Hi Polly, how is your decision going?
I wanted to chime in with our experience, FWIW. DD 2.5 has a late December birthday, so she does not fit well into the school calendar.
I was able to stumble onto a modest (in terms of curriculum - no language immersion, for example) preschool with some amazing attributes.
1. the two teachers have been there 20 years. They've seen it all, including gifted kids.
2. they teach toddlers in the morning and pre-K in the afternoon, so they understand the full range of development.
Our DD was able to go directly to he afternoon class of 3.5-5.5 year olds, even though she was 27 months. I'm not so sure this would have worked out if her teachers only worked with 4 year olds.
One big difference between toddlers and pre-K is style of play. Toddlers usually do parallel play and pre-K kids do interactive. Our DD did both and we wanted her the opportunity to continue to do both, so we expose her to kids her age. I'm not sure about the scientific implications of parallel play, but we think it may be critical to future peer relations, which my DH and I consider important.
