As part of my drive to encourage more independence in my son I have bought him an alarm clock. We had a practice run , I showed him how to turn it off and told him it was only for school mornings or days when we had to be up early . The idea being that he will get used to getting himself out of bed . Well the first morning was really quite dramatic, I off course was expecting it to go off so was waiting in anticipation for his reaction.

The sound of the ringing was drowned by my son shouting "Oh my God Oh my God ". As he dived to grab the clock and turn off the alarm. To his credit though he did not complain and it was not until the third day, of these rude awakenings, that he asked me why I had decided to get him an alarm clock." Well " I said "now that it is getting close to you going to high school , I thought it would good for you to be more independent, getting up in the morning on your own , Is part of that"

"Oh " he replied "OK" and said nothing more .

I know my son wants to grow up and do grown up things, I know he is excited about going to High school and I am counting on his enthusiasm for this new time in his life , to inspire more independence in him. I am hoping he will be swept along on the tide of all of his peers and their first steps into young adult hood . But it is definitely not a case of sink or swim ,he will receive a lot of support.

At the High School he will attend they have a special department set up for  children such as him. At present his head teacher is applying for a tablet for him to use at school. He will be allocated a 'buddy' to help him .I am sure it will be quite daunting for him to have to pack up everything every hour or so to move from class to class. There is also a quiet room where he can escape too if it all gets to much and it will be explained to him that he can do this at any time. The amount of pupils at the High School is about 5 times the amount at his primary.That in itself gives my son a challenge along with all the other things he will be trying to cope with.

I am confidant though, that I will be the one having a panic attack before him.