I'm Bored [fun activities] #2: 🏕 Teepee Time 🏕
I'm Bored [fun activities] #2: 🏕 Teepee Time 🏕
Even though it’s months away, the kids can’t wait until the summer holidays, and to be honest neither can I.
However, the excitement of being off school lasts oh, about 2 days and then the inevitable, “I’m bored” escapes from someone’s lips.
The summer we moved into our new house was no exception. Our oldest son was bored and didn’t know what to do when not attached to his iPad.
He’s passionate about survival skills 101, inventing and surviving a zombie invasion. For his birthday, he’d asked for a selection of survival items and a backpack to keep them in.
So, when he was unsure of what to do, I asked whether he knew how to construct a shelter….? As what was the point in having other survival skills, when one of the most basic ones is to be able to construct a simple shelter?
Now, we’re lucky enough to have woods behind our house, which then backs onto thousands of acres of metro parkland, a perfect setting in which to construct a cool kid hangout!
So, our son enlisted help from his brother and one of his sisters, rounded up the tools that they would need and headed off into the woods…
After several hours of quiet… almost too quiet, I went to investigate on their progress and take water and some snacks. Oh, and to make sure that the zombies hadn't eaten them.
To say that I was impressed is an understatement. Not only had they found tree limbs and constructed the support structure to a teepee, but our daughter had lashed them together with vines! No string here!
As they started late in the day. They had to wait until the following morning to continue.
A few more hours and they excitedly came to get me to show the result of their hard labor. A teepee large enough to accommodate them all, with live branches woven around it for walls and a fire pit at the entrance [to be used maybe under supervision!].
They were hot, tired and very sweaty but had a huge sense of achievement and pride.
Not only was this a great feat of engineering from 3 kids, but a true testament to teamwork. Watching them work so well together to create the teepee was wonderful to see.
After a quick shower and change of clothes it was time for dinner.
I know not all of you have access to woods behind your house, but the task of constructing a teepee is certainly fun and relatively easy to do with the right supplies even without woods.
How to build your own Teepee
Materials Needed:
- Nine 10 foot poles, Bamboo poles are best. Check if a neighbor grows bamboo or purchase from a garden center.
- 12 ‘x 18’ Heavy duty Canvas Dropcloth
- Lightweight cord or rope
- 5 sticks 9 " long
- 2 sticks 6 " long
- Scissors
- String
- Garden clippers
- Permanent colored Markers
Here are some simple instructions by Ziggity Zoom to construct your own teepee using the materials above.
Go out there and get creative or if it’s still too cold like here, why not construct one to use in your basement or playroom.
Link to last week: The Ceramic Studio
Original content by @redwellies
It is funny, many times exploring through forests in Canada, in the middle of nowhere I find teepee's. lol
I love that! In the woods behind our house there are other "structures" that kids have built.... Good clean, wholesome fun :)
Oh and all I can say is that you never know when you need to hide from Zombies lol
Lmao. Yea!! :D
I love the tepee it reminds me of my childhood days but it's a messy version from your kids!
Ha! I'm sure it was brilliant :) I can remember playing "tents" with my great-grandmother at my Nanna's house using her clothes drying rack and a sheet... fun times ;)
It's still brilliant from what I think when I was a child. We made it out sacks and bed sheets. It was definitely fun!
So much fun! That's the kinda stuff I lived for as a kid. I was always building a fort or a treehouse or something.
I know right, me too! I think that kids today sometimes sadly forget how to be a kid and find their own amusement without video games and need to be reminded.
Wow - that's a great idea! I love it. I'm going to have to implement this with my kids soon. We have a ton of bamboo around here and they would love it. :) And getting them outside and working together...bonus! Thanks for sharing this idea! As long as they don't get into poison ivy... ;)
Funny, I thought of you as I wrote it especially after seeing the pics you shared yesterday :)
They'd have so much fun! And yes, watch out for the poison ivy.... I should've mentioned that... our woods are full of it too!! Which is why the had long pants and gloves on even though it was a hot day :)
:) I need to show them this post, they will totally get their machetes (yes, two of them have one - normal here in Panama - Ha) and get to cutting up some bamboo. :) I can just hear the fun being had...
That's brilliant! Our boys would love a machete! Don't get me wrong, they do have pockets knives and survival knives... but a machete, now you're talking lol :)
Lol - Yes, my son just recently bought a machete with his own money to make it look like a Zelda sword. We are kind of obsessed with machetes around here. They're super cheap (less than $5) at the hardware stores around here. :)
That's so awesome, what my boys wouldn't give for a machete to be the norm :)
What a nice woods u have behind your house. Haha i laughed when u said u had to check on them to see if they had eaten by zombie. I had to say well done on the teepee works! it looks awesome. I am always amazed what the kids i am facilitating can come out with when i ask them to build a shelter!
Thank you! We love living so close to nature... thankfully no zombies in the woods, but plenty of other wildlife, deer, foxes and of course coyotes. And yes, it's amazing the creativity of children when you give them a task :)
wow.. i would love to met some deer close up one day... do they (foxes and coyotes) pop by your house to look for food once a while? Or they are usually quite shy?
Deer are usually quite shy, but there are 4 young ones who think our veggie garden is their salad bar :) We have been battling them, the chipmunks, squirrels and raccoons :)
The foxes are coyotes tend to stay a little further away, but we have still seen them and in the case of the coyotes hear them often.
😅 😅 😅 salad bar!! chipmunks ! would love to see them too.
ah ic.. well good to know they are 'shying' away from u guys a little. :)
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