Stick with Montessori through elementary or switch before middle school?

I have two sons. My 6 year old is in first grade at our local public elementary school. My 5 year old is attending a Montessori school. The Montessori school is broken down into 3 to 6 year old classrooms, 6 to 9 year old classrooms, and 9 to 12 year old classrooms. He would be 13 years old when leaving Montessori and would have to transition to our local public school as an 8th grader.We have the boys in different schools mostly because they have different needs. Both love their very different schools. The younger one is a very self driven learner. He is very intense and gets very into whatever he is learning about. I think Montessori suits him because he's able to spend time on what he wants to learn about and doesn't have to move in lockstep with his classmates.My concern is that he will get so used to this environment that he will struggle when transitioning to the local public school. He doesn't like change and doesn't like being told what to do. He's fine as long as you let him learn on his own. He is currently sitting down inspecting bugs that he collected while at his brother's flag football game yesterday. He's writing down facts in his notepad. He's a quirky little guy. If I tell him to put the bugs away and do something else then we are in meltdown city though. He likes directing his own learning. I'm hoping that this will be less of an issue as he gets older but you never know.My other major concern is that 13 is such a hard age and having to switch schools feels like a lot to handle. He doesn't have an easy time making friends. Kids like him but he prefers to do things on his own. He doesn't like working with a group and prefers individual activities to group activities. I'm worried about him being thrown into a school that is completely different from the one he is used to with zero friends to back him up.I know I am probably overthinking this. I do it a lot but I used to teach middle school and saw kids who were so smart fail because of how unhappy they were. via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2NJEY6i