It’s that time of year again! It’s almost summer and some of you will be with your (or someone else’s) kids all… day… long! We’ve compiled a summer bucket list to help beat boredom and make this a season of fun, learning, and memory making! And if you don’t have children in your life, never fear! The next blog will be a grown-up summer bucket list!
Of course, you can find printable summer bucket lists online, but build anticipation and ownership by helping the kids write and decorate this list on a piece of poster board to hang on the wall and keep track of your summer adventures! If you’re feeling brave, let the kids add items to the list, but beware! The last time I asked my son what he wanted to do on a random fun day, he said, “go on a hot air balloon!” That’s when I learned to narrow down the choices. If you’re especially spontaneous and have the supplies you need for each bucket list item, write them on pieces of paper, put them in a jar, and choose an idea when you need to mix up the routine a little.
Grow a Garden
Planting a garden is so much fun with kids… as long as you’re not visualizing picture-perfect rows of veggies and flowers… and as long as you’re prepared ahead of time to have a few plant casualties from little feet. Gardening is full of lessons for people of all ages, teaching endurance, problem solving, caretaking, how to deal with disappointment, and much more. The benefits are numerous: first of all, it’s fun and exciting! Getting to pick out the seeds or plants, watching them grow, and (hopefully) reaping a harvest is thrilling. It may just start a lifelong passion in your children. Of course, it might not, and that’s ok. Gardening is beneficial in many ways, including increasing good bacteria in the digestive system, spending time in fresh air and sunshine, and allowing sanctioned mess-making and playing in the dirt.
If you don’t have the space or equipment necessary to plant a garden, consider container gardening. It’s not necessary to buy expensive pots or containers…anything that can hold dirt and drain excess water can be used. Make sure the container isn’t so small that the plant will quickly outgrow it or dry out more quickly than you can keep it watered and you’ll be on your way!
80s Day
If you’re an 80s or 90s kid, just channel the feeling of summers as a kid. I think of sprinklers, popsicles, Skip-Its, bike riding, playing in the creek, and sticker trading. (Now that I think of it, most of those things probably describe the summers of a lot of decades before 2000!) What kinds of things did you love? Share those things with the kids in your life- recreate your favorite summer day. If you want to go all out, show the kids some videos of what people dressed like in the 80s and 90s and have them recreate an outfit to sport during their throwback activities
Picnic Time
Is there anything as quintessentially summer as a picnic? It could be as simple as taking what you made for lunch out to the yard and eating on a blanket, or as elaborate as a special menu and a change of venue. You could go to a park or a beach or a playground. You could make it a themed picnic: Alice in Wonderland, a British tea, a Hawaiian luau, or a Southern experience. You could put several picnics on the calendar and explore a different country or region of foods each time. Make it a half day event and go to the grocery store or farmers market together and pick out the foods for the picnic. Take a few books or sketch pads along to relax a little after the meal.
Nature Walk
If you were in the Scouts, you’re familiar with the idea of a nature walk + art project. If not, the basic idea is that you take a walk or hike with the intent of gathering small items like leaves, flowers, rocks, nuts, shells, etc. Then you use those items to make an art project: a decorated card, a picture, a little sculpture, etc. It’s the perfect combo- the walk gets the kids outside and burns some energy. The art project focuses their attention and helps build creativity and hand-eye coordination. It’s an activity that’s enjoyable for almost any age, just make sure you have some basic supplies on-hand to help everything go smoothly. Some ideas: bags for gathering, glue, markers or crayons, pencils, and paper.
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Ice Cream Party
Want to be the favorite of the neighborhood? Host an ice cream party! If you really want to go all out, make homemade ice cream. If you don’t have an ice cream maker, there are even recipes that don’t require any other equipment besides a mixer. Keep it simple with ice cream and cones or jazz the whole thing up with sauces, fruit, sprinkles, pretzels, soda for floats, marshmallows, candy, and whipped cream.
Lemonade Stand
Teach the kids about entrepreneurship and have fun at the same time! Plan a couple of days to get everything ready: make signs for the neighborhood and a big one for the lemonade stand, get a change box prepared, locate a table, chairs, and pitchers, go shopping for your ingredients and supplies (don’t forget ice!) and of course, make the lemonade and set everything up.
Cooking Show
Let the kids pick out some age-appropriate recipes and pretend to have a cooking show. If they’ve never seen a cooking show before, show them some YouTube videos of kid cooking shows so they get an idea of what it’s like. Make it extra interesting by giving them random ingredients from the pantry to add into their recipe halfway through. You better go ahead and record it…you might have the next Food Network personality under your roof!
Learn to arrange flowers
Do you live in a place that has lots of wildflowers around? Go for a walk and let the children gather flowers and greenery. Encourage them to choose longer stems to make the flowers easier to work with. Pro tip: do a quick Google search about identifying plants in your area that have thorns or cause skin reactions before you go out. When you get back, put on a YouTube video about how to arrange flowers and let the kids make their own organic masterpiece.
We hope you enjoy this bucket list. Comment below and tell us what items you’re adding to the list this summer!
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