Homemade Backyard Forts
Building a homemade fort is a great activity for kids and encourages them to play outdoors. While there are many different ways to build a fort, it's often best, and most fun, to use found materials and lots of imagination to make a perfect backyard fort. Secret hideouts, pirate ships, hangouts, theaters---the possibilities are endless once you've gotten started. Parents and guardians, help your kids with trickier tasks such as using a hammer and nails, but a lot of this work can be done by the kids themselves and is a great activity for summertime or after school.
Things You'll Need
- Found materials like plywood, old doors or windows or large flat cardboard
- Tarp
- Hammer and nails
- Gloves
- Small saw for trimming branches
- Large branches
- Optional:
- Colorful paint
Instructions
Scout out a location for your fort in your backyard. It could be underneath a big pine tree, tucked away near a stone wall or at the top of a hill, for example. Some things to think about when choosing your fort location are the proximity to the house, the safety of the location (away from busy roads or hunting areas, no poison ivy, for example) and what's nearby. Maybe you already have a favorite spot in the backyard. Sweep and clear the location of random branches, rocks or anything uncomfortable. Mark out a border of the fort with rocks or push long sticks in the ground to build a fence and claim the territory. The space should be fairly small so it will feel cozy and be fairly easy to build--between 6 and 10 feet across, both ways. Gather your building supplies and branches. Check your basement, the local take-it-or-leave-it or CraigsList.com for recycled materials like old doors, large boxes, scrap plywood, etc. Gather branches of even length---they can be used to build a lean-to around a big tree. Build the fort. Place a tall and sturdy branch at each corner of your area. You can also substitute these branches by choosing a location next to two or three trees and building onto them as supports. Use old (but clean and solid) building materials like found doors and scrap plywood for the walls. Lay the old door or piece of wood lengthwise against the branch or tree trunk and nail it into place to make the first wall and provide a little privacy, being careful not to injure a living tree. You can add plywood above this, and continue to build on all four sides, leaving space for windows and doors. You can add a flat roof by laying long branches across the upper walls and weaving pine branches into them (the needles will keep out some of the rain) or by simply draping a tarp over the top of the fort and tying it down. Furnish the fort. Use small tree stumps for seats and tables, found jars and bowls for the kitchen. Build a shelf, bench or table with a plank of wood resting over two stumps or rocks. If you used flat wood for the walls, you can paint the inside or outside. The fort can continue to grow and change the more time you spend in it.
