Middle School Here We Come

There's a week left to our summer, determined by the boy's return to school.  This year he'll be starting middle school.  It's hard to believe he's entering the 6th grade, and even harder to believe he'll be twelve years old soon.  Sometimes the five weeks we spent in the NICU feel like they are a distant memory, and others I can smell the sterile, dry air, and hear the beeps and whooshes of the monitors and respirator struggling to keep the boy alive.

Middle school brings about lots of new changes.  Switching classrooms, different teachers and support staff, and puberty.  Fortunately, we are not moving campuses, just buildings.  Our school goes from K-8th, so he'll remain in a familiar setting where he's happily been cast as one of the more well known kids on campus.  He has friends and admirers from every grade.  Nearly all of his culminating 5th grade class are returning for middle school so there will be only a small handful of brand new students among the 6th grade.

He's excited and feeling positive about going into middle school.  I suspect there will be some anxiety that manifests itself with sleepless nights and moodiness.  It happens every year.  A symptom of his being non-verbal.  He can't express any concerns, or joys about the upcoming experience and changes so it takes on physical manifestations.  Despite his ability to communicate with his Dynavox, and other means, he seems incapable, or uninterested, in expressing stress or anxiety.

I look forward to seeing how he handles the more intense days, longer hours, and tougher school and home work.  Each year takes more effort to maintain a level of consistency and to keep up with peers.  He's got the capacity for greatness, but we haven't found the best ways for him to access technology or the right devices.  More experimenting and hopefully we'll hit upon the right tools.  I long to explore that beautiful brain of his!