I think you're right shellymos: so much depends upon the child, but also on the K program...and the teacher.
Our K program and teacher were great for DS7, even at age level. It was easier to differentiate for him given the curriculum because it was mostly play-based. K programs are more competitive around here, too, since they're not required by law, so I have a theory that the public school puts some of the better teachers there, since there's more competition. Also, K was only a half-day program, so he wasn't tired or bored for long enough even on his worst days for it to matter too much; he could come home and do something that interested and challenged him.
Skipping him to 1st grade--which is full-day, highly academic and filled with rigid teachers who don't differentiate--would have been a disaster for us. I'm relieved that we didn't even consider it at the time.
But OTOH, I know LOTS of parents who skipped K for their kids, and are thrilled with that choice. It can be the easiest skip a child will ever make, since they slide right into 1st grade just like everyone else and never stand out as unusual. For some kids, K would be intolerable "baby work," and skipping is clearly the best choice.
FWIW, I think if my son looked more like the stereotypical HG+ child--*fast* at everything, rather than slow but deep--then I'd have been more likely to think that early K or skipping K altogether would have been a good choice for him. As it was, he enjoyed K and hated 1st, and I don't think getting him into 1st earlier would have helped. In fact, I think he'd have been less able to cope with the boredom at 5 than he even was at 6.
Both options are totally valid. So much depends...
When is the "learn to read" year where you are, shellymos? K or 1st? In general, I'd recommend skipping that "learn to read" year, regardless of which one it is. 1st was our year, and it was a disaster. My theory (totally unsubstantiated...) is that teachers on the hook for reading get paranoid about gaps and such, and don't want to let kids jump ahead just in case they missed something. Both the years before and after that year seem to be (somewhat) better for early readers.
A friend of mine had a very frustrating argument with a teacher during that reading year who insisted that her HG son spend extra time on phonics, even though the child was reading for comprehension very well *and* was sounding out words like a pro. The gist was that the teacher thought the boy needed more practice on phonics so that he could read, and she ignored the fact that he already WAS reading! <Argh!> The mom couldn't get through the teacher's "You must do X so you can do Y," lockstep train of thought. I had a very similar kind of problem with our teacher, who informed me that there are lots of good quality easy reader books that kids miss if they jump to chapter books too soon. Um, well, as he'd been reading for 3 years by that time, and my mom was a pre-K teacher, I think we'd already hit the biggies!
So anyway, avoiding that sort of mess would be great, if you can figure out how!
