A summer bucket list can help you make the most of your summer vacation.
The school year is coming to an end and we are so excited about SUMMER! Each year, we make a summer bucket list. And this year I wanted to share with you what we’ve done in the past and what we are hoping to do this summer!
It’s funny how different our summers look NOW as opposed to just five years ago. Five years ago, I ruled this house. Now my teenagers do! Ha! Or really, their schedules do. I’m not a fan of putting my kids in camps. I like a carefree summer. We aim to be as minimal as possible with the SCHEDULED stuff. I like to hang out, be lazy, take my kids on adventures, and just be around each other.
In the past, when my kids were a bit younger, our summer days looked like this:
- Sleep in (9 ish)
- Chores/reading
- Daily adventure (10-2)
- Electronic time (3-5)
- Dad’s home/dinner
Because we all LOVED our electronics, I didn’t want it to get started too early, so 3pm was deemed “electronic time”. And everyone knew not to ask or even think they could get on electronics before 3pm. Back in that day, that meant turn on the TV or video game, while I got on my computer. But oh how things have changed! My 3 big kids have their own devices and my youngest wants to try the iPad. I’ve still tried to make this an enforcement, but it’s just trickier with “I gotta send a quick text” or whatever.
But I really loved that I knew and they knew that 3pm was movie time. In Texas, it’s so hot then, too, so outside play just doesn’t happen.
Summer Bucket List Daily Adventures
With those daily adventures, sometimes it’s the pool, other times it’s out to lunch, play with a friend, or go outside. It is just our activity for the day. It was always all of us. Nowadays, I’m lucky to get a few days a week with all of my kids together. I now have to CLAIM days with my boys before they see it as “we have nothing going on” and plan something with their friends. I’ve gotten smarter about it!
But really, this summer, my boys will head out on a high adventure mountain camping trip with their scout troop for 10 days right after school gets out. Then we’ve got my daughter’s birthday. Then I have friends coming in town, followed by a family trip. Next my 2nd son goes to a church camp in San Antonio and then my daughter goes to Girls Camp with church girls. And then July is over and it is time to get ready for school to start again.
My, how the time flies.
So, I wanted to share how we’ve done our summer bucket list in the past.
I used to scour Pinterest and find fun recipes and crafts to make, and would show my kids, and ask them for ideas. This is our checklist we’ve done in the past. We keep them from year to year to see what we want to do again. Clearly, we didn’t check everything off, but it guides us on days that we have open and say, Hmmmm…what do we want to do this week?
I now have to be realistic and simplify. I’m sharing a printable that I’m going to present to our family in the next week at a family night and ask everyone to contribute 3 things they’d like to do this summer.
Grab your free printable Summer Bucket List  HERE!
They can even print it out for themselves to hang it in their room for their own personal summer list, but I want to make one for family activities.
Here are a few basic ideas that I personally love to do with my family:
- go on a picnic
- trampoline park
- marathon movie day
- downtown wall crawl
- donut hopping
- try a new restaurant
- Kids triathlon
I made a fun little video of how simple a picnic can be. You can make sandwiches or simplify with a handful of snacks. We love Yoplait, and there is a new Mix-Ins flavor that I FINALLY found: S’mores! We love it, you can see most of us sampling it in the video. Â #IWorkWithYoplait
So, print the above checklist, sit down with your family, and make your summer bucket list!
