Are you a list person? Lists are seriously how I function! If it’s not on my list, I forget all about it.
It’s the same way with activities and fun family memory making moments. If there is something I want to do with my kiddoes, it simply never ever happens unless it’s on the list.
This summer, use these simple summer bucket list ideas and printables to help you be intentional with your family and your memory making fun!
There are two ways to use these. You can print off the list my kids and I came up with, and get started! Or print the blank list and determine what’s on your bucket list yourself.
Hold a family meeting and make a list of all the things you would like to do together this summer. It was super fun coming up with these ideas as a family!
If you need some super fun ideas, check out this list of summer bucket list ideas for families below! Then challenge your family to check them all off before the summer ends.
Summer Bucket List Ideas
Critter Race
Catching frogs and other critters is one of my children’s favorite pastimes. If there is a critter to be caught, they are after it! Catch a couple similar beetles, caterpillars, frogs, or lizards and have an epic race. Draw a chalk line and the first critter to cross is the winner!
Summer Reading Challenge
We always do some sort of summer reading challenge. Reading is the perfect way to cool off after a hot, lazy afternoon of soaking up too much sunshine.
This year we are using our Fun Places to Do School Challenge printables to draw a random place to read (like in the bathtub or with a pet) each day. This was my kid’s brilliant idea and they are LOVING it!
Make Flower Crowns
Do you remember tying clover blossoms together to make the finest jewelry in all the land? Nothing reminds me of childhood quite like stringing together those white flowers into crowns!
Have your kiddoes gather some flowers and make opulent adornments fit for a king and queen.
Give Dandelion Tattoos
I remember doing this as a child as well. Pick some dandelions and rub the flowers on the back of your hand. It seems like this works best at the beginning of the dandelion season. It should leave a lovely yellow “dandelion tattoo.”
Make Fizzy Sidewalk Chalk Paint
Sidewalk chalk is fun no matter how old you are. I have never met a kid that didn’t enjoy making creations out of it! One thing we have enjoyed several times through the years is sidewalk chalk paint.
With simple ingredients, we already had around the house (food coloring, cornstarch, and baking soda) we were able to make sidewalk chalk that FIZZED when sprayed. If you want to impress your kiddoes, check out the recipe here!
Family Swim Bash
Our family is filled with water babies. We are hot day at the beach kind of people! So planning a family swim bash is a must. If your kids enjoy the water, be sure to add a family swim party to the mix. Even if you aren’t a person who loves the pool, plan on hopping in and playing with your family at least once this summer!
Raise a Plant
Allowing children to raise a plant from seed to final product is such a great experience. It is one thing to help mom or dad in the garden, but when the plant is your own and it’s life is your responsibility – it just provides a great learning opportunity.
You can read about the plant and what kind of care it needs before you plant it, then make sure it has all the water and sunshine required. If all goes well, your child will have some harvest produce at the end of the summer. If things fail, it’s a wonderful opportunity to learn what not to do for next time.
Make Ice Cream in a Bag
Have you ever made ice cream in a bag with your kiddoes? If not, you need to DO IT! Seriously, add it to your bucket list now. We are mostly dairy free, and dairy free milk (like almond or coconut) can easily be substituted.
We are going to try this recipe for almond milk ice cream in a bag this year. As a bonus, there is a super yummy and natural chocolate syrup recipe too. Yum!
Go for an Insect Hunt
It isn’t really summer unless you have watched the fields sparkle with lightning bugs. While you are awe struck with the sparkling, catch a few and learn about them!
During the day time you can go on an insect hunt. Find as many bugs as you can, then have fun identifying them. You can also learn the characteristics of insects, and determine which bugs are actually insects.
Pick Berries
Picking strawberries, blueberries, or blackberries has always been a summer favorite of ours. Getting outside and hunting for the biggest, ripest berries to pick is so. much. fun! Bonus points if you make homemade jam when you are finished.
Ride a Bike
Have you ever ridden one of those huge family tandem bikes? It’s on my ultimate bucket list for someday! Even if you are like me and don’t have a huge bike everyone can ride, get outside and go on a family bike ride using whatever you have. It just isn’t summer without a good bike ride.
Eat Watermelon
Buy a big juicy one and turn the kids loose with the thing outside. ‘Nuff said.
Find a Creative Way to Serve Your Neighbor
Every season is a good time to practice loving your neighbors. This comes a bit easier to my family around the holidays. It’s super easy to use Thanksgiving as a time to bring “We are Thankful for you!” treats or Valentines Day for “We love that you are our neighbor!” treats. (Check out our favorite treats to bring our neighbors: Turkey Oreos , Acorn Treats , Pumpkin cookies, and Valentines Day bites, ) But summer requires more creativity.
Sit down with your family and think of some sweet ways to serve your neighbors. Do they need help with something? Is there someone they have noticed that could use some extra joy via something special they could do? Be creative and do it together! It might just be the highlight of your summer 🙂
Play Fun-noodle Ball
This was a whacky idea I can attribute to Church camp! Everyone gets a pool noodle to use as a hocky stick. Break up into two teams and use your noodles to whack a balloon into a goal. Goals can be made out of cones or even laundry baskets.
Add in a sprinkler for some extra fun!
Host a Picnic
Invite some friends over for a picnic lunch. This is great to do on a cool or breezy day in early or late summer. Have the kids prepare lunch, pack it up, and picnic in your backyard or at a park! It’s a must when thinking about summer bucket list ideas.
Make Shadow Drawings
This is fun to do on a sunny day. Have each child grab their favorite toy or object. Set it out in the sun and put a piece of paper or notebook in the object’s shadow, then trace the outline!
It’s extra fun if you do this with the same object in the morning, afternoon, and evening to compare. You can use this to springboard a study on the sun!
Water Bead Play
I have wanted to do this for SO LONG. I mean it’s for the children really… haha. 😉 I need everyone to be old enough to be trusted not to eat the beads, or young enough to not be able to play. So this is the summer we are doing it and hoping for the best!
We bought these glorious water beads and will be enjoying them with lots of scoops and bowls in a kiddie pool in our backyard. I may even have left overs for the bath tub!
Balloon Volleyball
Balloon volleyball is oh so simple, yet oh so fun! Blow up a balloon and practice keeping it up in the air. You can break up into teams and create a makeshift net out of a couple chairs and a bed sheet. Be sure to keep a few spares in case your balloon pops!
Paint with Flowers
Do your kiddoes love picking flowers like mine do?? We always have a beautiful assortment of weeds in a cup adorning our table in the summer months. Put those flower picking skills to the test, and turn it into an art lesson!
The name of the game is simple. Grab some different flowers out of the yard and use them as paint brushes. Have your kiddoes try to paint something they see outside and then take turns guessing what they painted. Then have them pain something that reminds them of summer. Too fun!
Squirt Gun Paint an Old T-shirt
I had this wild idea based on some super fun gender reveals we have seen. How fun would it be to mix some paint with water and let the kids paint white t-shirts!?
Buy some cheap squirt guns from the dollar store, mix one part paint to three parts water and turn them loose. You can put cardboard in the middle of the shirt and let each child aim at it like a canvas. Or let them wear the shirts and aim at each other!
Make Sun-Change Slime
We recently made super fun glow in the dark slime and now my kids are OBSESSED. They got this great glue that changes colors in the sun for St. Nicholas Day, so we are turning it into slime that changes colors in the sun.
This makes the perfect summer slime!
Forage for Edible Plants
We have had tons of fun scouring the yard for edible plants. We downloaded a free app that can identify and classify plants in seconds. It turns out our yard is filled with things we can eat. Plantains, dandelions, wild onions, and honeysuckle blossoms to name a few.
So far we have tried dandelion tea, fried dandelions, raw wild onions and plantains, and honeysuckle tea. Yum!
Search for Rocks
I don’t think I have ever met a kid who didn’t enjoy hunting for rocks and playing with them. Now is a great time to start a rock collection. Go on a hunt and collect as many different types as you can. If your kiddoes are interested, have them come home and identify them.
Look for Cloud Shapes
Us mamas often get so busy, we forget to stop and stare at the clouds. Take some time this summer to imagine what God has painted in the sky! My daughter recently found a cloud that looked just like Jesus holding a baby.
If you are a mama who has had a miscarriage, you can imagine what a breathtaking sight and a peaceful reminder it was for our family. (We have had two miscarriages and two rainbow babies <3) I would have never seen it if she wasn’t searching the clouds filled with wonder!
Play in a Sprinkler
You simply must do this if you have a hose! Even if you don’t own a sprinkler, they are super easy to make. Take an old 2 litter soda bottle, pole some holes in it and duck-tape it on to the end of the hose. Viola! Hours of summer fun running and jumping through the sprinkling water!
Have a Family Movie Night
We love to enjoy a good family movie night together! Bust out the popcorn and gather in the living room for snuggles and memory-making. It can be difficult to find movies that are appropriate for families these days, so check out our list of favorites HERE!
Enjoy some Homemade Lemonade
Let your kiddoes try their hand and fresh squeezed lemonade. Be sure to add this to your list of summer bucket list ideas. All you need are some lemons to squeeze (it takes more than you’d think), some water, and some sugar to taste. Mmmmm! Summer in a glass!
Create Fireworks in a Jar
This is a super easy science experiment that reminds me of watching a lava lamp. All you need is some oil, food coloring, and water to make an interesting colored phenomenon.
Check out full instructions here.
Cook a New Recipe Together
Splash in Mud Puddles
After a summer storm, get outside and splash in some puddles! Throw on some rain boots and go jump in with your kiddoes. You won’t regret it 🙂
See who can make the biggest splash and take some sweet, muddy pictures when you are finished. Don’t forget how important these little years are!
Paint with Ice Cubes
The perfect art project for a hot summers day. This is super easy to throw together and will really wow your kiddoes! Fill an ice cub tray with water. Add a few drops of food coloring to each cube, swirl with a Popsicle stick, and then pop the Popsicle stick into each ice cube and set in the freezer.
In a couple of hours, you will have watercolor-like paint cubes to use. Set your kiddoes up out in the grass and let them paint their favorite memories of summer. Don’t be surprised when your kids want to do this again and again!
Camp out in the Yard and Make S’mores
This will be an amazing memory-making tradition for your family! Pop up a tent and stay up late. Roast hot-dogs over a campfire and toast some marshmallows for s’more making. Oh, such sweet sticky fun!
Stay up Late for Stargazing
Your family camp out will be perfect for star gazing way past bedtime. See if you can identify any planets, constellation, or the phase of the moon. Bonus points if you draw some pictures or use it to kick-start an astronomy science unit!
Family Water Balloon Fight
My children are begging to check this one off of our list. Set some ground rules and fill up the balloons. Decide if you are on teams or if it is every man for him (or her) self! Then let the war games begin.
Make Sun Prints
Have you ever made sun prints? So easy, and so fun! You can buy special sun exposure paper or simply use dark construction paper. Take it outside on a sunny day and cover it with some varying objects. Then let the sun do its work!
Afterwards you will have a lovely sunprint paper!
Have a Sponge Relay Race
We have played a few different versions of this through the years. Basically you need large sponges, and water. You can race to move the water from one bucket or bowl to another. Or you can even draw a huge picture with chalk (a large fire for example) and use the sponges to wring out water on the picture until it is all erased.
Family Game Night
My kids love nothing better than a family game night. It is seriously the best bribery ever! My kids will work for game night, sight words, spelling, and long division included. Check out some of our favorite family games to play here!
Make Bath Bombs
I have always wanted to make my own bath bombs. Ever since they became so popular everywhere, my daughter has jumped on the bandwagon. The best bath bombs have a hidden surprise inside of them of course!
Check out this recipe for making an all natural colored bath bomb with a hidden treasure inside!
Make Bird Feeders and Go Bird Watching
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