Here's a thought related to that-- one possible/plausible advantage to homeschooling (or maybe it's a disadvantage, actually)-- is that when homeschooling a child through PreK~4, you have to be pretty conservative in order to not gain on academic readiness at about a 2- or even 3-to-1 rate.
So if you homeschool K for a year, you might
actually wind up needing a placement at 2nd or even 3rd grade the year following.
Here's why I say that could be either a good or a bad thing: 1) if the school is WILLING to trial entry at a higher-than-chronological placement, you can get a "freebie" grade-skip out of this, and one that matters the most, since those early grades tend to be where the absolutely worst fit occurs, but 2) if they WILL NOT entertain the notion of an out-of-age placement upon entry, it could well make the fit far, far worse.
We lucked out and got the former-- after a "year" (okay, it was 18 mo or so) of "PreK and K" our virtual charter school didn't cavil a bit over a 3rd grade placement (we provided them with a home-proctored CAT-5 at second grade, which DD had handily 99'ed). If they had balked, however, we just would have said "thanks, but no thanks," and figured something else out. It was pretty clear that a 1st grade placement would have been utterly wrong.
Just something to think about. Plan your homeschooling activities accordingly.
