For young kids, spending time in the great outdoors is a key way of improving and also assisting their growth and development. One of the ways that the great outdoors can really help kids learn is teaching them how to make a fort out of sticks.
This construction and play-based activity actually uses a whole lot of different skills and this activity can also be really helpful for the growth and the development of young kids. Read here to find out just how building stick forts can help with kids and their development throughout their lives.
What Do You Need To Learn How To Make A Fort Out Of Sticks?
It is true that a fort can really be built anywhere. It does not matter if you are building your fort in a forest or on a beach. All you need to have available to you are sticks, and this is what makes for building so adaptable and so flexible.
Forts can also be built by larger groups of kids too and this is something that can be done at camp or even at school. It is true that the whole process of building a fort and also enjoying the process of doing this can really help build a sense of community and togetherness amongst peers.
But where to you learn how to make a fort out of sticks? And what skills do you need?
When it comes to building a fort you need to make sure that you are not in short supply of creativity, because this is something that will really inspire you when you are trying to work out how to construct your dream fort.
When building a fort you will need to have designing and also planning skills. There are a lot of elements that you need to take into consideration when it comes to constructing your fort.
For example, you will need to take into consideration the shape that you want to make your fort and you will also need to work out where exactly you want your fort to be.
How To Make A Fort Out Of Sticks
So, there are a few easy steps that you can follow just to make sure that your fort building is fun and also functional. After all, you are not going to want to put lots of effort into constructing a fort that ultimately is not going to be successful.
This would defeat taking up the fort building exercise in the first place.
First of all, you really need to make sure that you pick a nice spot to build your fort. When we say pick a nice spot, you really need to scout out trees that will help you with your fort building.
You are going to want to look for a couple of trees near each other that have forked parts near the base as this will help with grip.
Then, you are going to need to make sure that you have a relatively even ground area to work with. So, you can just rake the leaves and also any other kind of debris that will get in the way and that will just help you with your end product.
This is because you can use the leftover leaves to decorate your fort too.
Next, it is time to collect and then build your sticks and twigs ready to build your fort. You need to get together a whole host of sticks, twigs and also branches. These sticks should not be super thick, in fact, they really should not be thicker than two inches in their diameter.
You can just pile the sticks on so that there is some space beneath the sticks.
Now it is time for you to just pile on those leaves that you raked up earlier. It is completely up to you how you go about doing this, you can either just pile up the leaves on the outside or you might even decide to fill in your fort completely.
This is all down to personal choice and ultimately how the kids want their fort to look.
Ultimately, when it comes to fort building it is all about those construction skills. You need to take a lot of different things into account when you are building a fort – you need to think about its foundations right up to the kind of style that you are wanting your fort to be.
So now you know how to make a fort out of sticks, let’s take a look at why it’s a great choice!
The Benefits Of Making A Fort Out Of Sticks
Fort building is an activity that can be especially calming and therapeutic for kids. This can happen through the building process and this can also happen through the actual end product of the stick fort.
The building process is something which really helps develop cognitive functionality and a lot of other key skills are fine-tuned during this process.
The fort building process helps to develop problem solving skills and if this is something that is done with friends then leadership skills and also team building skills can also be developed too.
The actual part of enjoying the fort is calming and it is classed as a safe space. This really helps kids feel comfortable and this is a space that they can really make their own.
The fort can be a place where you can have a breather or where you can do different quiet time activities, or it can just be a spot where you can enjoy eating some snacks.
It is true that you do not have to have a forest in your backyard. In fact, all you really need is just some kind of play area and this is key to helping your kid and their growth and development.
In Conclusion
Overall, building a stick fort is a super fun activity that kids can really enjoy. This is a great opportunity to reduce the time that they spend in front of a screen, and they can really immerse themselves in the great outdoors.
Building a fort can also really help your kids’ growth and development because of all of the skills that are used during the fort building process.
In this article we have covered all you need to know to learn how to make a fort out of sticks. So, it doesn’t matter whether your kids want to build a castle style fort or a tee-pee, they can enjoy the freedom of building their own fort and learning through play.
My name is Joyce Bailey, and I am a mother of two wonderful children. When I had my first child five years ago, at first I struggled to know which method of parenting I wanted to adopt. Traditional parenting just did not seem right for my family.
