taking the coddle from my kids

We took our kids swimming in a nearby lake last week. It was the first time that they had tried swimming in anything but a swimming pool. At first, my daughter totally freaked out. She was climbing down the ladder from the dock, and her feet were slipping on algae. I had to explain to her that algae is nothing to be afraid of. You'd think she would have already known this, seeing as she has a fish tank at home that has had algae in it. But I guess stepping foot into dark green lake waters for the first time can be a little intimidating. Admittedly, I didn't exactly dive in head first, either. It had been about twenty years since I had gone swimming in a lake. But once we are all in, it was difficult to get them to leave, as expected.

I think it is good for our kids to get their dose of raw nature now and then. Otherwise, we run the risk of overprotecting them, and having them mature into scaredy-cats. Plus, one of the primary reasons we moved to the Ozarks in the first place was the fact that it doesn't resemble the perfectly manicured lawns of suburbia in any way. And I don't regret it (except when we get tick bites - I hate it when that happens.)

Next up on our list of places to swim is an area near Eureka Springs called Hogscald. It is a magical place, and there are a great many waterfalls and other natural water features that are in rare form right now, thanks to all of the rain that we have been seeing.