It’s Friday night – the night my kids build forts to sleep in.

When I was a kid, I would build forts inside our house with my brothers. And now that I have kids of my own, it is fun to pass along this Friday Night Fort tradition to my own kids.

After dinner, after teeth are brushed and pajamas are on, it’s fort building time! The kids get busy gathering necessary supplies. Sometimes their forts include blankets stretched across chairs with many pillows underneath to serve as a comfortable sleeping surface. Sometimes the forts don’t have a ceiling – but instead simply have pillow walls. Old fashioned clothes pins, bungee cords, blankets, comforters, and pillows are typical indoor sleeping fort materials. Small, cozy enclosures are the norm.

However your kids design and build their fort, you can be sure this will be an activity your kids will remember the rest of their lives. And just maybe, they will pass the tradition along to their kids someday.

Our Fort Building Tips:

• Sheets and light-weight blankets work great for building forts inside. To secure a corner of the blanket, twist a marble or small stone in the corner of the blanket, open a dresser drawer, tuck a blanket wrapped stone inside, and close the drawer. This keeps the blanket secure.


• Old-fashioned clothes pins or plastic clamps will hold blankets or sheets to window ledges, bed frames, dressers, or chairs.


• Folding chairs make great fort frames! Place several folding chairs around the perimeter of your room. Drape a large blanket or sheet over the chairs and secure the blankets with tape, clothes pins, or clamps. Instant fort roofs!


• Try using adhesive backed, removable picture hanging hooks on the walls (the kind with the peelable adhesive strips for easy removal). Hang cord or string from hook to hook to create a drape line. Drape light sheets, blankets or tarps across the cord to form your fort. Instant tent!


• Fort building can be done outdoors too, when weather permits. When we build forts outside, survival from the elements is the priority; robust materials like scrap lumber, plywood, branches, ropes, and tarps serve this purpose better. Outdoor forts are designed to fend off everything from a light rain, to an attack from a T-rex – or whatever the kids imagine the fort needs to protect them from.
  

Go ahead, help your kids build a fort inside your house tonight. Sleep in it with your kids. Create memories. Have fun!