I just pm'd you with my phone number. If you want to talk on the phone, please do. I think we are on the same journey. I feel your pain.

If you don't want to call, my short answer is either skip public K and go straight into 1st on time or go into public K, but make sure you understand how behavior modification works in the school before you do that and see if you can get a teacher who is nurturing.

If he's like my daughter, the issues your son is going to face are going to be labeled behavior choices. For a sensitive kid, that can be a problem. Do you have testing? If so, you might be able to talk to a tester or a gifted psychologist about potential accommodations at the very beginning.

We (also in TX) held back our August kid on the advice of the neuropsych who tested ours. She had miserable K year because it was all drawing, which she refuses to do with a teacher who labeled every motor and executive function failure a behavior choice. Now she has a great teacher and our current problem is trying to keep her from working ahead.

She loves to learn. We're not at all worried about her being "held back" educationally because she's pretty easily entertained and can do sight word worksheets till the cows come home and she reads an insane amount of nonfiction. Her current reward system for not starting her work at school before the teacher says to is that we give her a challenging standardized test at home once a week :-). Totally not joking.

I don't regret what we did. I think it was necessary--and her writing still isn't where she needs for the next grade up and holding back can be easier than trying to fight for accommodations as long as you can support the child on the behavior piece-which is hard. (I never know what is behavior and what is dyspraxia and what is just not learning much.)

But we are managing and our kid is managing and becoming really articulate about her feelings and is learning to be okay with herself slowly but surely.

Really bumpy road. Really hard. But I believe if we just hang with her, she's going to be okay.