• Stimulating Invention & Creativity
• Increasing Fine & Gross Motor Skills
• Building Language Skills & Group Cooperation
• Increasing The Ability To Plan & Finish A Project With Joy
• Enhancing A Love of Learning, Curiosity & Exploration
• Increasing Spatial Intelligence & Focus
• Promoting Multi-Sensory Learning
• Increasing Critical Thinking & Problem Solving Skills
• Builds Self-Confidence Through Positive Achievement
• Promotes STEM/STEAM Skill Development
• The Creation of Historical Architecture
• The Demonstration of Mathematical Concepts
• The Creation of Children’s Literature Scenes or The Staging Of Plays
• The Unending Exploration of Scientific Principles & Experiments
• Or … Just Fun, Creative Building & Play!

“As a former high school science teacher and home school mom one of the big ideas I work on is “inquiry learning”.  I am always amazed at what I hear children saying when they are putting together Fort Magic … “How do you think …?”  and “What if we put …?”… and COOPERATIVE building.  They have a blast trying to figure it all out!  Fort Magic is a great product that inspires creativity, critical thinking, inquiry and FUN!”

~ Abigail Bihary, Teacher in Ohio

“As a teacher, I think Fort Magic is wonderful for children because it allows them to be creative, problem solve and use their imagination.  Seeing kids follow instructions step-by-step to build a pirate ship or castle, and then watching others following their own design to build something unique, is so much fun for me as an educator.  The fact that it can clean up easily and become a whole new design the next day is a real plus!”

~ Corry Tyle, Teacher in Florida

“After almost 30 years as a professional educator I have been exposed to a variety of creative and imaginative activities and concepts for children.  Fort Magic is a wonderful toy, easy to assemble and promotes inventive play that is essential for a child’s best brain development.  Research tells us that the first ten years of life need hands on activities, and Fort Magic is exactly the toy for this, while providing fun!”

~ Kim Montgomery, Professional Educator, M.A.T., Florida

Fort Magic fort building kit belongs to a very important category of creative play toys for children called “Physical Toys”. This category includes toys that encourage invention and promote cognitive and creative development through repetitive use. It is the repetitive interaction with physical, educational toys that literally helps to ‘build’ your child’s best brain.

Dr. Cortney V. Martin, PhD, writes “Physical toys offer a number of advantages over computer-based toys for children including: Being Socially Interactive, Multisensory, Exploratory, Developing Perceptual Skills, Increased Motor Skill Development, And Encouraging Critical Thinking And Problem Solving. There is a growing body of evidence that physical building toys also contribute to spatial ability, and in turn, science and math aptitude.”

Sean Brotherson, Family Science Specialist, writes, “Early experience and interaction with the environment are the most critical in a child’s brain development (not genetics). Until the age of 11, a child’s brain is superdense and has about twice as many neurological connections as an adult’s. Around the age of 11 a type of ‘pruning’ begins and gradually the child’s brain begins to eliminate the extra connections.”

“The neurons in a child’s brain are formed and strengthened through repeated experiences, the connections and pathways that are built actually structure the way a child learns. If a pathway is not used, it’s eventually eliminated based on the “use it or lose it” principle. If it is used repeatedly is becomes permanent. If you do them a single time, either good or bad, they are less likely to have an effect on brain development.”

Positive and loving interaction with loved ones, and a daily investment in quality learning activities, such as playing with educational construction toys, are just a few of the critical experiences that can have a huge impact on your child’s first ten years of life. These types of repetitive activities will create a strong neurological foundation in your child’s brain. It is literally the one chance we have at developing our child’s best brain for life.

“Mistakes are not just golden opportunities for learning;
they are, in an important sense, the only opportunity for learning something truly new.”
~ Daniel C. Dennett, Tufts University Professor

A wonderful benefit of building and creating with Fort Magic is the permission children are given to be exploratory, personally unique and sometimes even “wrong”. These types of perspectives and challenges present wonderful learning opportunities.

When a child is building a design from their own invention they have a chance to test for themselves what may work best, what they like to build, or in what direction they would like to build next. They will think inventively about which type of stick they may like to add, a curved one or straight one? A long one or short one? Or what type of connector they would like to choose next.

This is curiosity and learning mixed with play, which is education at its best for kids.

If a parent refrains from suggesting too much when the child is building, or criticizing the child when they choose options differently than what a parent may think correct, but instead observes patiently how well the child is focusing, or compliments the child on their inventive solutions, unusual designs, or encourages the child to keep exploring and trying new ideas when at first they can’t find a solution … then the fertile ground for raising confidence and self-esteem is set.  Mistakes make us stronger when they are pathways to success.

Eventually, children will find the solutions they are looking for and build something wonderfully inventive they are thrilled to have created!  This moment … when they have overcome their obstacle, or finished their new amazing design, when their face lights up with joy from accomplishing something creatively their own, this is the moment they learn mistakes are not scary failures, but simply stepping stones towards their personal enjoyment and success.