Make Your Summer Amazing With A Fun Bucket List
Are you a list person? If you answered yes, I am going to tell you about how we are maximizing our summer fun with some helpful lists!
The summer of 2020 was less than stellar. We really didn’t do much of anything: no parties, no pools, no vacations, no real…experiencing life. This summer feels different though, and in a good way. The excitement and anticipation for what will come is higher than usual. And boy am I here for all the summer lovin’!
After a year and a half of meh, I have a much stronger desire to make this summer the best yet for us all. I am making up for lost time as best as I can, while taking reasonable precautions for the kids.
We are implementing a few strategies and tools this summer to make it Ah-mazing! Read on to hear more.
Making the Most of our Time
The first thing I did was set up a Summer Screen Plan for this summer break! I am not all about these kids sitting around on their phones, laptops, video games, TVs and tablets from the time they wake up to the time they fall asleep. It was one thing when they were isolated last year and needed some sort of connection to their friends and family, but, that isn’t the case anymore so things are changing.
This year I wanted to provide them with more depth to their summer break. So, I came up with a plan to get them using their brains, bodies and creativity before they enter a catatonic state. You can read about my plan in this blog post.
Part of the daily to-dos is to either write or draw. For their first exercise, I had them write out their Summer Fun Bucket List that we proudly display on our wall of art in the kitchen!
This year I had them provide a list of 20 Bucket List items. (my son struggled so was a little shy of it). I even made one for myself! The idea is to add anything we want to do, experience or accomplish over the summer. So it does not all have to be doing an outdoor activity. Here are some other examples: read a book, listen to a podcast, learn an instrument or a language. Your options are limitless!
After the list is complete, we compare to see who would be involved, what we would do together, when to give them space to complete their items and what is needed. My sister and I compare our children’s lists to see what we can do together too. We really do have so much fun!
Why creating a Summer Fun Bucket List is beneficial?
We have been doing this for a couple of years now and I really enjoy this exercise for several reasons:
- It forces them to think about what is important to them and what will make them happy. Often times this even leads them to do a little research! Gasp! It is fun to watch!
- They get excited and about the summer and gives them something to look forward to. They are engaged and motivated in what is going on in their lives.
- Some activities can be used as rewards for positive behaviors around the house. Although that should not be the intent of the List. Most items should just be part of Summer.
- It gives me an idea of what they are interested in and what their expectations are. I find sometimes I am completely off base of what they are thinking so this is truly helpful!
- I can plan appropriately on the weekends and plan my time off from work for the items that THEY want to do.
- There are few things as satisfying as checking items off a list!
- If nothing is getting done, we can work to check things off and accomplish what we wanted!
- At the end of the summer, we can reflect on what we have done and discuss our memories.
- We can keep the lists to remember how we spent our summer.
Have you written your Summer Bucket List yet?
If you have not done this yet, I highly recommend it for all the reasons I mentioned. It is not too late since there is plenty of summertime left to take advantage of! And if you have already done some bucket list activities, that’s perfectly fine! It just means you have a jumpstart. Make sure to list them and check them off right away. You can gage what you have done and what you still need to do and save the list to memorialize your summer!
What are your favorite, must-do summer activities?
43 Comments
Amy Irvin
I have not written a summer bucket list. Cool that your kids did it too! .. I also will be publishing 2 blog posts per week.
Adrienne Foxx
I have one that I try to follow but I really want to make sure they are happy with how their summer ended up so I focus mostly o. theirs.
Good luck on your blog. Two a week for me is q pretty tall order. 🙂
Sabrina DeWalt
I never thought to do a bucket list when the boys were young, but we did have a field trip day once a week where we did something fun or explored something new. It solved the problem if the summer getting away from us.
Adrienne Foxx
That is really cool! I was considering doing a weekly field trip but was not able to work it out with my work schedule.
Alice
I dont have much planned this summer. Its been a long winter of illness and other things going on. I am going to a concert in August on my birthday and to a retreat in October. Good post.
Adrienne Foxx
A concert sounds like fun! outdoors or indoor? I hope you have a wonderful time for your birthday!
Cynthia Mackintosh
These are all fun if you have small kids, but my kids are now almost 19 & 21. My summer list is more like “List of things I want to do.” LOL
Adrienne Foxx
The scope of what young adults want to do is definitely a bit different. But I think everyone reverts back to the summer days of fun they had when they were younger.
Terra Booth
I’m going to do this with my daughter! I have to admit, the “burn homework” list item gave me a good laugh.
Adrienne Foxx
My daughter saw some form of this and HAD to put it on her list! Throwing away any remnants of school is a high priority to start the summer fun I guess. LOL
Vanessa
Thank you for this idea. D didn’t get into it that much when I told her to write one out, but when I told her to pintbings she wanted to do to Pinterest she got on board. We have had fun checking off a few of these. Now if the weather would just get on board with our list that would be great.
Adrienne Foxx
the weather this month definitely has not been helping the summer lovin! I love that she just didn’t want to write it down! 🤣 But as long as she could still use her phone, it is a great idea. Lol!
Cecile Leger
What a great and creative idea. I might steal it for next summer. I’m sure the boys will have exciting things to share.
Adrienne Foxx
Thank you! You could probably make a small list with the boys now. There is at least a month of summer left. 😊
Erica Pittenger
Excellent idea! We do the same thing! We all write a bucket list. One of my kids wanted to go to Paris, so I set up a virtual tour of Paris and we had boarding passes and everything. Someday they will see Paris, but for now, it was fun to pretend. We even had a tea party in an English garden! Thank you for posting this and inspiring others!
Adrienne Foxx
I absolutely LOVE that you found other creative ways to complete the bucket list items! Sounds so fun!
Chelsea
We make a summer bucket list ever year, too. At the beginning of summer we get together with the kids and decide what we all want to do/see over the summer. This year we finally got to go to Disneyland! And we have the usuals on there: the beach, a hike, camping, a movie (finally back in the theaters!), summer camp, housework and lots of pool time!
Adrienne Foxx
That’s awesome. I should consider doing a list as a family. Maybe when they are a little older we will do that too! I hope you had the most wonderful Disneylqnd trip!
Tiffany
I have lists for everything! Lol. I make my husband make them too so his wishes don’t get overlooked 🙃. Love this!
Adrienne Foxx
Smart idea! Most people want to have a little say in planning. Plus it helps for the buy in.
Suz | TravelsWithSuz.com
A great idea to write things down. My husband and I used to write down something we wanted to do on a slip of paper in a bowl, and once in awhile when at loose ends, we’d pull one out and do a surprise activity. 👍
Adrienne Foxx
That is a super fun way to do things! a little mystery to it.
Cindy
What a great idea! I can see so many benefits to doing this and being able to show the kids what they have done on their bucket list.
Adrienne Foxx
Exactly. Then when they go back to school and are asked to tell or wrote about what they did over the summer, they have reference material!
Misskorang
Mancella’s bucket list has “burn homework” lol. This is such a fun thing to do. Im definitely going to do this with my kiddos!
Adrienne Foxx
I hope you enjoy the process! I use pinterest and online searches for ideas!
Danielle Ardizzone
Great ideas! We always have so much going on that we neglect to take the time to do things like this.
Adrienne Foxx
It is my calm before the storm! 😆
Larissa Li
Pool! We spend 2 hours in the pool every day! Older Kids take classes. Adults chase the little one:).
We also went to the Kentucky Horse Park and watched Tecumseh at the outdoor theater. Spectacular!
Adrienne Foxx
that all sounds like so much fun! My kids would love to spend thst much time at the pool. It is what summer is all about.
Allison Peteet
Awesome idea. How many have you checked off?
Adrienne Foxx
I have about 9 checked off, my son’s list is about 75% done and my daughter has about 6 things checked off. Need to step up my game! 😊
Barbara
This is an excellent idea! Thanks for sharing! I am a list maker too!
Adrienne Foxx
Even if I lose them (and I lose them a lot), it was still so helpful to wrote a list. 😉
Stephanie
I love the idea of a summer bucket list. I have never made one, but this inspired me to do one next summer!
Adrienne Foxx
Enjoy the process! It can definitely be so much fun!
Kristin
What a fun idea! I giggled at “burn homework!” 🙂 I will definitely do this next summer. I can’t believe we are already in our final month!
Adrienne Foxx
it is crazy to think the summer is more than half over!!
Marianne
We usually make a travel bucket list for the year… and break it up into seasons. This year is still a little more ‘play it by ear’, but hopefully next year the bucket liost will be back!
Adrienne Foxx
that sounds like a good idea. This year is really cramping my style in terms of being able to properly plans I totally understand!
Cindy Moore
How fun to have everyone make their own summer bucket list! I have several things on mine.
Elizabeth
This is such a cute idea! I need to have my kids write out a list. I’m only afraid they would put down completely impossible things though, lol!
Adrienne Foxx
Ha! I can understand that. my son put dog on his lost and that will not be happening. I just talked to them about wants vs reality. 🙂