The Ultimate Summer Bucket List {80+ Ideas}

Looking for fun ways to keep your kids busy this summer? This printable summer bucket list has tons of ideas for you and your kid for things to add to your summer bucket list!

Image of a creek with text overlay - 80+ summer bucket list ideas

Summer is upon us, my friends!

I really do love this time of year, but after leaving my job as a teacher a few years back I find that I don’t look forward to summer with quite the fervor I used to. Summer used to mean freedom from responsibility and several wonderful months to just do whatever I wanted. Now? It means three months of trying to juggle work and entertaining two small children (one of which is a baby who still naps twice a day – seriously putting a cramp on our “get out of the house” plans!).

It’s still fun, but just not quite the same!

I love to try to make summer special when I can, and I always try to put in a little extra effort to plan things that are affordable and accessible but still feel exciting. I often get emails from people who have been reading for a while and know my love of bucket lists asking for ideas for what to do with their kids – so I thought today would be a fun opportunity to share a full resource guide to all of my best ideas for keeping the kiddos busy during the summer. There are more than 80 ideas for your summer bucket lists in this post, so you’re basically guaranteed to have something to do every day!

Enjoy!

The Ultimate Summer bucket list

First up, let’s chat about the summer schedule. Last summer, I shared a really detailed look at what our schedule looked like throughout the summer. I like to keep things pretty structured so no one loses their minds. This summer, we’re taking a slightly different approach and instead of just having a detailed schedule, we’re going with themed days throughout the week. Jackson loves a routine and likes to know what to expect, so this is a fun way to keep things fresh and exciting but also pretty predictable.

Here’s a look at what our basic weekly schedule is:

Monday: Games + Crafts We made a special trip to the craft store to get some crafting supplies for the summer, and we’ll spend some dedicated time each Monday afternoon getting creative. We’ll also play some board games together!
Tuesday: Water Day On Tuesdays, we’ll head to the pool or a local splash pad. I’ll probably try to coordinate this with friends most weeks so it can also be a play date!
Wednesday: Adventure Day Each week I’ll plan a fun outing to a museum, a new park, or maybe a small day trip to visit a friend.
Thursday: Movie Day We’ll cook a special snack or lunch together (great time to practice some of those important life skills!) and snuggle up to watch a movie.
Friday: Errand Day We always go grocery shopping on Friday mornings, and I always prefer to combine all of my weekly errands into one big trip. So, on Friday we’ll take care of anything we need to do and spend the rest of the day just hanging out.

It might seem a little too structured, but trust me when I say this is absolutely what works best for our family. We don’t follow the schedule every day – sometimes we have play dates or spontaneous trips to the park, and sometimes we have events like Vacation Bible School or other random things. But, the beauty of having a really structured schedule is that on the days where you just can’t come up with anything creative to do and the kids are whiny and you just want to turn on the television and give up, it’s really nice to have a schedule to fall back on. It’s already pretty much planned for you, so it doesn’t require any additional thinking. And, I use my bucket list items (which we’ll get into in a minute) to fill in the gaps!

Are you ready for the ultimate summer bucket list?

I’m going to share all of the bucket lists I’ve shared on the blog over the years. You can pin the one you like for later or just print it directly. Then, I’ll also add a few other things we’re going to try this year.

If you have any fun ideas to add, be sure to let me know in the comments!