I thought I was supposed to treat them exactly the same. That turned out to be only half right.

When I first started thinking seriously about homeschool PE, I had a firm belief I was pretty proud of: I would treat my kids exactly the same. Same activities, same expectations, same approach. Fair is fair.

And for a while, that worked fine. Young children often don’t need much differentiation — movement is movement, play is play, and a good obstacle course will captivate almost anyone under eight regardless of anything else.

But as my kids got older, I started noticing things I couldn’t quite explain by telling myself I was imagining them. One child wanted to race. One wanted to cooperate. One pushed through discomfort without being asked. One needed the reason behind the effort before they’d give it. One responded to a challenge like it was a gift. One responded to the same challenge like it was a threat.

I didn’t want those differences to mean something. But they did.