We have had a positive experience with acceleration in a private school setting. My DS7 accelerated directly to first grade. We initially worried about motor skills and social skills as well. He did bring home some work in first grade that he wasn't able to finish in class. We were told to expect a 3-6 month adjustment period. This seemed to be right on target for him. He is currently in second grade and doing great. He loves cursive as it is faster for him. Socially, he has a close group of friends and most children/parents in his class don't even realize his age difference (He has always tended to prefer older playmates). One note of caution, we were not prepared for the number of parents who held their children back before starting kindergarten at our school. There was a 2-year age difference with him and the oldest child in his first grade class. In retrospect, it is hard to imagine starting him in kindergarten as he has clearly thrived with his acceleration. One benefit of an early entry is that we hope he will be able to stay with the same group of friends for a while. Hope this helps!
