: Our Son is a Topper an Author: Couple Shares How to Ace Homeschooling #IndiaNEWS #Education At 21, Shahen is a published author, positive psychology coach, scriptwriter and public speaker. His book

Our Son is a Topper an Author: Couple Shares How to Ace Homeschooling #IndiaNEWS #Education
At 21, Shahen is a published author, positive psychology coach, scriptwriter and public speaker. His book ‘Burnout No More’ was recently purchased by a renowned school in Mumbai and Shahen has been invited by several schools to talk about this book on examination induced stress.
For someone as young as him, one might guess he set his goal of writing a book from early on. But becoming a writer was never a part of his childhood dreams.
From tennis, dance, journalism, advertisements to coding, his career goals changed at various junctions just like every other kid.
The only difference was he tried his hand at all of them before freezing on his current profession. He played tennis for six months, learnt to code, enrolled himself in a dance class and interned at an ad agency.
Labelling this as a ‘process of elimination’, Shahen had the liberty to fail and make mistakes without being under pressure to quickly hop onto his definite career ride.
It comes as a surprise to many when Shahen reveals he is a product of homeschooling. He chose to drop out of school in class seven. He later joined a college but soon decided institutional learning was not for him.
Meanwhile, his brother, Shahaan studied in school till class two. For the last eight years, he too has been homeschooled. He wants to become an animal conservation expert.
The Pardiwala family
It was neither financial compulsion nor any learning disability that made Shahen and Shahaan’s parents opt for homeschooling. In fact, both the brothers were top rankers in their respective classrooms.
“It was the freedom, discipline and a stress-free lifestyle that appealed to us the most. We did not want our sons to be defined with degrees, rankings and studies. Learnings, setbacks, creativity, life skills should be the key ingredients for every child while growing up,??? Sonnal Pardiwala, the matriarch, tells The Better India.
Shahaan, who is currently in his final year of graduation, says, “The best part about homeschooling is having the freedom to go to a beach on a Wednesday afternoon. I have more control over my routine so I have to be vigilant about how I spend my time and energy. Studying does not feel like a burden. ???
Sonnal and her husband, Nozzer are both tutors by profession. They share insights on everything about homeschooling from dilemmas, challenges, structure, daily routines, milestones to learnings.
What homeschooling entails

Sonnal, who is originally from Surat, was a pioneer in her family in many ways. She fought hard to pursue Masters in Psychology and was the first one in her family to complete her education. She did a love marriage outside her community back when it was frowned upon.