My son built his first fort in my living room when he was around 3 or 4 years old. I thought it was cute and even gave him more pillows and a blanket to finish the build. When he finished playing for the day I quickly cleaned everything back up again, but wouldn’t you know he continued to build it at random times over and over again. We eventually bought him his own premade indoor play tent, but he continued to build his own outside of having one.
Building forts was new to me. Even as a teacher I never really knew the importance of building them or having one.
Here we are years later and I contentedly watched my daughter gather pillows, a basket, her small table, floor mats, etc. in pursuit of building her own fort. This, however, wasn’t her first time building.
Like her brother, she was also given her own play tent to play within her room.
Seeing the determination in her building her perfect space made me curious about the importance of forts for children.
In my brief research, I discovered that there is a developmental purpose in fort building. According to David Sobel, forts are created out of a need for children to develop a “sense of self”. As a result of discovering this, it makes perfect sense for us to support children in fort building.
Sobel’s book entitled “Children’s Special Places: Exploring the Role of Forts, Dens, and Bush Houses in Middle Childhood” details the need for children to have their own spaces such as forts for instance.
In conclusion, it is helpful for kids to express themselves in creative play, and building a fort smack dab in the middle of your living room is part of the process.
As parents, we can learn to look past the mess and see the joy that our kids are having at the moment.
Did you build forts as a child? Do you encourage your children to build their own? Let me know in the comments. Thanks for reading!
