6 Ways To Inspire The Imagination With Fort Building
Posted April 2, 2023 by Fort Magic
Our children are born with strong imaginations and an instinct to be creative. As they grow older, however, they are exposed to more structured and standardized ways of living and tend to lose a little of that creativity and imagination. So, how can we as parents encourage our kids to think outside the box? To dig into their imagination and creative side? We have compiled a list of ways to bring the magic of forts and fort building into your home to spark the imaginative juices once again in your children.
A Fort Magic fort building kit has everything you need to start the building process and get your kids off the couch, away from the television, and working together while having fun.
1 . Step Outside Their Comfort Zone
Encourage your children to step outside of their comfort zone with imaginative fort building. You never know what might appeal to them! You can do this with a stage fort. Simply arrange your fort building kit into the shape of a backdrop, add a dark-colored sheet to stand in front of, and let your kids put on a show.
Will you have a dancer, a singer, or a magician? The possibilities are endless on what they can perform for you and the rest of the family. If you want to perform a how as a family, you can bring in neighbors and let them watch as you choreograph a show for the family.
What about a puppet show? This is something your kids can work together on writing and making come to life. With some old socks and a box of mismatched craft supplies, they are well on their way to creating some puppets that they can use on their fort stage.
2. Encourage Questions
Challenge your kids by pulling out the Fort Magic building kit and have them build a design that you think will be hard depending on their age and skill levels. One of my favorites is the ship. Oh, the fun they can have playing pirates after they get the ship built!
Once you have a design picked out, start the building process. Remember to pick a harder design so you can encourage your kids to ask questions and they can ask for help. How will they decorate their ship? Can they build the ship alone or will they need friends? As they are building, ask them questions about the process so they in turn will ask you more questions. Make it a fun game about who can ask the most questions.
Of course, once they are done building, you can encourage them to play and explore their imaginative fort even more. If they decided on a ship and pirates, it’s always fun to make eye patches and have someone walk the plank.
3. Problem-Solving Skills
Encouraging their problem-solving skills can come again with picking a fort they may not be comfortable with building. Have them design a fort on paper that they want to build and may have never tried to build. Encourage them to think about what they will use for covers for this imaginative fort building, and how they will build their creation.
Once they have a sketch planned out, it is time to put on some bigger thinking caps and bring that design to life using the fort building kit. Have them use the pieces to construct the fort they have in their picture. This may take some help from you or another adult. They will have to use their problem-solving skills to figure out what pieces need to go where and what will not work.
Once they have it constructed, it’s time to find covers that will work for their fort. Try throwing them off by adding in a few pieces you know will not work and see what they choose. Encourage them along the way and have fun.
4. Dedicate a Space for Forts
With growing families, it is not always easy to give up a little space for the kids to play. Having a dedicated area for your kids to get creative and build is a great way to encourage them. This can be a corner in the living room or in their room. Maybe you have a playroom that you can dedicate to it. Whatever extra space you have will work for their imaginative fort building.
In this space, you will want to have your fort building kit as well as a basket of old sheets, blankets, curtains, scarves, and anything they can use for covers. Throw in some paper and a pencil in case they want to sketch out some ideas. Also, a string of lights to add to the inside of the fort and some pillows to make it comfortable.
With dedicated space, kids are able to get creative whenever they want and don’t feel the need to always ask if they can be.
5. Schedule Creativity Time
This may sound crazy, but if you have a child who doesn’t always like to use their imagination and think outside the box, make time for it. You can start out small with 15 minutes every other day and build up the time. Pretty soon they will be looking forward to the time they can spend making things up.
During this time, you can encourage them to draw things they want to build with their kit. Encourage them to think of ways they can dress up to play with their forts. Help them think of ways to decorate the inside of the fort. Giving them free rein to think of what they want also will help them make decisions for themselves later in life.
6. Let Them Make Mistakes
As children grow and get older, they will make mistakes whether that’s at school, at home, in relationships, and even in fort building. Let them know it is okay to make a mistake. Teach them how to overcome mistakes.
With imaginative fort building, this can be as simple as them putting the wrong two pieces together and seeing they will not work. Encourage them to find two more pieces to try. They may be trying to use a cover that will not work, so let them try to pick a different material to use as a cover.
The value of your kid’s creativity and imagination is priceless. Show them this by being creative yourself and having fun with them while you still can. Fort Magic’s fort building kits are a great way to encourage imagination, creativity, and fun family time.
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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.
Kids Activities Blog: A tremendous resource on all things kids-activities-based, you can explore hundreds of ideas for learning and playtime for children and families ages toddler – teens.
Play At Home Mom Blog: This super-amazing blog is definitely one of our favorites. Loaded with fun ideas for DIY playtime, with an always-present educational spin.
Babble Dabble Do Blog: One of our absolute favorite blogs for learning, art, and hands-on education. The Babble Dabble Do blog will inspire hours of creativity and awesomely educational playtime in your home. A must-see blog for sure.
Twined: Twined is a blog that helps you to easily discover unbiased product reviews and recommendations from the people you can actually trust.
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.
