And now...

...I find myself waiting in for the (nice) lady from the LEA, because Jenna overheard me musing about whether to meet her here or elsewhere, and insisted that she wants to meet her... Yet another week of wondering if I'm doing the right thing - protecting my child, or trusting my child? Which to prioritise? We settled for keeping the appointment here, though as Jenna says - "She had better not boss me, or tell me I have to go to school."

My children are dressed as fairies. There is sugar all over the tables because we made donuts again. I am crocheting myself a cowl and nursing the baby. And I can't find ANYWHERE the one decent bra I own, so the nursing bra is making me feel matronly. The baby has tipped out every single one of her toy baskets in response to my frantic tidy up earlier. I am practicing keeping a straight face when asked about long-term plans.

I have given up trying to put the interesting educational books out, and the pile of Jenna's recent drawing and writing has been put away in a drawer (by her) in favour of a beeswax snail, the baby's wind wand, and a felt egg. Which are all she wants to show the lady. I *think* I just heard one of my children pretending to give birth in the hall. Now, in short, is the perfect time for a knock on the door.

Oh, and the gas safety inspection (already re-arranged twice) is this afternoon, so if the lady is late, she will arrive RIGHT in the middle of my dismantled gas fire. So I suppose she'll be late, then. That's settled. I'm going back to bed.

Update: Nearly two hours of chatting - and she was (as reported) very nice. She brought a book with her for the girls, and sat and drank herbal tea and compared notes on knitting and bead projects. We just chatted, really, just chatted. About what we're doing, where we like to go, just what Jenna thinks is important or noteworthy - and no pushy questions.

She also took Jenna to one side and told her that NO-ONE is going to make her go to school, we have made our decision and she is allowed to carry on doing her thing and nobody is allowed to criticise that. Jenna is all smiles now, leaping around the room with happiness. Her parting shot was, "They are lovely lovely children - I don't see any reason to come back for a long time, you have everything you need, lots of ideas and plenty of resources. Have fun!"