One of the favorite activities for some of the kids who come to my social groups is building forts. We have pallets, plenty of sticks, tarps, rope, and other materials to build your own little dream home out in our wooded area.

Forts are a great way to teach flexibility. First, you have to cooperate to design a fort, allowing everyone’s ideas a chance to be heard. This frequently involves one of us adults mediating and teaching how this works. Then, you have to work as a team to physically build it, and then work out design flaws or alternative ideas as you go.

And then, you have to be prepared for all your hard work one week, to not be there the next, as all fort-building materials are community items and here for all four groups to use each week if they want to do so. Sure, I could say yes to the requests for “keep out” signs on forts, but that doesn’t teach what I’m trying to teach. In this instance, flexibility, coping with disappointment, and coming up with a new plan when the forts we build are reclaimed and redesigned.