Create Art in Your Backyard Fort
Posted January 5, 2016 by Fort Magic
When you live somewhere that experiences long, cold winters, or if you’re home with your children during the summer, it’s nice to be able to send your kids outside to play – once the weather permits. Until then, spend some time reading about the holidays and enjoying the winter season before it ends. Building a backyard fort is one of the most beneficial educationally and it’s a lot of fun. Here’s how children learn, think, and create through art in their backyard fort.
Children are wired to create things, and fort building gives them a great outlet to do this. In some backyards, choosing the perfect location can take some creativity. You may not think there’s room in your backyard for a fort, but a child’s imagination can picture it almost anywhere. Whether it be in or underneath a tree, in the shelter of a shed, or right out in the open, choosing the perfect spot for a fort can be a creative process in and of itself.
Building a fort takes fine and gross motor skills. Kids will build their gross motor skills by hauling materials, and their fine motor skills will be improved by attaching small pieces. Using a Fort Magic Fort Building Kit will help with the fine motor skills as kids attach the connectors and poles.
While there are great computer programs that help children build things spatially, nothing beats building things hands-on, to learn spatial perception. Fitting things together and building something to a specific shape is best learned in the real world. Building backyard forts is a great way for kids to get the firsthand experience necessary to help their spatial perception.
Backyard forts are the most fun to build with friends or siblings, which requires cooperation. Working together will develop collaborative or team skills that will benefit children all through their lives.
Backyard forts can be a great place for kids to explore their creative side. They can create all sorts of worlds beyond the one they’re in. Check out some of the Fort Magic fort designs that can take your kids to space, on the high seas, to the racetracks, and more.
When you send your kids outside to play during the warmer months, backyard fort building is a wonderful activity to give them a way to be creative, learn some skills, and think outside the box while still enjoying the fresh air. They can even decorate the walls of the fort with their own original artwork!
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Photo Credits:
The Artful Parent Blog: One of our absolute favorite creative blogs for children and families. The Artful Parent blog is filled with simple ideas to fill your family’s life with art and creativity. A must see blog for sure.
