I’d be really careful on that. I know a lot of people who skipped grades as kids due to academic intelligence who are still struggling socially as adults because they missed out on socialization — they were “too smart” for people who were the same age as them and never learned to get along with their immediate peers, then they were “that smart kid who’s a year younger than everyone else” when they moved up a grade. Their entire childhood was interacting with older people who thought they were “so mature for their age”, which became a huge part of their identity. When they were in their early 20s, that was so much a part of who they thought they were, but people stop seeing “mature children” when you’re in college and just see another young adult. At that point, no one is being surprised at how eloquent you are. But “being mature for your age” is so wrapped up in who you are.
It’s pretty clear to me as a 30 year old when I meet people around my age who are only children or were homeschooled. They missed out on socialization with a wide variety of other kids, when they were kids, and now they don’t know how to act around their peers as adults. I’m not saying “you must have more children or your son will forever suffer!!” (And that would be pointless because there’d be too much of an age gap, even if you weren’t trying to live a life right now that is low-cost and has a lot of freedom.)
I am, however, suggesting that you consider his physically-present social interactions with other kids around his age. They don’t need to be “the same age”. Living in a lot of countries would have been a dream for me as a kid, but I think about the friends I had in childhood, and we could not have replaced running around barefoot in the woods or climbing trees with FaceTime calls. I know COVID has changed that, but it’s also gotten a bad rap for it.
I realize I might be coming off as judgmental, and I don’t mean that. I am not a parent and I do not know you or your life plan. I am, however, a teacher, and I have seen a lot of types of kids and watched some of them grow up. School has little to do with academics. It’s a place for kids to interact with other kids and learn how to do so in the manner of the culture in which they live. The only way to replace that opportunity is to homeschool your child but make sure they are socializing with other kids in other ways — daily sports and clubs and extracurricular classes. Even then, if you think of “contact hours” for a language or sport practice and apply that to social skills practice, a homeschooled child is getting 1-2 hours a day while an in-person schooled child is getting 8. That quickly becomes a massive difference.
Maybe I’m just jealous that your son is getting opportunities that I think a lot of young children would die for, but please keep the above in mind. This past 1.5 year had shown that kids need to interact with one another in person. Learning from people older and younger is fantastic for expanding your world view, but kids need friends who are closer in age to really develop socially. My