Okay, I’m going to be brutally honest here. Charlotte didn’t have preschoolers around. Remember, kids came to her or her teachers after they had reached 6 or 7 years old (can’t remember which). So she NEVER had to balance teaching with the preschool set’s needs at the same time. Is she speaking of an ideal? Yes. Is it realistic for all families with multiple children? Maybe not. And that’s ok!
So here is my situation for an example. I have 8 children and am supposed to have #9 tomorrow. Their ages are 14, 11, 9, 8, 6, 4, 3, 2. When baby arrives I’ll have 4 age 4 and under again. We DO attempt to include all the things Charlotte advocated in the quote you shared – but we don’t have nearly the amount of outdoor time that she advocated. It just isn’t going to happen where we live. However, my younger ones thrive in the middle of family and homeschool life. They play, explore, learn, snuggle, and we work on habits because having all of us together all the time means we get lots of opportunities to practice. The thing my preschoolers have had to learn is to play respectfully -meaning respectful of their older siblings need for some semblance of quiet or at least not really loud noise going on. The older ones, at the same time, are immersed in a real life situation that comes with interruptions like any real-world job will. They learn to work with some small distractions, that relationships are important and sometimes more important than academics, and they keep a portion of their childhood for longer than peers because they still have the fun of playing ‘little kid games and ways’ with their younger siblings.