Fort building is one of our go-to activities for just about anything. A blanket fort fixes everything. Now, my three year old has his own very specific ideas about life fort building.
This is his story, and if you have your own threenager, these very practical guidelines to epic blanket fort building might just save your life one day!
A 3 Year Old’s Guide to Epic Blanket Fort Building
1. Use a table or couch as a starting point for your blanket fort and perhaps add chairs. This tent needs to be big enough to fit my mommy, all of my friends, an animal or two, food to last us a week and just a few of my favourite toys.
2. Throw heaps and heaps of blankets, sheets, scarves and play silks on top of each other. I like layers.
3. I like it when you use see through materials, that means I can see you when I’m inside but you can’t see me. I find that crazy exciting.
4. Make at least two doors, I like to have options and I like to surprise people or sneak up on them.
5. Also, leave a little hole for me to put my head through, so I can check up on you.
6. My blanket fort needs an outpost, for ‘my people’ to stand guard or where visitors can wait before being let in. My castle, my rules.
7. There’s a password, something like monkey butt which makes me giggle uncontrollably.
8. I haven’t yet decided if my sibling are allowed to enter and I can change my mind at any minute. So can they.
9. I want pillows and blankets in there, lots of them so I can pretend to nap and snore. Just don’t hold your breath that I actually will!
10. Please give me a flashlight because I just love to shine at nothing in particular in the semi dark.
11. Be on stand by, I WILL need you to come and visit my blanket fort. Multiple times.
12. When you do, bring some snacks please, preferably my favourites. Bring some for yourself too.
13. Keep pegs and so on handy, in my enthusiasm I might keep pulling things down and break the fort. You’ll have to rebuild it asap.
14. Do bring me my favourite toys if you have a minute. I might even play with them in my fort for hours.
15. When I’m getting a bit tired, I’d like it if you read me a book in my fort. I love snuggling with you in tight and dark spaces, it’s very cosy.
16. Whatever you do, don’t break the blanket fort down until I give you the ok, I might not handle it well in fact, I might not be able to handle it at all. If that means we can’t use the couch for the time being, so be it.
17. Now let’s do this again tomorrow.
The fort. From the couch to two chairs and on to the little table against the wall. Nice and spacious with plenty of sheets to make it dark!
The South entrance and snack station. The light blue play silk serves as a door.
An invitation to play inside the fort! Dinosaurs, doggy and favourite book ready to read.
Cuddles with mommy. Note that I am 40 weeks pregnant at the time. Once I got in that fort, there was no moving me! True story: someone was at the (glass sliding) door and had to wait and watch for 5 minutes and I semi shuffled and rolled myself out of there. Not my most elegant first impression lol!
North entrance and dinosaurs playing on the roof.
Snack station, local grocery shop and mandatory tea party.
The waiting room. You get a number and wait to be called in. That really happened ..
Play Matters
Open ended play is so incredibly important for a child’s development and in these modern times it seems to be getting harder and harder for children to just play. Simple activities like building a blanket fort can give your child the opportunity to get there creativity and imagination going. At times it can take a bit of time and effort on your behalf, especially when you are having quite the day yourself. But it’s so worth it when you listen in to those make belief conversations and brace yourself for the most unlikely requests. Playing is all about being in the moment and having fun, things both adults and children need more of!
If you’re looking for more easy play ideas, you’re at the right place. I’ve written a couple of very popular, sweet and simple articles about small world play, loose parts and encouraging creativity that are filled to the brim with easy to digest information and hands on tips to get started straight away.
You can click through and read them here:
Beginner’s Guide to Small World Play
Theory of Loose Parts and Playing with Loose Parts at Home
18 Activities that Encourage Creative Play
Enjoy!
Ann*
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