Fort Magic Review + Giveaway

This post is sponsored by Fort Magic.  I was compensated with free product to write this review, but all opinions expressed here are 100% my own.  Writing is hard enough without truly believing in what you write, you know?  

Back in my blog survey, a number of you expressed interest in seeing more of my family or daily life.  Well, today’s post should fill that request quite nicely.  You’ll get to see how I take up my entire living room floor to keep my kids occupied, and how the engineer in me will never really go away.

I got a chance to review Fort Magic’s Fort Building and Construction Toy and I jumped at the opportunity.  Granted, my kids may be a little young to build forts themselves, but you’re never too young to appreciate your own little space, nor are you ever too old to enjoy building things!

I was pretty surprised when the package first arrived on my front porch.  This is a HEAVY box.  It is completely filled to the gills with goodness.  So much so that I will never ever be able to fit all the components back into the box it came in.  Thank goodness the folks at Fort Magic were considerate enough to include a heavy duty mesh bag (with super heavy duty velcro closures) to hold all the pieces.

Wait, so what is Fort Magic?

Fort Magic is an innovative fort building and construction toy that enables children to build 3D, kid-created, “life-size” worlds for inventive play! Imagine the hours of excitement at playtime, play-dates, sleepovers and family-time as children build “forts” shaped like pirate ships, castles, playhouses, submarines, airplanes, teepees, tunnels, and so much more…all from just ONE Fort Magic kit!

– Increases Spatial Intelligence & Focus
– Stimulates Invention & Creativity
– Increases Fine & Gross Motor Skills
– Promotes Multi-Sensory Learning
– Builds Social Skills & Group Cooperation
– Increases The Ability To Plan & Finish A Project With Joy
– Enhances A Love Of Learning, Curiosity & Exploration
– Increases Critical Thinking & Problem Solving
– Builds Self-Confidence Through Positive Achievement
– Promotes A Positive Attitude Towards STEM Skill Development

Let me tell you, I whole-heartedly agree with the “Increases the ability to plan and finish a project”, as well as “increases critical thinking & problem solving”, and “stimulates invention & creativity”, since that’s exactly what happened to me when I built my kids these forts.

I first tried following the included booklet to build a car, since J is so into cars these days.  But to no one’s surprise, at soon as I was done, he realized the wheels didn’t actually move and the car couldn’t actually drive.  Bummer.  So then we moved on to a full size play-house.  By full size, I mean, I could almost stand up in it.  It took up my ENTIRE living room.  The poor dog could not get around it at all.  I followed the general directions for a play-house, but made a few minor adjustments of my own.  Also, please note that I used spare/old sheets as the “skin”, since fabric covers are not included in the kit.

Since J was home sick from school that day, he wasn’t his normal bouncy self, but he still loved spending time inside his “house”, cooking up meals for mommy, and taking his afternoon nap there as well.

Later, my husband (also an engineer) decided he could also build a fort, without following directions, as husbands often do (or rather, don’t).  Would you believe things actually got a little heated as we “discussed” how best to build a tunnel entrance and a swinging door, and get it upstairs to J’s bedroom intact?  What do you expect when you put two engineers together to solve a problem?  Talk about building social skills & group cooperation!

I couldn’t get a decent photo of my photophobic guy(s) playing with the fort, so I ended up building another contraption for the child who cannot run away – my almost crawling LM.  Since she’s not ready to appreciate a full blown playhouse, I worked up a little “baby toy paradise” for her.

This time, I just made things up as I went along, you know, planning, brainstorming, and problem solving all at once.

This super-sized playmat also took up the bulk of my living room floor, but it enabled her to roll around all over and always have some toy within reach.

As I mentioned earlier, there’s a LOT of pieces in this kit.

Every Fort Magic kit includes 382 Pieces: 

•  165 Straight and Curved Sticks in seven different sizes!

•  87 Connector pieces in five varieties of shapes and sizes!

•  130 easy to use fabric and accessory Clips! Securely fasten sheets or fabric to ANY shape design your child invents! 
•  A full color Instruction Manual with over 20 designs to build!

•  A high quality Storage Bag that securely holds all of the Fort Magic pieces – so clean up is quick and easy every time!

•  A 30-day Money Back Guarantee!
•  Fabric Covers Are Not Included.

J has also taken a liking to just individual rods from the kit, using them as “fishing poles” and play swords and walking sticks.  I’m not a huge fan of him swinging those rods around, but I’m glad he’s using his imagination and enjoying his creative play.

What do you think?

If you or your kids are into building things, you will probably really enjoy this toy.  I know we do.  Check out the reviews from other families who are also enjoying Fort Magic!  We’ll probably take it outside to build once the weather warms up for good, but for now, I might just keep designing baby play mats while I’m home with the little one.

Giveaway time!

You can purchase Fort Magic directly from their website, you can enter this awesome giveaway for a free kit.  Yup, that’s right – Fort Magic is generously offering one of my readers a free kit for their very own!  That is one big box of happy mail waiting to show up on your front step!  All you need to do is follow the Rafflecopter instructions below to enter.  The giveaway is open to US and Canadian fans and will end on Thursday night, May 8th at midnight. Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway