatsApp…

As mentioned in the last post, the 3 kids are teaching themselves their Maths and Further Maths A-levels, the UK 18+ exams.

I’ve had a ton of parents, and some students, ask me how this is possible. It’s really easy…

Ok, they’ve teamed up with two friends, age 12 and 15, so it’s a group of 5 kids in total. We’ve set up a WhatsApp group. This makes it all a bit more social and fun. And we’ll soon have regular coffee tutorials where they will help each other with problems.

So, I set the questions in WhatsApp, the kids just do it, somehow. And that’s it!

Here’s a snapshot. You only see Maryam and myself as I’ve selected a bit where the other kids’ numbers (or their parents) are not shown.

In the first 3 weeks they completed three C1 papers. Each paper is one sixth of an A-level (Edexcel board). Just think about that! And that was them taking it easy as I didn’t know what pace was realistic.

They marked their work themselves, as the mark scheme is available, and I trust them enough to let them decide if they understand the question or not. They all appreciate that it’s their exam coming up, not mine.

It’s about making kids realise why they’re studying, it’s about making the exams their problem, not mine.

I gave them a slightly aggressive 8 days to do their first C2 paper, which they seem to be on target for. Remember, no-one has ever taught them the material in C2, and you can see how they’re helping one another by sending useful links. I will probably give them another 10 days to do two more C2 papers.

I am guessing that once they have done 3 papers they kind of have a fair understanding of each topic, and we can move on. We’ll revisit everything towards exam time.

Right now they’re spending around 1 to 1.5 hours a day. My 3 kids are working together, learning to work together as a team, but also learning to work remotely with other kids!

I’ve warned the kids that they need to enjoy the next 5 months, and they are by doing plenty of other stuff. Come 1 January 2018 the work load will start to increase. I am advising them to be mentally ready to sacrifice their lives for these exams from around April 2018…