Summer bucket list – Over 100 ideas for kids, teens, families, and adults! Includes crafts, recipes, and lots of fun activities indoors and outdoors. Free printable.
PIN IT FOR LATER!
Many years ago, I made a summer bucket list for like five years in a row, except I never ever called it a bucket list. But it was the same thing.
In 2017, I decided to make a bucket list for each season starting with winter. You can grab my winter bucket list and spring bucket list and fall bucket list elsewhere on this site. Now that summer is right around the corner, I am sharing my summer bucket list.
As a full-time working mom and a mom blogger, I have to be really intentional about spending time with my kids. If I’m not intentional, our days and weeks would slip by, and I wouldn’t have spent any real time with them.
I mean, we’re in the same house, maybe even in the same room, but I’m writing on my blog or talking to their dad or working at my job, and they’re watching tv or playing Legos or Barbies or something else. On their own.
If I’m not careful, my kids and I can lead these parallel lives, and I don’t take the opportunity to pour into them at all. Like I said, I have to be intentional about it.
Hence the need for a bucket list for every season of the year. We can choose from the items on the list when we have little pockets of time or as opportunities come up. It will give us a base, a starting point from which to make our time together fun and rewarding.
As an aside, I am super intentional about scheduling fun. I make sure we do something fun together, all four of us, every single week, no matter what. (Well, unless they go on a weekend trip. Then I plan something fun for just me and Joe.) I have it written into my planner, I save money for it out of every paycheck, and I almost always make it happen.
I have read studies that say children make incredible memories on vacation. We do take vacations, usually one big one per year with a couple of weekends away.
But what if we can build those incredible memories in little bites sprinkled all throughout the year? Would that not add up in their little memory banks to a childhood well spent? I sure hope so.
If you’re looking for a way to get your kids to take charge of their own entertainment, click over to this post where I have created a unique, card-based list of 150 of the best screen-free activities for elementary kids up through teens.
I’ve also created a similar summer bucket list just for tweens and teens, so if you have older kids, go over and check that one out too. I’ve shared a photo scavenger hunt for tweens and teens, too.
Summer Bucket List for Kids – Free Family Fun Printable
Here’s what’s on the printable summer bucket list:
- Create your own summer bucket list
- Excavate frozen fruit
- Do some learning outside
- Make suncatchers
- Make sidewalk chalk paint
- Explode sandwich bags
- Catch fireflies
- Make a balance beam
- Go see fireworks
- Throw whirlybirds off the deck
- Make a leaf scrapbook
- Go on a hike
- Water blob
- Play miniature golf
- Make root beer floats
- Wash the car by hand
- Participate in the library’s summer reading program
- Participate in the library’s summer letterbox program
- Outdoor scavenger hunt
- Photo scavenger hunt
- Make a map of the backyard
- Have a carnival at home
- Go for a boat ride
- Go bowling
- Pick raspberries
- Pick blueberries
- Pick strawberries
- Make homemade jam
- Swim in the lake
- Play bocce ball
- Glow stick hide & seek
- See a drive-in movie
- Make root beer sherbet
- Paint the lawn with flour
- Make flag t-shirts
- Paint with ice cubes
- Make banana splits
- Go to a petting zoo
- Make a nature collage
- Tie-dye shirts
- Water balloon catch
- Visit the amusement park
- Visit a water park
- Have a picnic
- Make dirt pudding
- Grow a garden
- Bake something with fresh cherries
- Play in the creek
- Go to a park
- Build a campfire
- Cook dinner over the campfire
- Make s’mores
- Go to a baseball game
- Make fireworks art
- Make patriotic fruit kabobs
- Make astronaut pudding
- Float in a pool
- Make a butterfly craft
- Make homemade popsicles
- Make a Father’s Day gift
- Go out for ice cream
- Go for a bike ride
- Make a jellyfish suncatcher
- Make a mini ocean aquarium
- Make beachy pudding cups
- Make under the sea graham cracker snacks
- Play with water beads
- Have a water gun battle
- Visit a splash pad
- Finger paint
- Feed the ducks
- Go fishing
- Have Christmas in July, complete with Christmas cookies and Christmas music and a special meal – and maybe even a couple of gifts!
- Marshmallow shooters
- Nerf gun battle
- Go stargazing
- Watch the sunrise
- Watch the sunset
- Build a sandcastle
- Make a homemade pizza
- Grill a pizza
- Go to a free concert
- Go on a road trip
- Listen to an audiobook
- Float down a river in an inner tube
- Ride a ferris wheel
- Have a water balloon fight
- Start a lemonade stand
- Play in the sprinkler
- Play in a public fountain (only with permission)
- Fly a kite
- Blow bubbles
- Hunt for cloud animals
- Fly paper airplanes
- Play in the mud
- Go to a museum
- Go to a yard sale
- Play frisbee
- Play hide and seek outside
- Visit the library
- Take photos of flowers
- Slip n slide
- Workshops at Lowes & Home Depot
- Visit a pet store
- Jump rope
- Play hopscotch
- Visit a fair or carnival
- Build an obstacle course
- Create a music video
- Start a YouTube channel
- Play with shaving cream
- Make a fairy garden
- Take a nap in a hammock (this is the one we have and LOVE – plenty big enough for 3 kids at one time)
- Eat dinner al fresco (you would know that means outside if you read Fancy Nancy)
- Paint your faces
- Try a new food
- Start a rock collection
- Do a random act of kindness
- Visit a farmer’s market
- Visit a flea market
- Make no bake cookies
- Make frozen yogurt
- Visit the zoo
- See a waterfall
- Rent a paddleboat
- Have walking tacos
- Learn something new
- HAVE FUN!
Grab the free Summer Bucket List for Kids printable below.
This summer bucket list for kids and families is an easy way to plan for your long summer at home. It’s full of ideas for spending time together as a family, and each item is simple enough to put together in an afternoon. Print it out and get started making memories today!
