Free Fun With Kids: Build a Fort! (1)

By Wendy Mihm | January 26, 2011

Now that frugality is the new black, we’re all looking for ways to entertain our kids (and sometimes ourselves) for little or no money.  Here’s a quick, fun idea mined from our own childhoods that you may have forgotten about:  for free fun with kids, build a fort!

Don’t tell me you don’t know how, or that you don’t have anything to build it with.  I’ll bet you built forts all the time when you were a kid.  You made them with couch cushions, chairs turned sideways, Lego boxes, plastic or fabric storage bins, sheets and clothes pins (those are especially handy and may even be worth the $2.99 investment), big stuffed animals, pillows, toy box lids—anything and everything that was lying around that might hold a sheet or blanket high enough to crawl under.

Starting to sound familiar?

Now get on the floor or in the yard and start building.  Don’t be picky about how it looks, how sturdy it is, or whether it will keep out the rain, because let me tell you, your kids don’t care.  All they care about is whether you’re spending time with them, and how fun and cozy it is to be inside the fort you created together.  And if (when) the thing falls over, just build it again, because that’s the fun of it.  For extra credit, pack a blanket and some lunch and have a picnic inside!

Now there’s some good old fashioned free fun with your kids and a trip down memory lane for you.  Happy fort building!

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