<p>My DD2020 is not herself lately. It could be all the attention her DB16 is getting over college search but I am starting to believe it is about going off to a new building for JH. She is afraid of many things right now, hates to be alone, not sleeping well, crying over the slightest thing, etc. I CANNOT BEAR the idea that she may be consciously or unconsciously manipulating us with the “helpless female” act so it is hard for me to maintain my patience. I know change can be hard and it was a difficult time for her DB as well but I cannot wait for school to start and for the fear of the unknown to subside. Anyone else out there trying to manage this?</p>
<p>lol…it took me awhile to figure out what JH is. Junior High. </p>
<p>Your D is at the high-drama age. Try to figure out if she is within the range of normal (this is just a stage) or if she truly needs professional help. </p>
<p>Maybe schedule an appt with a therapist and let him/her determine whether her drama is “normal” or more serious.</p>
<p>My youngest is now 12, about to go into 8th grade. 2 years ago, she and many of her peers faced the same anxiety – the transition from elementary to junior high (or middle school) as evidenced my chats with other parents. My insurance has great counseling care so we took advantage. Got a counselor for her for about 4 mos. to equip w/coping strategies and to give voice to worries & concerns. Now it seems like a distant memory. I think it’s just a very vulnerable age for our girls. Good luck to you.</p>
<p>You’d probably have more responses if you changed the thread title to something immediately recognizable. No one knows what “JH” means. </p>
<p>Would touring the school and meeting her teachers help? Perhaps with a few of her friends?</p>
<p>Hormones!!! She probably doesn’t even know why or what she is feeling. The hormones are raging at this age!</p>
<p>Yes touring has happened once last spring. She will have lots of chances to so with friends after 8/13. I just need to get through a few more days. I’ll try to grin and bare it (not bear). :-SS </p>
<p>Edited the thread title and moving to the Cafe.</p>
<p>Many tears and up at night crying when D entered the first year of JH. Way distant memory here too. It subsided about a month into school when she had made new friends. It was rough to deal with though. Friends from elementary were there, but not in the same classes so she did not see them much. Hang in there. </p>
<p>Haven’t heard the term “junior high” in YEARS. Around here, they are all “middle school”. </p>
<p>Regardless…don’t fret. That is not a pretty age for most students. My own kids were pretty easy, but their most challenging years were 7th and 8th grade. Lots of drama, lots of change.</p>
<p>Our school had a terrific orientation for the incoming 7th graders. They were given their schedules, and went through the day…each “class” was only 10 minutes. The kids all were able to get lost together!</p>
<p>Junior High is worth all the anxiety. It’s an awful time for many kids. It’s a time when even the nicest of kids do some really ugly things. The STORIES about junior high that float around the elementary population can be scary. Since she has an older sibling, she’s probably heard some of his stories too. On top of that, SHE is changing… probably more so at this age than your son was. It’s totally understandable that she is reacting and if she needs a lot of reassurance, I say give it to her while simultaneously building up her own confidence. </p>
<p>Middle school/ junior high is the hardest time.
Physically their bodies are changing, and just as much on the inside as out.
The difference between a 12 yr old 7th grader & a 14yr old 9th grader, is huge.
But you may not be going through puberty at the same time or pace as your friends, so you can really feel out of sync.</p>
<p>Academically, school is ramping up, and they no longer have one teacher who has 30 kids or so for the year, but 5 or 6, who may have 150 kids for each term.
And a new building, where they don’t have a desk as home base, but are expected to move between rooms all day with out a place to call their own.
It can also be logistically difficult to get from class to class , swimming against the tide of other students in the time alotted, even if you can remember where you are supposed to go.</p>
<p>The school is also generally quite a bit larger, encompassing 3 or more elementary schools to make up the new student body. Families may also take this time to move, so while she will most likely make new friends, old ones may have moved away.</p>
<p>Just give her time and reassurance.
We often need to go backward a bit before we go forward.</p>
<p>“Junior High is worth all the anxiety. It’s an awful time for many kids.” I think this is part of the problem. Everyone says this and the kids think they are going into some awful place. Of course there are problems and issues but there are also many kids who have a good experience. My just-graduated 8th grader loved middle school and though she is excited about high school, she was sad to leave middle. Yes, there were problems, issues, and incidents, but she made a wonderful group of friends and did some great activities. Her friends also seemed to have positive experiences overall. But I think a lot of the elementary students are exposed to the horror stories and not the success ones. That would make anyone anxious.</p>
<p>I agree it’s an awful time for kid. Luckily for D2 she didnt’ have that transition. I think I did well, by luck purely with D2, year round school and no transition and very small classes.
With D1, there was anxiety, not high but she was my first one and there was a lot of insecurities on my part and particularly the fact that she is more sensitive than D2.</p>
<p>You couldn’t pay me to go to junior high again. That said this sounds like more than average anxiety. I’d at least ask her if she’d like to talk to a third party about her feelings. Or I might just drag her to a therapist. </p>
<p>Middle school seems more developmentally appropriate than junior high.
Keep the high school kids in the high school.
My youngest attended a k-12 school and middle school was team taught, 7th & 8th grade only.
The 6th grade was part of the elementary school.
Oldest did change schools, from a private elementary where she had the same teacher for the previous three years,to a 6-12 prep school in a different neighborhood.
There was a transition, but classes were quite small so kids had good support from staff.
She also had an outside Ec that was very important to her, and helped her through other transitions.</p>
<p>Thanks for changing the thread title. Since this is a college web site, when I saw JH, I immediately assumed it referred to Johns Hopkins. </p>
<p>I am so happy to say “junior high” is a term I have no need whatsoever to use anymore.</p>
<p>My junior high was a separate building from the high school. It was 7, 8 and 9. I left one year early as my private high school started in 9th grade though there was a big influx in 10th grade as well. My kids middle school was 6,7 and 8. They said it was more child centered than the junior high model, but as far as I could tell it was organized exactly the same way.</p>
<p>Junior high was 7, 8 and 9 where I lived as well. They transitioned to a middle school model long after I graduated…6, 7, 8. </p>
<p>The change was large due to space constraints. The elementary schools were overcrowded and the HS wasn’t. So they moved grad nine up to that building, and grade six to the MS…this freeing up space at the overcrowded elementary buildings.</p>
<p>Only 2 school districts in my area use the middle school/high School system (7-8/9-12). I much prefer the JH/HS system, when 9th graders go to the same building as 7-8th graders. There is a huge maturity gap between 14 yr olds (JH) and 19 yr olds (HS)! My mother, who taught HS for 30+ years, also thinks that JS/HS system is better psychologically. </p>