Engineering Fort Ideas
Posted September 27, 2018 by Fort Magic
Kids all over the world build forts. Regardless of their culture, all kids love having a place of their own. Whether it’s a treehouse, a snow fort, a playhouse, branches stacked up, or a spot in a crawlspace, kids love having that special, private place where their imaginations can make it anything they want it to be.
Building forts is a part of normal, healthy child development. In former years it has happened naturally and organically as kids played outside and had the opportunity to look for that place of their own. Today kids spend more time supervised and in organized daycare, playing electronic games and in front of the television. As parents, we need to find a way to give our children a way to experience the same wonderful moments we had in those forts, in a safe, healthy manner.
When kids build forts you see inspiration and passion in their new world. Whether your own fort was as simple as a blanket thrown over a table it’s easy to remember the delight we ourselves experienced. The complexity of your child’s fort will grow with them and change as they grow, develop and mature. Few things can get them more excited and spark their imagination more than building their own fort.
Forts are a way for you develop and work on your relationship with them. As your child develops and matures forts can become more complex and have more complicated designs. Their imagination is the only limit to their creation. Designing, planning, and executing the fort can be a springboard to conversations, giving your child the opportunity to think about how they approach problems in life and possibilities of their future as well.
Open the door to a fort and feel the rush of joy, excitement and endless possibilities. A world where all things are possible. A world of endless friends, animals, and potential, limited only by their imagination.
Forts become opportunities for siblings and friends to become team members working through problems. Collaborating on a common goal they can learn from each other, help each other, and how to overcome problems and obstacles.
Forts grow with your children, developing from those early era sofa cushions in the corner to helping your child learn STEM principles. Using sticks, curves and connector pieces they find building solutions by exploring engineering concepts in a fun, hands-on way.
Trial and error help them to explore problems and learn what is effective.
Working through the problems that arise children learn teamwork, how to brainstorm solutions, execute their ideas, and when there is a difference of opinion on how to resolve them. problems in a way that keeps everyone engaged in the project.
As your child creates their special fort they also have the opportunity to take on various roles, and become different people in different time periods. What was it like to be someone living in medieval or pioneer times or even on another planet? Suddenly your child has their own time and space portal that will take them any time, any place, anywhere they want to go.
Our Fort Magic construction kits will give your child the framework to start their own fort. Our kits use pieces easy for you and your child to assemble and create a fort that will spark their creativity and imaginations. At one time a child laid on a blanket outside looking at the moon and dreamed of being an astronaut that would one day walk on it.
Who knows where your child’s fort for may take them? Give them that opportunity and see where it takes them.
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Photo Credits:
TinkerLab Blog: One of our favorite engineering blogs for children is TinkerLab. Have you ever visited the site? If not, you’ll definitely want to browse sometime soon. You will find loads of fun and inventive ideas for encouraging all things hands-on and engineering for kids. TinkerLab has fantastic Tinker Lab YouTube videos too!
Rave & Review Blog: The fun Rave & Review blog is where you’ll find loads of sharing on your favorite products for parents and grandparents all the way to newborns.
Twodaloo Blog: At the awesome Twodaloo blog you will find activities and information about early childhood development that you can use at home, in the classroom, or in the therapy setting.
