Create a fun escape from the ordinary
Life under quarantine can get pretty nutty, especially if you’ve got one or more little ones in the house. It’s one thing to be bored and stir-crazy as an adult, but bored children are a danger to the sanity of everybody! If your kids are tired of hanging out in the same old places around the house, it might be time to build some new ones. A backyard fort is the perfect activity to keep your children entertained and occupied for hours or even days. Here are some ideas for getting started.
1. Collect Your Materials
Any backyard fort requires three basic types of materials: Those to be used as partitions, such as walls or roofing, supporting structures such as trees or posts, and fasteners to hold everything together. Good materials for partitions are flat, lightweight fabrics. Blankets, sheets, and tarps are great for this purpose. You might even be able to repurpose your outdoor hammock or Adventure Sheet! Every yard is different, and you’ll have to work with the supporting structures that you have available. For fasteners gather up an assortment of clothes pins, bungee cords, binder clips, twist ties, rope or twine, and anything else that might be used to hold things together.
2. Building The Fort
Improvisation is the key to successful fort building. There is no rule book, but also don’t be surprised if you have to go back to the beginning and start over. One important consideration for an outdoor shelter is that it must be able to withstand the elements to a certain extent. We’re not saying it needs to be as solid as our Air Bivy All Weather Hammock Shelter, but if you plan on keeping it for more than a day, you’ll want to make sure it’s stable enough to survive occasional gusts of wind. Using a waterproof tarp for the roof is a must if there’s rain in the forecast.
3. Get The Kids Involved!
Unless you’re just building a fort for your own enjoyment (and no judgement from us if that’s the case!), you’re probably doing this to keep the kids distracted so that you can have some time to yourself. To that end, make sure you’re giving them the freedom to build what they want, while providing guidance to help them build something that will be able to stand on its own. Once they begin to develop their own fort-building creative skills, the possibilities are endless, which means they’ll be able to spend hours in the backyard building and playing in their newfound home-not-so-far-away-from-home.
Send us your pictures!
We hope this guide has given you some ideas to start building your own backyard fort, either for yourself or your family. We’d love to see what you (or your kids) come up with, especially if you’re incorporating Grand Trunk outdoor gear somehow. Send us pictures of your creations and we’ll feature them here or on our Instagram page @grandtrunkgoods!
