Build a strong, lasting memory of playing with your children in nature by making a nature shelter for kids. They’ll love making it with you!
While on our camping trip with another family, we stayed on a stunningly spacious farm that held a few, magnificent pine forests. As soon as we drove past a long lines of tall, sturdy trees I knew I was going to ask the kids if they’d like to build a nature shelter under its magical canopy.
Not only was it going to connecting us with nature while on our holiday but I liked the idea of giving my children a gentle introduction to nature survival skills for the’just in case’.
The children (six of them) didn’t need much encouragement. They were bursting with excitement as soon as I asked them!
Before heading off toward the pine forest, we had a quick chat about snake safety. There’s been quite a few snake sightings on the property and although I never let the what ifs rule my life, educating kids about safety in any forest is important.
Building a nature shelter for kids
Before building the nature shelter with your kids. It’s important to ask these questions:
- Look at the terrain – is it safe to build a shelter?
- Where would the best place be to set up a shelter?
- What could we use to make a shelter?
- Is there enough materials to cover the shelter?
- Is there a sturdy branch to make sure the shelter will stay up and be safe to play/ sleep in?
How we made a nature shelter
We stared collecting materials for the shelter. The bigger children collected long sticks and the smaller children collected pine cones. We made a shelter against one of the big pine trees first but then one of the boys pointed out a better location, so we moved it over.
The area was safer because we could create a solid foundation adding some big sticks to the branches that were already there. We built the nature hut up with a lot of big, long sticks and then covered it in smaller sticks, pine cones and a few leaves. Then, we weaved long grasses through sticks.
I’m hoping that the nature hut will remain a place that’s visited regularly by the children who made it. Either way, Â it will hold memories of working in the forest, as a team to build something magical and spectacular together.
I found two websites that I’ll be using in future, should we make another shelter or add on to this one. Nature Skills has some excellent tips to help you make a shelter for survival. Â Wilderness Survival gives you some fantastic ways to build different types of shelters in nature. I loved reading these articles and I’m now really excited about creating another one!
This shelter may not be water proof or keep us safe from the elements as yet. I hope that one day the same group of children will go back and finish it off to a point where they could all sleep in there over night. What an exhilarating experience to really sleep in your very own nature shelter!
Have you made a nature shelter for kids before?
Such great fun! My brothers and I grew up with a pine forest as our backyard and we would build these all the time 🙂 A forest I take my kids to, has a couple of these, and kids add to them and play in them – they really draw children don’t they!
As a child one of my fondest memories was playing under our neighbour’s oak tree, The branches were down to the ground and a Glory Vine had grown over the oak. There was an old piece of lino on the ground. It was a time when ‘The Magic Faraway Tree’ was a popular children’s book. We had our own ‘Faraway Tree ‘for playing and for birthdays. It looks as if your kids are having as much fun as we did. Felicity
Felicity, I grew up reading The Magic Faraway Tree too and have fond memories of Silky and Moon face playing with me in my childhood imagination. My eldest has already read it and it has had the same effect on her. Books and nature are two of my favourite things! You’re oak tree sounds magical. I only had a poinciana tree but luckily imaginations do wonderful things! Thanks so much for popping by and commenting. x
This is lovely! I wrote about how to make simple wild shelters in the March issue of Wild Kids Magazine (an ad-free, absolutely free monthly printable nature magazine for kids and their grown ups) and I listed you on the website as another resource to see how others do it. I love your site and am a long-time subscriber. 🙂
~Alicia