Blanket forts are a staple of every childhood. There is a wonderful magic to them, because those silly living room forts can really be anything.
I was definitely the dorky kid that enjoyed blanket forts for way too long. Even as a teenager my friends and I would make them together, rigging up lighting and even decorating them. Part of me wishes I was kidding… but this is truly the type of thing teenager me did for fun.
Now, watching my kids get excited about building a fort in the living room is one of the most fun things as a mom. I love watching them play and imagine together, and helping them use their building skills to make something fun is perfection.
This week, we partnered with Toydle to upgrade our blanket fort making game. We ended up with a two story fort that even my husband and I can stand up in and LOTS of fun building it with the kids.
Toydle sent us one of their colossal fort kits. It comes with sticks and blocks so you can build your own forts. My son was VERY excited to see that it included no instructions. He’s the type of kid that wants to make his own instructions and build with his own plans, not follow some one else’s. You can get help designing your fort their website though if you need ideas.
We laid out all the pieces and started planning what we wanted to make first. We already have plans for a second fort too, we’ve been having so much fun with it!
We started with a basic house shape. I realized this would be an easy way to keep one set up in each of the kid’s rooms. They could have a small house each to sit in, or read in. Then, when we wanted to build a HUGE fort in the living room, we’d use the pieces from both and all the extra pieces to make something enormous!
My son quickly took control of the situation. He started telling every one how to build and communicating his vision to us. It was neat to watch his creativity at work.
I was really impressed with how easy to use it all is. The 4 year old was able to help connect sticks and blocks on her own, which I had been nervous about. She’s feisty and independent and would have been mad if she needed help. It was very simple to get the pieces together, but we haven’t had any issues with them popping out of place, so that removes a huge frustration that we have had with our “normal” fort making methods.
I loved how much of a family activity this was. Usually one of the kids feels left out or frustrated, but they both had a lot of fun building together with daddy!
When it came to the taller parts of our blanket castle, daddy had to take charge, but the kids had fun handing him the tools he needed and tell him where they wanted pieces to go.
The last step is to attach blankets with clips that were sent with the set. I was amazed at how everything stayed in place. We’ve yet to have one fall!
We used all of the kid’s favorite blankets and sheets. Each child claimed their own “room” of the fort and made sure their own blanket was on display in that area.
They were so excited to play in it, they had trouble picking what game would go first!
After playing for awhile they both agreed that they wanted to watch a movie in their fort and snack on popcorn. I’d call that an afternoon well spent!
My son asked if e could do a little review video about it, so you can hear his thoughts below.
This would make an amazing gift this year! Definitely get it on the Christmas list for your kids of any age! Get your Toydle fort here.
Leave a Reply