The Best Play Tents, Forts & Teepees

My dining room table is rarely a dining room table during the heat of the summer and the coldest part of winter. I have these two kids and these two kids believe they live in the most urban city center possible. Never mind the fact that we have a side yard, a back yard and a front yard and miles and miles of sidewalks and not a single crack addict (so far!). They prefer indoor play and my dining room table is the perfect place to create a fort.

Which is fine except sometimes one gets tired of pulling all the blankets out of the linen closet and then refolding them after the kids attempt to ‘help’ by putting them away in a big wadded ball. It’s at that point you start looking around for alternatives to the table as fort. Maybe, if you make a cool enough fort they’ll be happy to play outside and you can drink wine in the house and watch from the window.

Fortamajig is an ingenious single piece of fabric which can be twisted and folded and clipped into tent, a teepee, a tunnel or as the site claims, “Just About Anything”. Which, Fortamajic, I think you’re cool and everything but let’s not get crazy okay? The built in stretchy loops can be attached to branches, chair backs, stairways…..even the dining room table. Wait, we’re trying to get them out of the house. When they’re done there’s just one piece of fabric to fold up and store in it’s own little carrying case. Perfect.

Cranium Super Fort is another build-it-themselves set. Flexible foam tubes, magnetic connectors, clips and fabric panels can be formed into all sorts of imaginary structures. Forts, a boat, a castle or maybe a puppet show theater. In the description Cranium mentions “Keeps Furniture In Place” as a key selling feature. Cranium, you are speaking my language here.

My husband is nearly 39 years old and still dreams of having a large yard with an enormous teepee. I don’t have the heart to tell him I will never have a gigantic teepee in my backyard. Maybe I can distract him with a cute little teepee. “Look honey! It comes in dozens of fabrics.” I love this play tent, I can see the kids playing with it outside but I also see it in their bedrooms making a cozy little reading nook. Fun and educational.

My friend’s dad made her a playhouse in their backyard after years and years of procrastination. It was a lovely little structure but guess what we did? We made a fort inside the damn thing which gave her father an aneurysm. Kids are funny! But if you have your heart set on a more permanent structure with a modern aesthetic and you also have $3000 burning a hole in your pocket you can snatch up this very cool Modern Playshed from Velocity. For about half that you can get this more affordable cozy cottage from Costco. Just don’t forget to include the blankets for the forts your kids will make inside.

I fear everyday my absolute irresponsibility with the amount of television viewing going on at this house has killed all my kid’s imagination brain cells. It’s because of this I love the cardboard box playhouse. Buy it or make it yourself but I am always comforted by the fact that even with hours of television and computer time, my kids can still be entertained with a simple box.
By Nature has several ready to go playhouse boxes in many different styles, like the traditional house, the rocket ship, the pod and the teepee all made of recycled paper.

Let’s say your kids watch even more television than mine and a simple box won’t catch their imaginative spirit. You’ve got to do more, like build your own imaginative fort out of cardboard. Family Fun offers up a tutorial for building the Perfect Fort using cardboard boxes, grass and leaves, rope, markers and even rocks. With this project you might even get a full hour of summer daylight burned.