Finding the true meaning in a meltdown

My poor little guy. We, the parents, declared the blanket fort had to be put away tonight before dinner. This marks the end of a fun holiday weekend. And begins the meltdown/manic attack of a rather strong boy. After 15 minutes of my restraining him, with as much comfort as I could verbally give he calmed. We talked. Then talked more. I'm learning to ask questions differently. I'm learning to accept answers as I perceive them, are not the same definition to him. Tonight, I made, what I believe, is a huge leap in understanding. Now I could be wrong. But it lines up that his initial 'at school' episodes started as testing prep began. The constant rhetoric of "school is stupid, boring, etc" got louder and more frequent. Tonight I unlocked a window that showed me that anxiety is a trigger. He's struggling with understanding the concepts in math and language arts. He feels stupid and is anxious about it. He feels that his sitting in class IS a waste of time, his, and the school's. All because he doesn't feel he is learning anything. He's extremely frustrated, and has lost a great deal of self confidence. Now I know. Now I can work to fix things for him. My poor little man. He loves so passionately, he feels so intensely. I hope I can make this better, somehow.

And a special "love note" to Bella, who was held and patted and cried on, and never flinched. And who barks at us adamantly to remind all of us our volume and tone of voice matters. She's a therapy dog at heart, if not on paper.