- Grab kids' attention because they just look like fun!
- Feature easy-to-use magnetic connectors
- Foster creativity and problem solving
- Develop manual and motor skills
- Easily knocked down or apart
- Designed to build structures big enough for kids to play in
- Include sturdy bags for storage
- Recommended for age 4 and up
Every one of my grandchildren, from age 4 to age 15, had to try these building kits, and each one had fun in his or her own way. The fifteen-year-old built a two-story house to hide out in while she text-messaged her friends. The two preteen girls had to build the forts exactly as they looked on the cartons. The two boys, six and seven, constructed zany buildings and hit each other with the foam tubes. By the way, the foam tubes have hard balls on the end that fit into the connectors, so they are not appropriate for play fighting. You'll be ahead of the game if you point that out beforehand. The two little girls, four and five, mainly liked randomly snapping and unsnapping the pieces, but they could construct a simple building with a little help.
My grandchildren enjoy building their various constructions more than they liked playing in them once they were built. The structures will stay together if the kids play calmly in them. Any roughhousing, however, brings them down rapidly. The term fort is, therefore, rather deceptive. I have play tents for the grandkids, and they enjoy them also, but the Cranium forts hold their attention longer because they are easily modified for many different purposes.
The kits come with sturdy bags to store the parts. They take up a fair amount of space in Grannie's closet, but they are worth it!
