Middle school - growing up

Hi Jace.  You're 11 years old. Wahhhhh.  You're so young, yet so old and wise. You truly are an old soul. It's so fun to be your mom.  

You started 6th grade this year!  You're at the same school as Ashlynn, Infinity Middle School. We live at The Last Stand at the end of Alamo Avenue in our cul de sac, and it's literally the best.  You're best friend is Alex who lives in Toll Gate Crossing. 

Mostly, the start of middle school has been going great. You are happy, excited, and ready to tackle the world.  However, on the first day of the second week of school, you came to me stressed and overwhelmed about and elective called AVID.  You explained it was a college prep course from your understanding and the expectations were so hard that it was just a class of stress and anxiety, anxiety and stress, stress stress.  You wanted to know if you could switch classes because you thought this was going to be a cool career class, and instead this was just crazy.

I told you I would call the teacher and find out what was going on.  She explained it was a class designed to teach organizational and executive functioning skills to students to last well INTO their college years, and maybe that is where he became confused.  I told her he was worried he signed a "CONTRACT" because if he accidentally broke it because he's not ready for the demands of the class he was freaking out he would get in trouble." She said the contract seems very serious but it was not intended to mean he can never break it because the whole class is about learning.

I decided after speaking to her this would indeed be a GREAT class for you Jace. When I told you, you were well, less than happy. You freaked out and panicked.  I told you the teacher would talk to you tomorrow and we would all figure it out together and figure out how to make you successful. 

The very next day you came to me and explained your homeroom teacher had been talking about a growth mindset versus a fixed mindset, and you had recognized you were having a fixed mindset in AVID.  Words cannot explain my pride in you.