I've seen the results of this a lot And it's not pretty. I have had many kids who can recognize letters early etc. but have no idea what the letter means if that makes sense. Its like if I decided to be a doctor but never went to school and instead was just an intern for a few years. I could probably learn the lingo and convince people to trust me, I could probably even treat patients successfully but there would be huge gaps in my knowledge and eventually they would become apparent. These children are being pushed too hard, too soon and major things are being skipped, children are also more stressed.
Children naturally progress in the early years and it's really apparent when you compare their work. I have a 1 1/2 year old, 2 1/2 year old, 3 1/2 year old, 4 1/2 year old and 5 1/2 year old in my daycare. They drew self portraits last week. The 1 1/2 year old scribbled, the 2 1/2 year old scribbled but was able to draw a circle, the 3 1/2 year old drew a person but forgot hands, feet, body and the face was a jumble of lines, the 4 1/2 year old drew a head, body, legs and arms but no feet or hands and the face wasn't perfectly recognizable, the 5 1/2 year old drew an entire person with hair and colored it in. I don't have a 6 1/2 year old but pictures my daughter drew at that age show that she added clothing and at 7 1/2 she now adds a lot of detail. To get this progression they just have to have the opportunity to color, the opportunity to develop fine motor skills and the opportunity to observe and play. When you skip coloring for teaching A,B,C's you do children a huge disservice.

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