Yesterday at the checkouts of our supermarket my daughter had a conversation with the checkout lady. It went like this:
Lady: No school today?
Dd: No.
Lady: Inset day?
Dd: Huh?
Lady: Is it an inset day?
Dd: Erm, I don’t know, I don’t think so.
Lady (getting a bit impatient): Well why aren’t you at school then?
Dd: I don’t go to school.
Lady? You don’t go to school? (Looks at me disbelieving) Are you home tutored?
Dd: No. I’m home educated.
Lady: (quietly and away from me): Wouldn’t you like to go to school and make lots of friends?
Dd: I’ve already got lots of friends.
Lady: You might have lots of fun there.
Dd: I already have lots of fun and I’d miss my friends if I had to go to school.
Lady: Don’t you want to go to school?
Dd: No way. I’d miss my friends and my Mummy and going out all the time and learning things.
Lady: Well why don’t you just try it for a little while and see if you like it.
Dd: No. Because then we’d have people coming round and asking lots of questions and stuff and we don’t want that.
Lady to me: Are you going to do it forever?
Me: I don’t know, who knows what the future holds but for now it’s working for us.
Dd: I might be going to school in September. Daddy wants me to go to school because of my behaviour.
Me: *Blushes"
Then we finished the shopping and the lady complimented me on my daughter. Said she has a really good understanding of things for her age and talks well and that she enjoyed talking to her.
A bit later my daughter wanted to know what ‘Bug day’ was. I think she was slightly suspicious that she may be missing out on something fantastic.