elizabethmom - I definitely agree! My son would have been MUCH better off skipping K into 1st. He's now a rising 4th grader and when he was in 2nd grade, skipping into 4th didn't seem like the right thing to do...he needed different. I was just musing about my own situation and not judging yours at all. 8-) While 1st wasn't necessarily more challenging, it was a lot more fun! Whereas I've heard several times that K is usually fine for advanced kids b/c of the play aspect and freedom to move around whereas 1st grade is more drill, sit at your desk all day which can be a shock for a 5yr old. In my son's case, he was more than ready for that aspect of 1st grade. Every kid and situation is different.
I definitely agree that each school is different!