I have this concern for my DS actually. He is starting kindy this year, and then prep next year. He can already read and spell - he asks for "M-I-L-K" etc, and he also plays around with letters - "what does it spell if you say O-O-P instead of P-O-O" etc. He can also count to 100, is always doing addition and subtraction by himself, just in every day situations, he can count backwards also and has just started doing multiplication "mummy 3 lots of 2 are 6" etc. This is all self taught. He amazes people when we are out and he reads the signs using phonetics - he read the name of every train station from home to the city the other day - didn't pronounce them all 100% correctly but boy did he get close.

Sorry, I've gone off track. The answer to your question is yes, I am worried about this. His carers tell me he is at a prep level socially as well, he just mixes better with older kids. So this is what I'm going to do - firstly, I'm going to choose a school carefully. The one I am looking at has small numbers in the classroom and also mixed age group (ie preps and 1s together, but with 2 teachers). I am going to talk to them early this year to make sure they will be able to cater for him. I will watch for signs of boredom and stay in constant touch with the teachers to let them know how I think he's doing, and to find out how they think he's doing. And hopefully between us we can come up with some strategies like allowing him to do extra activities and giving him more challenges at home if need be. The idea with bright kids apparently is to extend on what's being learnt in school, not keep adding new things. A good teacher should be able to help with this, and there are special ed teachers available in the system who are trained in helping brighter kids. You just might need to push to get them involved.

So, that is what I plan on doing. I hope that helps you somewhat. I would also be very interested in hearing how you go this year. Feel free to keep us updated. GL!