Our daughter was tested (for academic and social skills) by the school district on the recommendation of her preschool teacher and skipped kindergarten. She is 6 mo younger than the youngest kids in the class, and is now finishing second grade.
So far she is doing fine in school. She is performing at the top of the class in most subjects, and socially has fit in well. Her age is noted at birthdays, etc, but the kids have generally accepted it without much comment.
The issue we've had is with the teachers. We met some resistance with her first grade teacher who seemed to feel she was not 'gifted' and because it was a very unusual circumstance to skip kindergarten in this district, was resistant to it (despite saying from the start that she fit in well academically and socially). We are having the same issue with her second grade teacher. It may be because they are judging her compared to gifted 8-year-olds rather than her true age...or just that they have a narrow view of giftedness. Her IQ test results are more than adequate to put her into the gifted program (tested privately), but we are meeting resistance from her teachers to in-school testing (we are bypassing them and have requested the testing proceed).
Before proceeding I'd check how common it is to do this in the school district, what support may be provide to you and your child after entry, and when they can be tested for the gifted program, which would provide more support to you and your child. We've been rather left alone to assess whether this was successful and have had to be strong advocates for her right to be there, which has been rather disappointing.
