When it’s raining out and cold inside and your children are kicking up a fuss, and none of the ordinary tricks will calm them down, there’s one great option you should always keep in mind: building cardboard forts. Not only are cardboard boxes usually free, but there are so many creative ways you can put a cardboard fort together! Furthermore, the cool add-ons you can attach to the cardboard box fort can really help fire your child’s imagination. Playing in their fort is also sure to help keep them out of your hair for the afternoon. Here are some ideas for how to make a box fort that your kids will think is the coolest cardboard fort ever!
Cardboard Box Fort Ideas
When the usual offerings of cool toys have failed to placate your tiny tyrant, what do you do? Try these cardboard fort ideas for a fun way to keep them busy building! Young children will need adult supervision for this activity.
The cardboard fort is a long-established way of dealing with troublesome tykes, giving them an outlet for their creative urges as well as their destructive ones. Hopefully, these cool examples will give you an idea of some especially interesting things you can do with a cardboard boxes fort. Designing, building, and playing in a homemade fort will keep your kid occupied for hours.
To get going on your cardboard playhouse, you will need at least one large box, but the more the merrier! You will also need some scissors or a box cutter to be handled carefully by the adult only. Finally, you will also need some strong tape such as duct tape, masking tape or packing tape.
1. Design A DIY Cardboard Fort For Kids
Let’s face it. The adult world can be boring. Unless you’re an art teacher or a wizard, your days of unbridled imagination are most likely behind you. The harsh facts of reality tell us that most of us aren’t even art teachers or wizards, but rather insurance agents and data entry clerks and such-like. This DIY project is a great way to find your creative side again. Furthermore, you can have fun fostering your child’s creativity as well!
Kids forts can be made outside in your front yard if they want to have some neighborhood children over to help. A really big cardboard box can keep kids busy for hours! Plain cardboard can turn into anything from an elaborate castle fort to outdoor grocery store fort.
Create a totally wicked awesome cardboard fort out of boxes in the style of a children’s show! Mixing and matching styles in this way is fun, interesting for your kid, and as you can see, more than a little bit adorable.
Need box fort inspiration? How about this adorable one by by Mish Guess
2. Make Cardboard Fort Tunnels
There’s nothing that intrigues a child of a certain age more than something half-hidden. By giving your fort tons of cool tunnel secret passageways and ramps, you can make sure that your tiny builder gets their hands on some prime cardboard real estate. You can do tunnels by themselves or between houses!
The process of exploration alone should take up a good hour or so, before they’re satisfied they’ve explored every nook and cranny. The actual building and playing with the fort itself should fill their day completely, leaving them happy and contented, and all with the simplest, cheapest materials you can lay your hands on.
3. Add Fancy Features to Your Cardboard Forts For Kids
A very fun addition to your cardboard fort is the drawbridge. Using anything to hand to make a hole, and simple string to raise and lower the drawbridge, it’s such a simple idea – but it can completely transform the fort in your kid’s eyes into a much more wonderful place.
Have your kids brainstorm some fancy features for their box fort. My daughter wanted to make the box fort windows with saran wrap so they’d look real! Since she was excited about it, we rolled with the idea but I made sure to discuss how saran wrap is plastic and it can constrict airflow so we had to leave doors open all of the time. It is also a good idea to cut vent holes into the box fort.
You can make a fancy box fort roof with by drawing tiles and coloring them in. Or glue on construction paper tiles! You can also cut out castle shapes. Or go for a medieval castle look with the battlement cut outs!
Young children can even personalize the project with door signs for the fort doors.
Save Making A Fort Out Of Cardboard Boxes For A Rainy Day Activity
Building a cardboard fort is an excellent way to spend a rainy day with children. From just a few years old until their teenage years and admit it – you know you’ll have just as much fun helping them to build it! Clear a spot in the living room and challenge yourselves!
It’s great for letting their imagination run free, and the best forts encourage total interaction with bits that wobble, shake, fall down, go back up and lead to all sorts of unexpected places.
Once they start creating with their imagination, they may not want to stop… like this cardboard box TV my kids made to act out their favorite scenes and of course to “pause” each other!
Conclusion
Building a box fort is a timeless and valuable activity for kids, offering a range of benefits that go beyond simple play:
- Problem-Solving Skills: Constructing a fort involves planning, measuring, and figuring out how to make the structure stable. Kids learn to solve problems as they figure out how to fit the pieces together, which materials to use, and how to make their fort just the way they envision it.
- Motor Skills Development: Building a fort requires using scissors, tape, markers, and other tools, which helps improve fine motor skills. Assembling the fort also involves gross motor skills, like lifting and moving boxes.
- Teamwork and Cooperation: If done with siblings or friends, building a box fort fosters teamwork. Kids learn to communicate, share ideas, and work together toward a common goal, which is a valuable life skill.
The cardboard fort is, in short, an invaluable back-up plan that can really save you serious stress, and can save your kid some serious boredom. Just don’t play this ace too early! Keep the cardboard fort for when you really need a distraction, and you’ll thank me then. Trust me. So do you think you will use these ideas for how to make a box fort with your kids? Let me see how it turns out on social media @familyfocusblog!
Overall, box forts are more than just a play activity—they’re a hands-on way for kids to learn and grow in a fun, engaging manner. Young children will love this activity. Do you remember building your own forts when you were little? What did you build- a cardboard house or a cardboard castle?
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Heidi19 says
I love all your box fort ideas! My son always play with cardboard boxes and you inspired me to create something for my son. Thanks for sharing this with us.
Susanne@babyhuddle says
WOW. Those cardboard forts made from household supplies are awesome 🙂
I think we will try this and add a coat of paint for extra fun.