Customer Reviews

A Kids' Guide to Building Forts

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As a mother of three and a a daycare provider I highly recommend this "get up and build" book. The ideas for fort building will spark your childs imagination and they'll go back time and again to look for ideas for indoor and outdoor forts. This book can save a mom on a snow day- as long as you don't mind what will be created!

We got a copy of this book from the library. When it was time to return it my son begged for his own copy. Great book.

My review may seem a bit rambling & repetitive but its an early morning for me while the kids are still sleeping. Just take in consideration, I encourage you to GET THIS BOOK! SPEND TIME with your kid{s} utilizing it before they become older and you missed out on all the fun you could of had with them. making those memories that last a lifetime of smiles. Now grab your coffee/tea for why I personally find this book to be of a dying breed. Much love to the Author & publishers for sharing the Kids guide to building forts <3 .

Despite what a reviewer has wrote about "safety" no where in this book does it say to hand it over to the kid and leave them to do it ALONE. This book is perfect for the adult to SHADOW but in no way means for them to let the kid hit the local junkyard after receiving their Tet shot....

Yes, it's true if you live in the city or some close together suburban neighborhood, the kids may have a hard time finding the common resources for building these things BUT there is NO reason why as a PARENT/ADULT you can not get involved in the hunt. Instead of finding a way to entertain your kid without you "having" to be involved, man/woman up and play with your kids!! This book is full of great inspiration & motivation for kids & their parents to spend time together. If the kid has never experienced this way of play then surely you know not to hand them the wheel without some supervision. If you do not have tree branches, pruning's around in your yard then ask around the neighborhood when you see trees being cut.Ask Grandma/pa or other relatives & friends. Ask a local tree cutting service if you can have branches from trees they are cutting nearby {instead of these things being put through their chipper machine}.
The writer encourages resourcefulness, imagination, problem solving & common sense. Kids learn through playing and this book will do just that. From figuring out on their own what can be used {this is where you the parent/adult can take the time to look the book over with them & discuss what they would like to build from the authors pages} all the way to how the items they found will fit/work out with what they envision. There are no measurements, per say, it's all about collecting the items needed and putting it all together which is powered within their minds by problem solving. Great pictures and illustrations for guidance but this is not a blueprint style of book. This style of learning is one of the most lacked & must have skills our children NEED to learn. Many thanks needs to go to the author for putting this book out there for encouraging kids to use skills much needed in their adult lives. Resourceful problem solving. The adult can shadow, being their mind of reason with suggestions and encouragement but do not become so deeply involved the kids are not the main players. Build your own fort! :)
Although I did not buy this book {yet! & surely will as a permanent piece of the kids home library}, I picked a copy up at the public library for some winter dreaming by the fire with my kids. My son & I looked it over, searching for which one he would like to build in the Spring with his sisters. We discussed where they might find such items for the fort designs he liked. He was won over by the stick/tree branch debri square fort, using a wattle weave for the walls. Kids learn that weave in school with paper projects so he knew by relating to the school project, how to wattle the walls. In this day & age where kids are rarely with the power of resourceful imagination due to the whole "sanitary & safety" hype, I was frustrated by lack of variety in books that do encourage & SPARK a kid to use their brains for resourceful problem solving with outdoor fun. This book provides that spark PLUS is a great way to get adults OUT OF THE HOUSE and playing with their kids. As a kid my brothers & I were left to roam the woods and neighborhood without supervision {it was the 80's!}, unlike children now who are locked behind fences & indoors with factory made electronic devices sapping up their childhood. Get over what the neighbors will think about you collecting & having tree branches laying around in the yard or collecting them.
The bonus to their fort building is now what to put inside of it! A table made from a log? Planting some Mint or penny-royal around the edges to help keep bugs at bay? How about coming up with a club sign or sewing up a Fort flag?! This book can be the beginning to many great fun filled days. A domino effect, bubbling up the sparkle of imagination and happy times.

I bought this book thinking how cool it would be for an 8-year-old nephew. But I am blown away by the number of ways a kid could get hurt or even killed by following the advice in this book. After a very brief and largely useless "safety first" warning, the author goes on to suggest such things as snow forts that use car hoods and other heavy objects as the roof -- with snow packed on top, no less. If the kid isn't crushed or suffocated in his nifty new fort, he probably will die of lock-jaw from the cut he gets on the rusty edge of the car hood -- or from the old windows that the author suggests are the perfect thing for lean-to forts. Does this guy live next to a junk yard? There are several cool ideas in the book, but none that a kid probably couldn't come up with on his own -- especially if mom and dad say, "Yeah, go ahead. Anything and everything you can find to drag into the backyard is ok with us." Several of the tee-pee/wigwam forts are just fine if a kid is in the woods with lots of deadfall. Otherwise, the environment is going to take a hit -- as are the $180 trees that the neighbors just planted last spring. Which is nothing compared to the hospital bill you'll have for the 19 stitches required to close up the gash from the suggested use of a scythe or weed cutter to "gather handfuls of grass or hay no shorter than 15 inches." Send 'em over to my yard; my lawn needs mowing. Seriously, folks. This book should be recalled.