O.K. my youngest of three is nearly 5 now, but until I started looking at this site I hadn't ever heard of Starfall. I guess I'm just out of the picture on the latest stuff out there.

I don't believe that allowing a child to play with an educational game or watch educational TV is hothousing. I do believe that forcing a child who is otherwise not interested to do the same would come closer to that definition.

I was such a clueless parent. I had no idea that GT testing in CA schools was a multiple choice test and that the kids were scored relative to other kids in the same grade, and not their age peers. When I was a kid, CA sent a psychologist to my house to administer the SBLM; my score was divided by my age. It never occurred to me that the state had switched to something much cheaper, and unfair in a different way.

I blogged about it ad nauseum in Implications of Academic Redshirting Implications of Academic Redshirting. The comments I received are very interesting.
http://badmomgoodmom.blogspot.com/2009/07/red-shirt-kindergarten.html

To me, it depends on the child. Some kids might do best waiting a year, and be a good fit for a particular gifted program, even if they wouldn't have qualified if they started school a year earlier.
I just can't get upset about whether or not some other kid is actually gifted or not, or whether a gifted program actually takes gifted kids. Whether a child has been "hot housed" to qualify.
I do worry about the kids who needed special education and tuned out or dropped out and are underachieving because they were lost to the system. I want the gifted programs to "save" them and breathe new life into academics. No matter what year they started school, whether you call them gifted or not.

See, and I've thought about why it does bother me and I think that it is primarily b/c a program that is full of hothoused kids probably isn't going to meet the needs of gifted kids. My dds don't perform well in pressure cookers where the parents and/or kids are super competitive. They need different learning approaches, not just bragging rights and lots of extra work which is what seems to happen in some of the gifted programs that aren't really geared toward gifted kids.

This is all very interesting. I had heard of redshirting for academic or sporting reasons, but never really thought that much about it, as how did it affect my child ? Ds6 is in 1st grade at a Title 1 school (about 70% of the students are free or reduced lunches). We actually open enrolled our son there,as it is convenient to my work, as well as being the specialised "Math, Science and Technology" school. I doubt very much that there is any redshirting going on here, so other than kids who were held back in Kindergarten, they are in the "right" grade for their age on the whole. Ds6 in now in 1st grade, he has a June birthday so is probably one of the youngest kids - and is definitely one of the shortest However, he is way ahead of the game academically (one of two top readers, and the top in math). It's interesting to think how different things might be if he were in a different school - there are several where I know many kids don't start K until a year late (I run a daycare, and a couple of my kids went to private preschool, and were told they weren't ready for K, even though I know they were !) An interestng discussion - thanks !