The Summer We Built a Raft

My two kids, ages ten and twelve, spent the entire summer building a raft out of old pallets, plastic barrels and rope. They watched videos. They drew plans. They argued constantly.

My husband and I were nervous. We told them it would never float. They took that as a challenge.

In August, they dragged it down to the pond behind our house. The whole neighborhood came to watch. They pushed it into the water, climbed on and it floated. It wobbled and listed toward the cattails, but it floated.

They paddled it around the pond for an hour, shrieking with joy. Then they invited the neighborhood kids aboard, two at a time. By the end of the day, every kid on the street had ridden on the raft. They've named it "The Unsinkable." It's still sitting by the pond, waiting for next summer.