Build Your Own Spaceship, Space Station & Rocket Fort
Posted November 18, 2019 by Fort Magic
Fort building is a fantastic way to teach your learners about outer space with rocket ships, space stations, or whatever else your imagination can think up! A Fort Magic building kit can also help your kids meet their full potential and encourage brain development. Here are some of our out-of-this-world ideas to get your kids excited about space.
How Building Affects Brain Development
Did you know that experiences in early childhood can affect your child’s brain development for the rest of their life? Your child’s brain goes through different critical periods in its development. This means that at certain ages, certain connections in the brain are either being eliminated or strengthened. Fort building can have a significant impact on their brain development at all stages.
Fort Building Increases Myelination
Building things increases myelination in your child’s brain. Myelination is the process of coating the fiber of each neuron with a fatty substance. This substance is called myelin and it’s responsible for protecting the neuron and helping it to transmit signals.
This process begins before birth but it isn’t complete until your after adolescence. Your child is also born with the same amount of neurons that they’ll have as an adult. However, the brain goes through a process called synaptic pruning in which unused neurons and connections are eliminated. Building forts encourages and strengthens these connections (myelination) that might otherwise be eliminated from neglect.
Importance of Myelination
Before birth, brain development is mostly a result of genetic factors. However, after your child is born, this process is greatly influenced by the outside world. Myelination in the areas of the brain responsible for sensory and motor areas take place mostly during the preschool years.
More complex development in the brain happens after preschool through early adulthood. Myelination is a vital part of a healthy functioning of your nervous system and is responsible for transmitting information quickly and efficiently.
Building Myelination with a Star Wars with Fort
Now let’s have some fun myelinating with Fort Magic! How about using your Fort Magic kit to build some intergalactic designs from a galaxy far, far away? Fort building is an awesome and exciting way to get your Star Wars loving kiddos even more excited for the new film (and more importantly increasing their myelination through all of the fort building activity!) If you’re planning some Star Wars surprises for your family this Christmas, such as a trip to Star Wars Land or to see the new movie, then we have some fun ideas for you!
1. Build A Spaceship Fort
After you get done getting caught up on all the Star Wars movies, you can have your child sketch out their favorite spaceship from the movies. Next, see if they can build it with a fort building kit. You can even line the inside with lights and buttons to make it more real.
If they are having a tough time, you can guide them in their choice to make sure they’re picking one that is easier to build. The TIE Fighters and X-wings are probably the easiest to recreate into a fort.
2. Host A Star Wars Movie Marathon
If you’re planning to see the new Star Wars movie this holiday season then you can plan an entire day around it. Build a fort that is big enough to hold your entire family. You can either leave one end of it open if you have a projector or make sure you build it around your tv.
Fill your fort with comfy pillows, blankets, and anything else your family will need before you settle down for your movie marathon. You can make it more fun by setting up a table outside filled with snacks for the movie. If anyone has a Star Wars costume, encourage them to wear it during your movie marathon.
3. Learn About Space
You can also use this as an opportunity to teach your kids about outer space. You can build a rocket ship to blast off into space and see what the galaxy looks like. Or, you can build a space station fort to have them learn about what life is like for an astronaut in space.
You can also make it more fun by having some space food on hand for a snack. One of our favorite ideas is to enjoy star gazing in your fort. You can do this by covering your fort with a thick material and then using a piece of cardboard for the roof. Next, poke holes in the cardboard and pop one light from a strand of lights through each hole. When it gets dark outside, you can turn off all the lights and crawl into your fort with your kids to enjoy the stars!
Photo Credits:
Fort Magic Customer Photos via Facebook: Visit our Fort Magic Facebook page to see our customer creativity shine with fun pics and videos of families enjoying their Fort Magic kit during playtime.
Fort Magic Customer Photos via Instagram: Visit our Fort Magic Instagram page to see our customer creativity shine with fun pics and videos of families enjoying their Fort Magic kit during playtime.
