My youngest is starting school for the first time. How can I best preserve his relentless curiosity? | Shadi Khan Saif

"For us, it also meant something else entirely: my youngest, Naveed, is starting school for the first time. Over the past few days, we've been wandering through shopping centres and uniform shops, trying to dress and equip him for what feels, in his mind at least, like a major mission. Judging by his choices bold backpacks, superhero-themed drink bottles I suspect he believes some special powers might be required. Watching him prepare has been tender and amusing in equal measure."

"In the midst of all this, I've noticed something quietly beautiful. Whenever I take Naveed shopping with me whether to big bookstores or op shops he drifts instinctively towards children's books. He already has a tiny collection at home, which he reads aloud to his favourite teddy, Mr Lion, whenever there's nothing interesting on television and the older siblings are glued to their screens. There's something grounding about seeing him like that: cross-legged, serious, absorbed."

"Watching him step towards this small but enormous threshold has stirred a question I've been carrying for years: how much of curiosity is innate, and how much is shaped patiently, deliberately by those who raise us? When I was a child, we were refugees in Pakistan. Material comfort was absent. Books were scarce. Stability even more so. And yet, it was there that my elder brother developed an extraordinary love for reading and putting his thoughts on paper."

Schools reopening brings relief and routines back into family life. A youngest child, Naveed, prepares for his first school with enthusiastic choices like bold backpacks and superhero drink bottles. He gravitates toward children's books and reads aloud to his teddy, Mr Lion, showing absorbed, cross-legged concentration. A parent's reflection contrasts innate curiosity with nurtured habits, recalling a childhood as refugees in Pakistan where material comfort and books were scarce. An elder brother developed an extraordinary love of reading there, consuming whatever printed material was available. The memory suggests curiosity can flourish amid hardship when actively pursued and supported.

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