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.

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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. This list is for elementary and possibly middle school kids. Head over here for a summer bucket list for tweens and teens.

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

CLICK TO GET THE BUCKET LIST

Here's what's on the printable summer bucket list:

1. Create your own summer bucket list
2. Excavate frozen fruit
3. Do some learning outside
4. Make suncatchers
5. Make sidewalk chalk paint
6. Explode sandwich bags
7. Catch fireflies
8. Make a balance beam
9. Go see fireworks
10. Throw whirlybirds off the deck
11. Make a leaf scrapbook
12. Go on a hike
13. Water blob
14. Play miniature golf
15. Make root beer floats
16. Wash the car by hand
17. Participate in the library's summer reading program
18. Participate in the library's summer letterbox program
19. Outdoor scavenger hunt
20. Photo scavenger huntCLICK TO GET THE BUCKET LIST
21. Make a map of the backyard
22. Have a carnival at home
23. Go for a boat ride
24. Go bowling
25. Pick raspberries
26. Pick blueberries
27. Pick strawberries
28. Make homemade jam
29. Swim in the lake
30. Play bocce ball
31. Glow stick hide & seek
32. See a drive-in movie
33. Make root beer sherbet
34. Paint the lawn with flour
35. Make flag t-shirts
36. Paint with ice cubes
37. Make banana splits
38. Go to a petting zoo
39. Make a nature collage
40. Tie-dye shirts
41. Water balloon catch
42. Visit the amusement park
43. Visit a water park
44. Have a picnic
45. Make dirt pudding
46. Grow a garden
47. Bake something with fresh cherries
48. Play in the creek
49. Go to a parkCLICK TO GET THE BUCKET LIST
50. Build a campfire
51. Cook dinner over the campfire
52. Make s'mores
53. Go to a baseball game
54. Make fireworks art
55. Make patriotic fruit kabobs
56. Make astronaut pudding
57. Float in a pool
58. Make a butterfly craft
59. Make homemade popsicles
60. Make a Father's Day gift
61. Go out for ice cream
62. Go for a bike ride
63. Make a jellyfish suncatcher
64. Make a mini ocean aquarium
65. Make beachy pudding cups
66. Make under the sea graham cracker snacks
67. Play with water beads
68. Have a water gun battle
69. Visit a splash pad
70. Finger paint
71. Feed the ducks
72. Go fishing
73. Have Christmas in July, complete with Christmas cookies and Christmas music and a special meal - and maybe even a couple of gifts!
74. Marshmallow shooters
75. Nerf gun battle
76. Go stargazing
77. Watch the sunriseCLICK TO GET THE BUCKET LIST
78. Watch the sunset
79. Build a sandcastle
80. Make a homemade pizza
81. Grill a pizza
82. Go to a free concert
83. Go on a road trip
84. Listen to an audiobook
85. Float down a river in an inner tube
86. Ride a ferris wheel
87. Have a water balloon fight
88. Start a lemonade stand
89. Play in the sprinkler
90. Play in a public fountain (only with permission)
91. Fly a kite
92. Blow bubbles
93. Hunt for cloud animals
94. Fly paper airplanes
95. Play in the mud
96. Go to a museum
97. Go to a yard sale
98. Play frisbee
99. Play hide and seek outside
100. Visit the library
101. Take photos of flowers
102. Slip n slide
103. Workshops at Lowes & Home Depot
104. Visit a pet store
105. Jump rope
106. Play hopscotch
107. Visit a fair or carnival
108. Build an obstacle course
109. Create a music video
110. Start a YouTube channel
111. Play with shaving creamCLICK TO GET THE BUCKET LIST
112. Make a fairy garden
113. Take a nap in a hammock (this is the one we have and LOVE - plenty big enough for 3 kids at one time)
114. Eat dinner al fresco (you would know that means outside if you read Fancy Nancy)
115. Paint your faces
116. Try a new food
117. Start a rock collection
118. Do a random act of kindness
119. Visit a farmer's market
120. Visit a flea market
121. Make no bake cookies
122. Make frozen yogurt
123. Visit the zoo
124. See a waterfall
125. Rent a paddleboat
126. Have walking tacos
127. Learn something new
128. HAVE FUN!

Grab the free Summer Bucket List for Kids printable below.

CLICK TO GET THE BUCKET LIST

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!