Children enjoy making a fort. They love building them, and they love holding up a mess of treats in them. If you’re looking for summer or holiday fun for kids in the great outdoors that will keep them occupied for hours, bring them out to build a fort.
Before letting them make a fort, you can teach them the basics of how to do it. By this, they will have an idea of creating it by themselves.
HOW TO MAKE A FORT: THE BASICS
If you build a cardboard box fort, the Four F’s must be considered:Frame, fabric, fasteners, and floor.
The Fort Frame
The fort’s structure is what the cloth with the fasteners would be stretched over or tied to.
- A rope that is tied between two or more trees or chairs.
- Bamboo poles leaned against the house or fence.
- Bamboo poles are tied into the frame of a teepee.
The Fort Fabrics
Go to the thrift shop, where you can buy a pile of sheets, curtains, and other big pieces of cloth if you’d like not to use your own blankets and mattresses. With wide canvas drop cloths, you can also make a fort. Try some tarps or plastic drop cloths or table cloths for a portable fort that can keep your kids outside playing while it’s raining.
The Fort Fasteners
You ought to be able to fasten the fabric to the frame to create a fort. Depending on what kind of strength your children are creating, a mixture of fasteners would probably be needed. Outstanding fasteners include:
- Binder clips.
- Rubber bands.
- Safety pins.
- Clothespins.
- Duct tape.
- Rope, twine, or string.
The kids would need to stake down the canvas, depending on the fort. In that case, at the nearest hardware store, you can buy some U-shaped fabric stakes, or you can make your own durable wire.
The Fort Floor
Give the kids your old rugs or moveable blankets to make a warm and cozy fort, or keep an eye out at the thrift shop for these. For a soft, cozy surface, put them on the ground. To populate the fort, too, check for large floor cushions or beanbags.
IDEAS FOR BACKYARD FORT
There are many options for building a backyard fort. Below are the four ideas you and your children can use:
Simple Tent Fort
A rope strung between two structures is all that you need for a basic tent fort. Over the rope, drape a large piece of fabric or fasten two pieces of fabric with clothespins or clips to it. Stake the ends down, and you will have a quick procedure of making a simple tent fort.
Table Fort
Your kids can build a fort if you have a patio table by draping fabric over it and making it a comfortable, soft floor with blankets or rugs. A folding table can be found, too.
You can lash bamboo poles to the legs if the table is very sturdy so that they reach a few feet over the tabletop. At the top of the poles, tie a long piece of rope, twine, string around the circumference, fasten cloth to it or drape it over the top.
Cardboard Box Fort
In order to make a cardboard castle and tunnels, a cardboard box fort can be as easy as throwing a single refrigerator box back out, or it can be as complex as linking boxes and boxes and more boxes together. However, if you want to cardboard box fort kit, which is easy and fast to install, Make-A-Fort fort kits can let you create a wide variety of forts such as a maze, tunnels, castle, and more!
This is something like a mansion in a wooden box. Building this with your children which could feasibly keep keep them occupied all summer long.
Bamboo Pole Fort
Bamboo poles are solid and robust, and for forts, they make excellent frames. Thin poles-think garden stakes are just the right height for clothespins, allowing the fabric to attach to the bamboo pole easily. You can lean the poles against the fence or the tower, or you can turn them into your fort’s teepee.
Keep the six bamboo poles together to build a teepee fort. Wrap about four inches from one end with three or four wide, tight rubber bands around them. Stand up and stretch the legs, so they’re about perfect, and tie the cloth together.
MAKE-A-FORT FORT KIT
For smart, creative fort design, this Make-A-Fort fort kits is a high-quality kit that can be assembled into different fort designs. If you wish to DIY or purchase a fort-building kit, it is a time to send the children outside to make a fort, and it will keep the kids occupied and involved in imaginative play for hours. What’s not to love about designing a fort? Start building today!