My son began preschool this year and he’s 3. He was previously in the Infant/Toddler Special Needs program with Carlton-Watkins Center (city of Charlotte). He aged out of the program and they automatically transferred him into Charlotte public school.

In Michael’s case, early intervention (the earlier the better) was a good thing.

My perspective, with regards to 17 being awfully young, is that it depends on the kid. My wife started college at 16, but probably could have done it even earlier, if she could have figured out a way to further compress a quality high school education. She was a competent stand-in house-wife for her own mother at age 11. My son’s almost 15 and he’s still not ready to take care of our house properly.

Now, my daughter on the other hand, she’s 11 and knows about half the stuff I do. And as I force-feed homecare to my son this year, I am positive that Noelle will be watching from behind, learning all of it. She’ll be babysitting in another year. So it depends on the kid. And on the parent. I’m a step-dad, and I didn’t show up into my son’s life until he was almost 8 (the same year his real father looked at his report card and said “Well, I guess he’s not college material,” *with my son in earshot*

I know, I know.

But it proves something to me, that *any* kid is capable of some form of greatness, that it’s the parenting that wins out in the end. My son is now a veritable straight-A student, because I have spent the past 6 years, day-in, day-out, scrubbing that awful remark from my son’s head.

and thanks for the info on on-line games, I’ll be setting her up with those tomorrow!

My state has one of the oldest kindergarteners in the U.S. And with my late summer/early fall birthdays for my first two kids they were almost 6 and 6 when they started school. My oldest would have been ok being almost 5 (which she would have done in a lot of other states). But, my second (a boy) would not be doing nearly as well as he is now.

As for my youngest, he will barely be 5 when he is ready to start kindergarten. I should mention also that our state still has half day kindergarten but will probably move to full days before my youngest starts school. To me this will be a decision I will have to seriously consider in a couple year. Because he will be on the young side and will have to go for a full day. Tough choices.

Repeating what others said, I guess it all depends on your child.

One of the last was essentially, “What about university?” I can say this: While I went to university (college) in a state that didn’t allow alcohol drinking until age 21, it didn’t matter. However, being with peers was not overly pleasant, which was why I ended up hanging around with older, more mature kids.

My wife spent her first semester of college at age 16. She says that her experience was nice, but she hid her age, to appear older. The drinking age in her state was 18, which kept her from going to pubs with some of her friends. Out of 100% of her total social experience at that age, she says that the no-pubbing issue was about a 25% unhappiness.

Cost and convenience won’t really affect the decision we make. It’s all about whether 2 and a half is too young to be in that setting for 10 hours a week and whether she’ll be ready for it also.

I have had it pointed out to me that at the other end, if she goes to uni she will be only 17, and thus unable to go to pubs etc with her peers…I ‘m not sure how important this is?

So I think ultimately Erin will decide.