Hi! I'm brand new here, since we just got our YS acceptance notice for my 5 year old son this week.
I'm enjoying this thread because my younger son is 26 months today, and also just started reading sight words/early sentences on his own. Since I homeschool my older one, little one hasn't gotten nearly as much one-on-one time, so I have to give a lot of credit to Leapfrog fridge magnets and Baby Tad. (LOL!) My older one also taught himself at 2, and I had the same emotions you do. The advice here is wonderful!
I have two cents (or 2 pieces of advice) to share from my limited experience:
First, encourage that reading! Reading opens up a world for them that nothing else can. Their language, education, pleasure time and time to relax, imagination and sharing experiences with peers, etc etc are all benefited from becoming proficient readers. (Not only that, but let them read by themselves in bed for 15 minutes at night, and bedtime becomes so much easier!)
Second, please don't follow my steps and waste too much time and worry about the future. With my 5 year old, I spent years worrying about acceleration, private schools, etc. We enrolled him in traditional preschool, but also filled days with countless enrichment activities and field trips (music, art, zoo and nature classes, sports, library, etc., and of course playgroups), and he learned so much more than any accelerated regular classroom while spending that time with family and friends and having constant fun.
We chose to enter him in regular kindergarten for the first semester, and again we had to worry about acceleration (which the school encouraged), differentiation, etc. Then, a completely foreign solution came to us with homeschooling, which is very popular here in suburban NorCal w/ GT children. We are with a charter school that embraces his PG, he is able to study at his appropriate grade levels in each subject (plus study "out" instead of just "up" with latin, arts, history...), and he is constantly socializing with a mix of academic/age peers through workshops and co-ops. Never ever in those thousand sleepless nights did I come up with this solution, but my worries were answered.
My long-rambling point is that I recommend all moms of GT toddlers/preschoolers embrace what they give us, enjoy every moment, and don't worry about the future because the right option will be there when you need it.
I look forward to "talking" with everyone more!
