Soon the school bell will ring for the last time and the “I’m bored” and “I’m hungry” complaints will fill our homes with the kids out of school. Get prepared now to stop those summertime blues with a morning routine they look forward to and some checklist of activities to squeeze in over the next two months. Download this printable summer bucket list with lots of things to keep the kids busy this summer!
This will be the first summer that both my girls are home with me and not at school or daycare. A whole 7 weeks of entertainment is needed (plus we’ll be on a beach vacation for one week). To get ready for this big adventure ahead of me, I created this Summer Bucket List printable and made it available to my fellow parents looking for some ideas.
This list includes activities that I believe I can handle with the girls on my own as we’ll still have plenty of activities to do as a family. Download this freebie then read below for expanded ideas from this bulleted list.
In addition, on the first day of summer break I plan to surprise the girls with this magnetic calendar so we can start each morning discussing the date, season and weather, an activity Brielle already does at Kindergarten and Hailey will be doing in preschool this fall. I also found these “Morning Starters” books from the Dollar Tree where each girl can work on one sheet each morning. They LOVE workbooks so I know these will be a hit!
- Obstacle Course – Grab all your outdoor toys and arrange them in a way that it creates an obstacle course game! I plan to do this early on in the season as I foresee them wanting to repeat this (hopefully on their own!)
- Outdoor Picnic – The girls always think it’s so special when we eat outside on their little picnic table so I will pack up our waterproof picnic blanket, some PB&J sandwiches and hit the local park for lunch in a new grassy spot!
- Science Day – I already have a Slime Kit set aside as one activity for this day and might need to break out a baking soda and vinegar play station. I also got two Ready, Set, Space kits full of crafts with an educational element that I plan to do over a few days, most likely with some books about space from the library.
- Mini Golf – Good thing my Father-in-law works at one!
- Host a Crafternoon – Still deciding on a craft, but local friends – let me know if you want in on some creative playtime!
- Visit the zoo – DONE! We visited the Popcorn Park Zoo for my neice’s birthday early July. I am hoping to also get to Turtle Back Zoo this August if it’s not too hot!
- Trampoline Park – DONE! Ours has a toddler hour Fridays at 10am that we’ve done in the past that you can attend with kids who are walkers to age 5. Brielle turns 6 late August so we might be able to hit it up one more time before that happens!
- Splash Pad – DONE! We visited one near us on a not too hot morning and it was a splash!
- Scavenger Hunt – DONE! I put these together with the help of my nature scavenger hunt printables and mini clipboards from Walmart and took them to the local sculpture garden. They were SUPER into it and already asked to do it again! Both suggested they “be the leaders” on the walk so they could keep an eye out for their list.
- Pick fresh fruit – last year we did Strawberries in May so we’ll have to see what’s growing in the summer sun!
- Catch lightning bugs – The girls can stay up a little later in the summer and complete this childhood classic activity!
- Homemade Popsicles – DONE! We created a strawberry/banana/vanilla ice cream style when hosting a playdate with friends. Everyone LOVED them and we’re up for making more! I’m always looking to add more recipes to my list, especially since I need to do more for my 40 Before Forty list!
- Plant and grown something – We’ll probably try a small scale project before going bigger with a garden in the yard next year.
- Decorate T-shirts – The girls already got a taste for freezer paper stencil t-shirts during spring break so I think a new design is in order. (PS the SVG file for my “Summer 2019” design will be free in a post going live later this week!)
- Amusement Park – DONE! Many times over! Our Great Adventure season passes were so worth it since we live so close!
- Make your Own Sundaes – DONE! We made this happen the first day of summer with an Ice Cream Social party with a group of 12 kids! Check out the tips I learned that I’ll be implementing for next year!
- Bathtub painting – We did it in our old house with this Crayola fingerpaint and had no issues with cleaning it off the walls or their body. We have a big bathtub in our room which might be fun for a rainy day!
- Visit a new playground – DONE! We were able to enjoy one when on a weekend road trip to another state to visit my bestie!
- Bike somewhere new – They fit in our car so we’ll load them up and find a new place to tool around!
- Random act of kindness – DONE! We donated our broken crayons to the Crayon Initative at AC Moore AND we hosted a lemonade stand one VERY hot Sunday, with all proceeds going to Alex’s lemonade stand.
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