I am a stay at home mom for crying out loud. This is my job. Why should I feel so guilty for not putting her in school yet?
You absolutely shouldn't! You are the BEST person right now to be with your child and respond to her needs. I never even knew my kids were gifted at that age. I just rolled with their interests. We would walk museums and talk and read books. They did kindermusik programs and lots of outings.
Then I sent my oldest to 2 years of school. Guess what? It didn't work at all for him. Now we're homeschooling and here I am again. And he's doing so much better than he was in a school environment. He was IDed GT at school, but that didn't equate to services or any guarantee of getting ahead. My kids went to play based preschool at 3+. But would have definitely been fine without that. I think they did benefit socially. Even an academic preschool wouldn't be great for a child who already had strong pre reading skills.
Enjoy every minute home with your child and enjoy the luxury of not needing to find a good school fit for her! Just follow her the best you can. If you need down time, take it and don't feel bad. I'm ignoring my kids right now.
For the record, neither of my kids were very interested in reading until about age 5 (part of the reason I didn't know they were GT). Both jumped many grade levels in reading in a matter of months.
