Top 10 fort building kits for kids
These 10 best build-and-play fort kits allow kids to have fun while they learn about basic building techniques. Creating forts with the kids has always been one of our family’s favorite rainy day activities. However, there were only so many times we could use the bedsheets and couch cushions before we had to branch out into some actual fort building kits. This allowed the kids to really stretch their creativity. Many of the sets available are extremely architectural, and got them thinking about the best way to fit the sticks and pegs together to create the sturdiest structure. We may have some future structural engineers on our hands!
There are a lot of different fort kits out there on the market, and it can be overwhelming. So here are some of the sets we’ve come across during our research. We hope it helps you find the right fort for your kids.
Best play forts for kids
| Image | Title | Pieces | Durability | Price | Recommended Age | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Natural Wooden Fort Kit | 77+ | 9/10 | $ | 4+ | Learn more |
 | OgoBild Pod | 96 | 10/10 | $$$ | 6+ | Learn more |
 | Straws and Connectors | 400 | 7/10 | $ | 4+ | Learn more |
 | Fortamajig | 5 | 8/10 | $$ | 3+ | Learn more |
 | Tubelox | 136 | 9/10 | $$ | 3+ | Learn more |
 | Box Creations | varies | 6/10 | $$$ | 2+ | Learn more |
 | Fort Boards | 90 | 7/10 | $$$ | 4+ | Learn more |
 | Densters | Varies | 8/10 | $$ | TBD | Learn more |
 | EZ Fort | 54 | 6/10 | $ | 3+ | Learn more |
 | Crazy Fort | 69 | 7/10 | $ | 5+ | Learn more |
 | Air Fort | 1 | 10/10 | $$ | 3+ | Learn more |
#10 best fort building kit
Fort Magic: Fort Building & Construction Toy Kit
Kids that love building will intuitively begin creating structures with Fort Magic. The included fabric clips are simple to use and elevate the forts to a whole new level of creative fun. From the moment they open the box, your kids will practically live in their new forts!
This massive (354-piece) fort building & construction toy kit features a patented design that provides high-quality, sturdy construction, along with a full-color building manual in case you get stuck and need some new ideas. Special bonus: This fort-building kit was featured on the hit NBC show Shark Tank.
- What you get: 3 Different Sized Curved Sticks, 4 Different-sized Sized Straight Sticks, 5 Different Connector Shapes, 100 Fabric Clips, instruction booklet
- What can you build: VERY open-ended! ONE Fort Magic Kit can build Forts, Tunnels, Castles, Playhouses, Cars, Planes, Ships, Submarines, Teepees, etc.
- Why we love it: While it is more expensive than other fort-building sets on the market, it comes with way more pieces than many of the competitor’s products, meaning there are more possibilities for creativity. Even when you think you’ve run out of things to build, you can browse through the instruction manual to spark more ideas. The forts are sturdy, relatively easy to construct, and are destined to be the most enjoyed and utilized gift in the bunch.
- Most helpful review: “Make no mistake– it still gets heavy use by both kids (ages 5 and 7) over a year later.”
- Ages 6+
#9 best fort-building kit
OgoBild Pod
This set combines giant construction fort toys with active play devices. OgoBild Pod is the perfect mixture of creativity and physical activity and the only fort kit that allows you to bounce, roll, kick, throw or spin your creations – that means that this a great backyard fort kit OR indoor fort kit.
- What you get: 12 flexible rubber balls (each with 12 openings), and 32 flexible plastic connectors with end knobs. Instructions are printed on the inside of the cardboard package.
- Why we love it: The flexibility of this set makes it extremely open-ended- you are not limited to right angles in your design and can create spheres, domes, and other forts with rounded edges. It’s flexible enough to collapse in case someone falls on it but sturdy enough to hold up a bed sheet and even to ROLL! It wins our best outdoor fort kit award! This is the only fort we’ve seen that stands up to rigorous abuse, even during outdoor construction and play.
- What can you build: Domes, spheres, rocket ships, pyramids, and abstract open-ended structures.
- Why we love it: The connecting sticks and balls can be assembled easily. The ball connectors are soft rubber and the struts are exceedingly flexible, while still being quite durable. Pro-tip, buy 2 sets, and stack them for even more possibilities to build.
- Most helpful review: “Proved to captivate more than I had anticipated… The question is, will they use it after they’ve used it once? The answer is: yes.”
- Ages 6+
#8 best fort-building kit
Straws and connectors
Create a wide variety of shapes and designs using ingenious connectors and colorful straws that are light enough to manipulate and heavy enough to form a sturdy structure.
- What you get: 130 heavy, colorful 8″ straws. 100 connectors
- Why we love it: It’s easy enough for kids as young as Pre-K to get a kick out of it, yet adaptable enough to be used for more complex designs and multi-dimensional shapes and forms for older kids.
- What can you build: For starters, try a house, rocket ship, car, or boat. But, the possibilities are endless.
- Most helpful review: “Great, open-ended, creative building toy. Fun to do with a child, or for a child to work on by him or herself.”
- Ages: 3+
#7 best fort-building kit
Fortamajig
Fortamajig is an innovative way of creating a fort with absolutely no connecting tubes. This fort kit consists of connecting fabric panels and a locking tab system. Not only does this mean that you’ll never lose a piece, but it also folds down for insanely easy storage. Plus, it’s portable, durable, and washable. As a companion item, check out Connectables (manufactured by the same company but can be used with or without the Fortamajig).
- What you get: large, durable fort fabric with connecting velcro loops.
- What can you build: Open, breezy forts with lots of room to play underneath.
- Why we love it: The velcro loops mean you can connect it to almost ANYTHING.
- Most helpful review: “My nine-year-old daughter and her friends have used it to create a special sleepover hideout. My six-year-old son loves using it, too.”
- Ages 3+
#6 best fort-building kit
Tubelox
Although it’s on the pricier side, it’s the only play-for-building kit we’ve come across that kids can actually climb on top of. Allows kids to combine their creativity and innovation with spatial reasoning and architectural skills, all while designing and building their own play structure. For nostalgic parents, Tubelox is reminiscent of a popular toy from the 1980s known as Omagles, which are now very difficult to find.
- What you get: 220 parts, including PVC pipe builders and connectors, and instructions for 40+ Designs
Why we love it: A great introduction to principles of design, architecture, and engineering; including gravity, weight, balance, stability, and symmetry. - What can you build: Almost any geometric shape, from huge, astoundingly sturdy structures, to usable cars, homes, and rocket ships. Kids can even climb and sit on the solidly built parts!
- Most helpful review: “Believe me, this fort-building kit is something your kid will not get bored of. This toy is educational, it has longevity and it will keep them entertained for hours.”
- Ages: 3+
#5 best fort-building kit
Box creations
The “storage-space-challenged” families out there will love these strong 32ECT corrugate board forts. There are no sharp edges, the cardboard is way more durable than you’d expect. The parts fold down for easy storage, too.
- What you get: sturdy interlocking corrugate building walls, 4 markers for decorating
- What can you build: Try Pirate Ship, Castle, or Playhouse Fort kit varieties.
- Why we love it: It’s made out of lightweight cardboard, but double-locking tabs provide amazing stability and strength. this also means fewer parts and it packs down flat! It accommodates 2 to 3 children at a single time and can be completely customized by your child. Overall, an extremely versatile fort kit.
- Most helpful review: “Got the playhouse for my daughter’s 5-year-old birthday party. Boy, was it a hit! Kids colored the house with watercolors, decorated with glitter glue, ran in and out. They were playing with it for hours.”
- Ages 2+
#4 best fort-building kit
Fort Boards
This somewhat unique spin on forts eschews the traditional peg and connector model, resulting in a cool play pattern that provides open-ended, active play while fostering creativity, spatial reasoning, imagination, and engineering / STEM skills. It’s even used by pediatric occupational therapists to help develop crucial fine motor coordination.
- What you get: 44 boards (8”x 8”) and 46 interlocking connectors
What can you build: 20 square feet of total surface area means you can build almost any structure with flat solid planes, especially structures or vehicles. - Why we love it: The construction possibilities of this awesome fort toy are HUGE, but it packs away incredibly small – the parts all nest into each other for easy storage & space efficiency (approximately the size of a few shoe boxes).
- Most helpful review: “Once the kids realize how they snap together, their imaginations take off and they build amazing structures.”
- Ages 5+
#3 best fort building kit
Densters by Kidesign
A set of multi-functional toy monsters that affix onto furniture, blankets, and bed sheets, letting children construct amazing dens and forts inside. Densters were created by educators, designers, architects, engineers, illustrators, and child psychologists.
- What you get: A variety of playful, friendly characters that also double as amazing fort clips (Cheekaboo, Wizetta, Grumpo, Hoopsta, Snella & three Zigzies).
- What can you build: Tents, teepees, and fabric forts
- Why we love them: Densters make attaching blankets and bedsheets to furniture completely frustration-free, will never sit in a box due to their multi-use design, and bring your child’s bedroom forts to life!
#2 best fort-building kit
Toobeez EZ Fort
Stimulate independence and imagination with the fort builder that makes it incredibly easy for tiny hands to construct big creations, indoors, and outdoors.
- What you get: 54 pieces total – 20-24″ spheres, 20-24″ tubes, 14-17″ tubes
- What can you build: forts, playhouses, tents, an obstacle course, soccer or hockey goal, etc.
- Why we love it: EZ Fort is a fantastically open-ended building system that offers high-quality yet low-cost fun and is the perfect size for any living room, bedroom, or den.
- Most helpful review: “He hasn’t stopped building since opening the box last week!”
- Ages 3+
#1 best fort-building kit
Crazy Fort
An extremely durable, portable, and easy-to-construct fort building kit. Add your own sheet to make it an awesome blanket fort kit!
- What you get: 69 pieces total- 25 geometrically precise solid plastic balls and 44 reinforced sticks
- Why we love it: while the pieces are not flexible like some other kits, this does make the creations more durable and permanent, making this the best fort to play in once it has been assembled.
- What can you build: Comes with an instruction manual that helps you assemble mostly geometric constructions, like tents, igloos, houses, etc.
- Most helpful review: “We’ve had this toy for over a year and still play with it on a regular basis.”
- Ages 5+
Update: Air Fort – A NEW and AWESOME rainy day fort, no couch or sheets required! “Escape the real world and create your own fantasy land inside this dazzling hideaway.”
If you’re looking for a fort with absolutely NO cleanup, inflate this extraordinary kids’ fort in under 30 seconds using (almost) any ordinary household fan and climb inside!
It secures easily to the fan with adhesive tabs, and since it does not have a bottom, simply lift any part of the tent to get in and out. The air fort deflates only slightly when lifted, and once it has returned to the ground it fully inflates again.
This awesome play fort kit is powered by a fan on low, meaning it’s not loud in there – and since the fabric is naturally breathable, keep the fan on at all times for a breezy, fun fort. Depending on what kind of fan you use, the fort only takes 10-30 seconds to inflate completely. A mesh safety divider keeps all play away from the fan. It doesn’t come with a fan, but any standard box fan will do (20″ household box fan or 18″ tabletop round fan) – and who doesn’t have one of those lying around the house anyway? The 100% polyester, breathable fabric fort is 77″ wide X 50″ tall, so up to 5 kids (or adults!) can fit in this awesome fort.
Parents will love the transparent window panel that allows you to observe all of the occupants of the fort from the outside. Air forts are one of the best indoor fort kits for kids we’ve ever seen! Done playing? The air fort deflates in seconds once the fan is turned off, and easily folds up into the included bag.
Check out the Air Fort here.
BONUS: Best snow fort-building kit!
Gives you the best snow fort-building tools you need for winter fun! You can even take the snow fort building outside in the winter and build amazing snow castle forts – instantly transform your backyard into a perfect medieval snow fortress! Ideal Sno-Castle Kit includes castle wall molds for unbeatable snow forts.
- What you get: snow brick mold/snow block maker, mold release tool, (4) windows, (2) doors, and a snow sculpting tool
- Why we love it: You can mold snow bricks and design your own sturdy snow kingdom, making you an unbeatable opponent in any snowball fight. There’s even the functionality to add doors and windows, sculpt turrets, and construct a drawbridge or a moat.
- What can you build: Snow forts and snow castles (duh!)
- Most helpful review: “Will give your children hours of entertainment outdoors!”
- Ages 5+
Whether you’re building a fort in your living room // or // building a fort in the woods, enjoy your indoor AND outdoor fort-building kits! The best part about these 8 DIY fort-building kits is that everything disassembles as easily as it assembles, letting your kids build and rebuild their forts.
Fort Building & Construction Toy Kits
The best kids forts for GIRLS and BOYS. The Educational Benefits of Building Forts
Kids love to create special spaces for playing make-believe, hiding out, or sharing with their friends. If your kids are sick of building couch forts out of your cushions all the time (or if you are sick of them destroying the sofas!), let them try their hands on these amazing fort-building kits. These days, forts have evolved a long way from sheets spread over tables or couches…
Why are fort-making kits beneficial for childhood development? Fort kits promote critical thinking, creativity, and social skills. Most kids absolutely LOVE making forts, (and many adults do, too). Fort-building is a great, creative activity because it gets kids thinking about space, the configuration of different objects, and even promotes engineering and architectural skills. More so than many other types of play, it also tends to get kids and adults playing together.
Fort building kits combine the construction fun of building blocks with the walk-in size of tents and teepees! We strive to find awesome blanket fort kits, indoor fort kits, outdoor fort kits, blanket fort kits, and more fort builders that inspire imagination.
All of the fort-building kits in the Smart-Toys Best Forts list encourage and promote:
- planning, creativity, and imagination
- construction, spatial reasoning, and gross motor
- social play and interaction
- confidence and life skills
- Best of all, YOU will be able to see the child’s face light up when they finish their play fort building kit and realize what their focus, hard work, and inventiveness has accomplished.
You can construct a fort almost as big as your imagination! Letting kids’ imaginations run wild as they make-believe in their magic kingdoms and secret hideouts will develop their physical, mental, and social skills! Even if you have limited space in your home or apartment for fort building, these top ten amazing fort-building kits will let them build to their heart’s content.
Are you looking for an absolutely amazing fort-building toy? These 10 great build-and-play construction sets allow kids to have fun while they learn about basic building techniques. When they are done, they can camp indoors or hide away in their new creation, promoting creativity as well as imaginative, make-believe play. Help guide your kids in the assembly of a multitude of amazing fort designs.
Playing with fort-building kits
There are plenty of ways to inspire indicative play on a rainy day – dress-up play with costumes, arts and crafts projects, family games, and so much more. But there is perhaps no greater activity for lighting that imaginative spark than making a great big play fort!
Play fort kits not only practice important spatial reasoning, architectural and engineering skills, and geometric skills, but they also provide a brilliant foundation for open-ended make-believe play.
In this age of computers, mobile devices, online streaming, and video games, it’s more and more important to give our kids opportunities for open, unscripted play. While there can be a time and a place for technology in the playroom, the biggest problem with many of the tech toys that are becoming popular is that they do not encourage active participation and engagement with the toy, rather they spoon-feed the child with passive entertainment. (With a few notable exceptions – see tech toys that got it right ).
Luckily, with a little help from parents, there are still plenty of ways that kids can recapture their imaginations and inner creativity.
The first step is to make sure that all kids are afforded ample time to play away from the screen- even if that means limiting screen time on certain days or during certain times of the day. Given this chance, kids are likely to revert to a more simple, yet extremely important type of play.
One of our favorite suggestions for creative play is fort building! Building forts has a two-pronged benefit: first, kids build the fort, exercising their creativity and teamwork skills. Next, the completed fort becomes a platform for imaginative play – whether it’s a castle, a house, a pirate ship, a tent or teepee, or a rocket ship, their completed fort has now become their stage.
Building forts can be an incredibly enriching and multifaceted activity for children, offering opportunities to develop various skills:
- Creativity: Constructing forts involves imaginative thinking. Children visualize and create their structures using whatever materials are available, encouraging creative problem-solving and innovation.
- Fine Motor Skills: Manipulating materials like blankets, pillows, or building blocks to construct a fort enhances fine motor skills. Tying knots, arranging cushions, and stacking items contribute to dexterity.
- Spatial Awareness: As kids design and assemble their forts, they develop an understanding of space and proportions. They learn to gauge the size of the fort, assess what fits where, and modify the structure based on spatial limitations.
- Collaboration and Communication: Building forts often involves teamwork. Children negotiate roles, share ideas, and work together to build the fort. This collaborative effort enhances communication skills, teaching them how to express ideas and listen to others’ suggestions.
- Problem-Solving: Fort-building naturally presents challenges. Children encounter problems like unstable structures or materials falling down and must find solutions, fostering critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
- Imagination and Role-Play: Once the fort is built, children engage in imaginative play. Forts can transform into castles, spaceships, or secret hideouts, allowing kids to create and act out various scenarios, fostering creativity and narrative skills.
- Emotional Development: Playing in forts can also aid emotional development. It provides a safe space for children to explore their feelings, express themselves, and act out different roles and situations, fostering emotional intelligence and empathy.
- Risk-Taking and Confidence: Experimenting with building structures involves taking risks. Children learn to try different approaches and take pride in their achievements, boosting confidence and resilience.
Overall, fort-building offers a holistic learning experience, combining physical, cognitive, and socio-emotional skills development in an engaging and fun way.
Images from personalcreations.com
Build your own fort!
Of course, kids can (and do!) build forts out of just about anything found around the house. But, if you’re tired of your kids tearing off the couch cushions or leaving bed sheets hanging all over the place, it might be time to buy a fort-building kit.
Fort kits have many advantages over building with household materials. Typically, the construction pieces will be sturdier and lock together in durable ways, meaning kids will get less frustrated during the construction and will be more likely to continue building. Additionally, they will stand up to the actual playtime in the fort.
There are a wide variety of types of fort-building kits available on the market today: some fort kits use rigid sticks and connectors that interlock in different ways, some use creatively interacting fabrics and hoops, and countless other methods.
For your convenience, we’ve compiled a list of the best fort-building kits that will encourage your kids to build and enjoy good old-fashioned, open-ended, away-from-the-screen playtime. All of these toys are thoroughly researched for high quality, durability, and overall play value. They are certain to provide hours of creative fun for your kids.
We hope that these awesome fort kits will be a huge hit in your household! Thank you for reading. If a backyard fort is more your style, read our guide to DIY treehouse kits.
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