Making a Den
So who remembers making dens when they were a kid? I know I do. My first memories of making dens were when I was 4 years old. I remember using a pair of old clotheshorses and taking the clean sheets that my mum had just ironed and put away. I would spend hours in there with my toys making my own little world.
When I was a bit older, I remember going out to the fields and making dens in the hedgerows with my friends, I admit I was quite a tomboy when I was younger, not really into dolls and pretty dresses, you would mostly find me knee deep in mud in the middle of a field.
The best game I ever remember playing with my friends was the Secret Seven. Do you remember the books by Enid Blyton? Seven friends with a club house & going on adventures. We made a den (clubhouse) in the back of one of my friend’s gardens and we met there everyday in the summer holidays, creating new adventures and solving the clues to win our rewards. The best summer holidays I ever had.
You could pretty much make a den anywhere and out of anything, another one I remember, we had a coalbunker in our back garden and we would climb over that and make a den at the back of it!! My mother was not best pleased when I came back in covered in coal dust.
Encouring children to make dens either indoors or out, is a great way to stimulate their imagination, taking them to a new world, creating adventures and best of all having fun.
So dig out those clotheshorses, sheets or whatever you have, find that perfect spot in the garden or house and set up a den and let the adventures begin.
