I don't see hothousing as providing educational materials and I don't think mizzoumommy was saying that either. It is the aspect of drilling the kids when they have shown no interest in the curriculum. When a child is interested then giving them that information is not hothousing. My daughter loves sites such as starfall and pbs.org. She is very independent on the computer and has been for months so if she wants to play she knows how to open the site and get into the games. I really don't see that as hothousing. If I forced her to do it then yes that would be a problem. Just like flashcards. If the child loves flashcards then great but if the parents are drilling the kids with them different story.
And to put this thread back on topic of red shirting I forgot to mention my humor in the fact that my DD will be one of the youngest children in her class. Her b-day is August 16th and our state cutoff is September 1st. I can not tell you how many times I have heard from different people that I should hold her back a year b/c of her age. These are people that really don't know my child just calculate her age and quickly jump to how hard it will be for her later in school when all her friends are already driving, etc. I could not imagine holding her back a year given that at this rate she will already be bored in school when she does start.
