Summer Boost
Activity:
Blanket Fort
Blanket forts and pillow forts are a sleepover classic! Let your child create a “fortress of solitude” on his own for reading, telling scary stories or for cozy cocooning, or hold a construction contest at the next sleepover. Either way, building a blanket fort is fantastic fun!
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What You Need:
- Pillows, sofa cushions (various sizes)
- Blankets, sheets, towels
- Furniture
- Optional: Heavy books, clothespins, binder clips, flashlight, reading material, snacks
What You Do:
- Supply your child with all the materials for building a pillow fort and let his imagination take the lead!
- A good place to start is with a couch or dining room chairs. He may need a parent’s help to move heavier pieces of furniture. Tell him to use chairs, sofas, and table tops as places from which to hang blankets or on which to balance pillows. A heavy book can be placed on top of a blanket or pillow end to hold it in place if needed.
- The legs of furniture can supply bases for the fort. He can build partially under a dining room table for example, and/or use the legs of the table to hold ends of a blanket.
- Clothespins, binder clips, and chip clips can come in handy for clipping blankets together or hanging a blanket from somewhere high, like from a window shade or sofa top.
- Some pillows or blankets can be the “floor base” if the fort is not built over a soft rug area.
- The finished fort makes a nice hideout for sleepover friends or for rainy days. If your child is alone, the fort becomes a great place to read books, draw pictures, and eat snacks.
- If you have pillows and blankets usable for outdoors, he could build a fort in a yard using trees, bush limbs, and patio furniture as scaffolds for the soft materials.
- Encourage your child to make other fort designs in the future. The pillow fort possibilities are endless!
