i scotland the system is much more flexible, my friend ds2 is the same age almost as my ds4 (actually her ds2 is a few monhts older) he is allowed to stay in nursery for an extra year and then still start in reception or the equivalanent to that in scotland,t hey allow this fairly easily it seems and they dont then have to skip a year to catch up they just stay in that year group. it works fine in scotland so why are we so inflexible with the starting age in the england? this was one of the main things that made me look into and do home ed, having my ds1 be late aug born adn then ds2 is july, they were NOT ready for school the sept after their 4th bday, when they did start school age 9 and 6 they were fine, in fact i think many children would do just fine starting in yr 1 or rec, people make out that its not good etc, but it certainly didnt harm my 2, ds1 started full time school in yr 5 and is now in yr 8 at high school, ds2 started in yr 2 and is now in yr 5, in no way has it affected their 'schooling' they both settled well, made friends easily and a teacher that ds2 had would 'never had guessed' he didnt go to school until he was 6 yr of age. we have had compliments on how well rounded their knowledge etc was and that variety and depth of it being much more than they could have learnt in school, but equally any parents can do that by doing stuff at home out of school hours, tho obviously its easier when you dont have to fit in school as well and we have certainly carried on supplementing our childs eduction, well just living life and learning and reading, school is a small part of a childs education in many ways.
my ds4 is due to start in sept, in many ways he seems ready, he does 2 full days at pre-school is actually really good with his phonics and numbers etc, not that we have done anything to make him this way, it just is 'his thing' and he seems to have picked it up easily. but his pencil control is crap so tho he can spell words out, he cant write them down! he just doesnt have the fine motor control yet, which for a just 4 yr old is not unusual. he can get dressed and undressed and is very sociable so i have no doubt he will love most aspect of reception, but i think 5 full days may be a bit much, so i suspect i will do what i did with ds3 and he will have 'sick days' ie i think it would do him more good to have a relaxed day at home or out at the park etc with me, ds3 used to do mon and tue at school, then wed at home and thu, fri at school. the ht actually agreed it made sense, otherwise he was just too tired by thu/fri to do anything meaningful at school.
and exotic i often think about moving to a little island, going all self sufficient etc, i think it would be great, esp with primary school aged kids, not so sure about teens tho!