Teaching Love And Kindness With Indoor Forts for Kids

Posted October 5, 2016 by Fort Magic

Love and kindness. From the moment we hold our children in our arms we pour as much love as we can into them. As they grow, we teach them to love and be kind to others. It is a parent’s hope that these lessons would permanently sink into the hearts and souls of our children, and serve them well into adulthood. Fort Magic fort building kits can help work to this very important end. The act of building and inventing together moves children to practice respect, kindness, patience and love for others. There is no better teacher than hands-on experience, and indoor forts are quite a fun teacher from which they can learn.

Planning and constructing a fort design as a group builds interaction and communication skills. Bringing the ideas of many into one cohesive design requires children to listen and consider the opinions of one another. Mixing and molding ideas together takes kindness and respect to bring about the best creation. Hands-on tasks also ask children to work together in a spirit of harmony. While team work promotes invention and cooperation while building.  Constructing a new or unusual fort design might take more than one set of hands to stabilize its beginning stages. Or, perhaps parts of the design that were created separately need to be brought together to realize the vision. In both cases, navigating the work within a group proves beneficial to children to the foundation of creating love and understanding of others within our children.

With fort building, plenty of interesting and inspiring challenges arise. In fact, problem-solving remains one of the most critical and beneficial skills learned as the result of engineering a Fort Magic design!  When newly invented designs reveal flaws or necessity of reinvention, coming to the best solution requires working through new challenges and listening to the ideas of others. Interpersonal issues might arise which need resolving along the way.  Words best left unsaid are likely expressed, feelings could become hurt, but learning to negotiate these types of interactions thoughtfully and with consideration for others proves vital for children in handling future relationships. As parents, be cautious to jump in too quickly. Experiencing success in problem-solving, especially when it is with a good friend or beloved sibling, builds confidence and self-esteem.

Planning and creating fort designs brings a load of fun and unique ideas to the table. Each child offers a different perspective through collaboration which can produce a whole greater than the some of its parts. Learning to express personal ideas is essential for a child’s healthy intellectual development and self-esteem.  While learning to hear and accept differing point of views benefits the heart of the group. As children work together on a new fort design, they will see the contribution that each friend makes to the fort as being very special and memorable along the way. Kids may not consciously know the lingo, but they can demonstrate a respect for the healthy self-expression of others each time another child’s ideas are heard or used. Furthermore, learning to speak kindly to one another, whether an idea is used or not, allows others to feel respected, supported and seen. As well as the tone taken as children express themselves or negotiate conflict is also important to the outcome of their playtime together. Working with pleasant and patient tones is vital to building a foundation of respect and collaboration when working with others.

So, let’s list some practical tips and ideas for teaching the vital characteristics of love and kindness through indoor fort building.

— Make the construction area a kindness zone. No harsh or ugly words allowed.

— Encourage children to resolve their issues gently with one another.

— Talk about the ways in which each feels loved and heard while collaborating.

— Use imaginative fort play to teach loving gestures and kind social graces.

— Decorate a fort by adding hearts with the names and actions of kind people you meet each day.

— Create a love fort that offers a refuge from bad days or when harsh words are spoken.

— Promise only to talk kindly while inside the fort.

— Build a kindness fort together as a family, and celebrate how wonderful love and kindness is in our lives.

— Fill a fort with names and photos of people you love and who love you.  Remembering the moments when others were particularly loving and kind.

— Use fort scenarios to role-play love and kindness whether it’s with a princess, a waitress, or a spacemen with new alien friends.

— Create an art fort or post office fort where love and kindness notes are written and created for those whom you love. Be sure to deliver them in real life when you are finished playing!

As we build all of these wonderful loving ideas into our parenting repertoire, we must also model, model, model our own loving, supportive and patient ways. Our kind words and loving deeds toward our children and others significantly impact the learning of our children through observation and imitation. Like sponges, our young ones soak up what they see in us, admire to be like us and mimic our daily behaviors. When we take time to express our own loving words and acts of kindness to our children they learn through modeling the right ways to live.

These qualities will benefit our children and the world around them for their entire lifetime. In fact, research indicates greater personal happiness, success and health for those who express kindness freely and abundantly in their daily lives. Offering our children plentiful opportunities to practice and demonstrate love and kindness through fort building and other creative activities will strengthen their compassion muscles to their fullest potential!

So the next you’re planning a Saturday night in, remember your Fort Magic kit!  Tell your children you love them and would love to have an amazing fort building evening-in together!  Add some sheets, festive holiday lights and let the fun begin!  They’ll be delighted and excited to be “learning” all of the ways to express kindness and love while building with you, all while creating family memories to last a lifetime – building a wonderful, loving fort.

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