Summer Bucket List for Kids – Free Family Fun Printable

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!