Our Summer Bucket List: Inspiration One Adventure at a Time

A simple idea to keep kids engaged, curious, and joyful without a jam-packed schedule this summer.

We made it through another homeschool year and the long, beautiful days of summer have begun! My family thrives on a regular rhythm during our school year, but even though most of our school books are packed away for a few months, I still crave some sort of predictable pattern to these days. Even in this slower season of life, I’m looking for ways to help our family stay connected, engaged, and curious. So this year, we’re creating a Summer Bucket List— and my kids are just as excited about it as I am!

Before I walk you through how we created our list and give you ideas about how to make your own summer bucket list for your family, let me explain what this project isn’t…it’s not about doing it all or feeling guilty if we’ve only accomplished a handful of adventures. We certainly aren’t trying to pack our summer full of back-to-back activities, leaving little margin in our weeks. Our bucket list is more like a poster full of inspiration we can return to when we hit a lull or feel that familiar “I’m bored” start to surface.

No expectations, rules, or requirements. Just a list of what will help to make this summer full of learning, connecting, and being together.

Why We’re Making a Summer Bucket List

Summer is full of opportunities like freedom from a busy school schedule, restful days, and more time to explore beyond the walls of our home. But sometimes, those wide-open days can also feel overwhelming or directionless, especially when the structure of our homeschool rhythm isn’t anchoring us anymore.

So we decided to gather a big list of ideas, including things we want to try, ways we can stay creative, ways to explore nature, and ideas for those inevitable rainy days indoors. Some are practical. Some are goofy. And all of them are created with the goal of making an amazing summer together.

How We Created Ours

After explaining what a summer bucket list was, all 4 of my kids were beyond thrilled and their excitement was through the roof. To make our list, we started by brainstorming together. I offered a few categories to spark ideas…

• Arts & Crafts

• Nature & Outdoors

• Calm & Rainy Day Fun

• Water Play

• Exploring & Travel

• Celebrating Fun National Days

I gave them some examples to get us started, and then the kids began tossing out ideas of their own. It turned into a great time of collaboration that already gave us wind in our sails to make this project a reality.

After making our list of ideas (and there’s no set number because there’s no pressure to do them all!), we created and illustrated a big poster board that hangs in our school room. It’s colorful, fun, and right there when we need it. My plan is to visit the poster each weekend and see what ideas pique our interest for the coming week.

A Peek at What’s on Our List

Here are some of the ideas we included, broken down by category…

Arts & Crafts

• Make tie-dye t-shirts

• Create a nature collage

• Build a fairy garden

• Draw a sidewalk chalk mural

Nature & Outdoors

• Backyard birdwatching (we’ll put a few new types of bird feeders in our yard)

• Nature scavenger hunt on our favorite trail

• Camp in the backyard (we call this Camp-o-Rama)

• Catch fireflies at dusk

• Play flashlight tag

• Go stargazing

• Go to a baseball game

Calm & Rainy Day Fun

• Have a tea party with stuffed animals

• Do a puzzle together

• Watch a classic movie after reading the book (we’re reading Little House on the Prairie currently)

• Make a giant blanket fort

• Bake cookies and then deliver them to neighbors

Water Play

• Visit a splash pad

• Have a neighborhood water balloon fight

• Wash the car together in the backyard

• Make toy boats to float down the stream

Acts of Kindness

• Do a good deed for a neighbor

• Mail a letter to someone

• Invite the neighbor kids over for a cookout

Foodie Fun

• Make homemade popsicles (here’s our favorite recipe book!)

• Have an “ice cream for dinner” night

• Build your own pizza night

Silly National Days

• June 6- National Drive-In Movie Day: we’ll create a movie theater in our backyard, complete with sleeping bags and popcorn

• June 14- National Strawberry Shortcake Day: we all LOVE strawberries so this one is a must-do!

• June 20- National Vanilla Milkshake Day: absolutely doing this one while we explore a new ice cream shop!

• July 20- National Lollipop Day: a visit to our local candy store is one of the best times ever

• July 24- National Cousins Day: my kids’ cousins are their best friends so why not celebrate with a sleepover and some fun activities

• August 2- National Ice Cream Sandwich Day: this will be another fun baking activity we can do together

• August 10- National S’mores Day: Bring on the campfire and backyard campout

Keeping It Fun, Not Stressful

We’re treating this giant list as a buffet, not a checklist. It’s not about completing everything on the list…it’s about having ideas ready when we need some fun in our week.

Some days we’ll do something big. Other days we’ll just pick one simple thing. And then there will be days that life gets filled with other tasks and chores and we’ll have to push pause. It’s flexible, family-focused, and offers the opportunity for presence over perfection.

A few things that will help us to make this list attainable and realistic…

• Pacing- I’ll let the kids choose a couple ideas per week, depending on what we already have going on in our schedule.

• Variety- We’ll mix active days with quiet, creative ones.

• Cost Effective- Materials and supplies are kept minimal and easy to grab and go as needed (some ordered in advance so we are more likely to make them happen). Very few ideas on our list require an admission fee, so this keeps our budget low.

• Completion- As we complete an activity, we’ll “check” it off by putting a colorful star sticker by that activity on our poster.

Creating our Poster

Creating the poster together was part of the fun. After I wrote all of our ideas, the kids had a blast decorating the poster and making it their own. It’s now hanging on the wall in our homeschool space and it’s a visual reminder that summer can be simple, full of joy, and led by curiosity.

Let Summer Be Simple and Sweet

You don’t need to fill your calendar with expensive trips or outings to make summer feel magical. Sometimes all you need is a list of easy, cheap, possibilities, a few lazy days, and the willingness to stomp through a creek, catch fireflies in the dark, or indulge in ice cream for dinner (which my kids are especially stoked for).

I hope this post inspires you to create a bucket list of your own, making it one that fits your family and your rhythm. And if you do, I’d love to hear what you put on yours!

Here’s to a slow, joyful summer. ☀️