First, see how
other families found their way.

Mrs. Li is a student in the AI Future School prep program. Her son does well at school, but she believed the school's approach was no longer enough and wanted him to build independent learning skills, so she went to talk to the school. She told the principal: he'll keep up with schoolwork, and if he doesn't, we'll come back. The school agreed.

Two months later, the problems showed. At home in the afternoon, he couldn't sit still: he wanted snacks, he wanted to go play soccer. The timer was set for 25 minutes, and he often got up before it rang. She got irritated, then harsh.

Xuan's dad asked old classmates who had become teachers: forty years after we were in primary school, has school fundamentally changed? They all shook their heads. He went home and proposed an experiment to his wife: from primary through high school, their daughter would attend only half days, explore broad interests and develop one standout talent.

1. 01Learn to live first. School ended at 12:30. Rather than leaving her with grandparents, she cooked her own noodles and dumplings in a rice cooker.
2. 02Afternoons in blocks. First 15–20 minutes each, then 30 minutes from Grade 3, with 15-minute breaks. At first her dad planned with her; later she planned on her own.
3. 03No direct answers. When she got stuck, her dad only guided her to ask questions and find her own way. He jokingly called himself "dad and teacher of every subject."
4. 04One thing to go deep on. Every day, a block or two reviewing games and solving tactics puzzles.

I hope she grows into an ordinary person with a moral compass, inner strength and real ability.

Xuan's dad

At a lunchtime talk, the school announced a search for ball kids for the Wuhan Open. He badly wanted to go, but the talk was on Thursday and the tryout on Saturday, with a rules test and an English conversation.

1. 01Don't decide for him. The family ran a SWOT analysis at the dinner table: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats. Mom said she'd handle any scheduling conflicts, but whether to apply was his call. He came out of the shower and said: I'm in.
2. 02Find his own method. He watched videos online to learn what rolling and feeding balls means, used AI to build a table of English tennis terms, printed it and memorized it line by line.
3. 03Explain it to own it. Dad asked questions and AI generated quizzes. Early Saturday they watched a tennis final together, with him commentating and explaining the rules.
4. 04Review it himself. After the tryout, he said it first: the rules went well, one name slipped his mind, and he'd never learned the English word "ball kid."

Later his dad did one more thing: to stop explaining English reading line by line every day, he trained an AI agent to tutor him. "It's more patient than I am."

Every New Year's Day for seven years, Amy has written her children a letter. This year, her ten-year-old daughter wrote one back for the first time: two pages, nearly a thousand characters.

Looking back, most of what Amy got right happened in the free time. She deliberately chose a school with a lighter workload and more breathing room, then put that time to use:

1. 01A do-it-yourself birthday party. No competing over a tenth birthday. The children won "seed money" in a quiz, then shopped, ordered pizza, cooked and decorated themselves. The adults only handled safety.
2. 02A neighborhood reading club. Every Saturday afternoon, a few children read biographies and put on plays. The community offered free space, and one mom drove two hours each way every week to bring her child.
3. 03A project that actually sold. After a heritage trip to Henan, the children worked in teams to create study-trip playing cards, from choosing topics and drawing by hand to oracle-bone script, all on their own.
4. 04AI as a second brain. Her daughter launched an English stage production of Heidi at school; mother and daughter used AI to draft the script structure, then revised it together.

Families should hold the reins of their children's education.

Amy

Her daughter helped her structure this talk. She said: Mom, don't tell people what everyone already knows. Tell them what career planning looks like to you, "like when you let me play with purpose as a kid."

1. 01Interests are found by trying. At a dance competition, her teacher asked her to write reflections on training. That's how she started writing fiction.
2. 02Actually do something. For the school drama festival, she volunteered to write and direct. Mom became her unofficial assistant, backing her with time, money and help.
3. 03Assessments only confirm. After a career assessment, she said: "Mom, it's spot on. This is exactly what I want to do."
4. 04Explain it, and an unfamiliar subject becomes a strength. From an early age she explained problems to her mom, Feynman-style. By middle school, she had talked her way into making biology one of her strengths.

For parents of teenagers, remember this: talk less, cook more.

Guixin