Well, here's a different take: we didn't early-entry our son into school. Our HG+ DS7 spent two years (3yo and 4yo) in pre-K and did well in both programs. He made friends and built things and had fun. Most of his academic enterprises we managed at home, and it was generally a very good system. Things were not always perfect, but there were no significant behavior issues, and he seemed pretty happy. He liked school. He learned things. It worked.
At age 5, he went on to half-day public K and did great there with a teacher who "got" him and differentiated for him beautifully. Again, no problems. She IDd him as GT and had him tested. It was a happy year for him.
It wasn't until 1st grade that we ran into trouble. He started in public school, but it was a DISASTER for him. His behavior tanked, he was miserable, and he was learning nothing except how to misbehave and think badly of himself. We weren't sure we wanted to grade-skip at the time because he likes to participate in sports, but he's no star at them. We didn't want to limit his options with a grade-skip. (This is the only part of our decision that I second-guess, BTW.) Instead we decided to pull him out to homeschool him. It was a temporary choice, but we chose to homeschool again this year. Will we do it again next year? Ask me in April!
I'm taking it one day at a time!
Could we have avoided the homeschooling with early entrance? Mmm, maybe, but I'm not at all persuaded that things would have worked out that way. I think he was going to have trouble in the "learn to read" year--which is 1st grade around here--no matter when he got to it. And making an active child sit still for a full school day a year ahead of schedule doesn't always work well either. (Sometimes, but not always.) Boredom + the immaturity of a younger-than-average child doesn't always = a good school experience.
I think it *must* be a case-by-case decision. In our case, I sometimes wonder if we did the right thing, but I don't regret our choice. Homeschooling has been very good for DS7. Better, I suspect, than early entry and grade skipping would have been in his particular case. But early entry/grade-skipping has worked fabulously well for many of the kids here, so I certainly think that's a valid and useful option to have available. <shrug>
I guess what I'm saying is that just because 2 people early-entranced their kids doesn't necessarily mean that *your* only/best choice for your child is early entrance. There are other options. Play-based pre-K programs and plenty of time at home to read and work on academic projects can be a good option, too.
