Creating a Summer Bucket List for Your Family
Summer is the ultimate right of passage for children. It’s the perfect time of year to get outside, get active, and make memories with your kids. While naturally occurring fun in the sun is bound to happen, if you’d like to make this summer one remember, create a list!
Bucket lists are goals you’d like to achieve within a certain time period. These goals need to be checked off the list by the end of summer vacation. You can make a stretch list – full of so many goals that you know you’ll not be able to complete them all – or focus on a small, but mighty, list of activities that’s easy to achieve and that everyone will enjoy.
What should you include on your list? Here are our best tips:
Favorites
Before you compile your list, take time to ask yourself what you love most about summer. Warmer weather? Swimming? Picnics in the park? Sitting on the porch with a glass of lemonade? These insightful answers will help you craft a list that has meaning and is packed with fun!
Variety
Every member of your household will enjoy different aspects of the list. Consider being intentional about diversifying your list of choices. Here are ideas to help you get started.
- Food-related activities such as trying a new restaurant, having a picnic, going for ice cream or making fun-shaped pancakes
- Outdoor activities such as hiking, exploring, geocaching, camping, roasting marshmallows, or star-gazing
- Water fun such as swimming, boating, splash parks, or water balloon fights
- Learning a new skill
- Artsy projects like painting, pottery, crafts, or
- Yard fun like blowing bubbles, running through the sprinklers, having a water gun fight, chalk drawings, or watch a backyard movie
- Nature appreciation choices like gardening, wildflower picking, watching a sunset, or watch the clouds
- Community service moments such as donating toys or food, cleaning up the neighborhood, visit an animal shelter, or volunteer for a non-profit
Get Feedback
Whether you gather the family together ahead of time, or collect feedback after you’ve created the first draft of your list, the impact of others will help you finalize a plan that each family member can get behind.
Whatever your process, creating a summer bucket list will help you have a season of life that you’ll recall fondly and happily. What is better than creating memories with your family each summer?
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