I used to wonder this, too, until I realized that Charlotte said a child OF six, not a child BY six. Although if you look at the list, many of these things are learned naturally by young children just by living in a rich environment and not stuck in front of a screen for hours a day. Hours outdoors, enriching living books, playing…these all serve to soften the ground where seeds are planted later on. When formal instruction begins at age six, the child already has the soil tilled and is ready to sprout those seeds of living ideas.
