SUMMER TRADITIONS – 100 IDEAS

Welcome to the summer!  These days seem to go by so fast!  The kids look forward to the day they walk out of the school for the summer.  You as a parent have big plans to spend quality time with your kids.  Plans to do all the things you have envisioned that you would do with them.  The kids are only out of school for a couple of months and before you know it…it is almost over.  You then think back on the summer and wonder where the days went??

You had big plans to create so many wonderful family memories with your kids.  Yet life happens and you find yourself cramming in as much as you can the week before school starts again.  Trust me, I know that feeling, I still do that.  So a few years ago, I started making a bucket list.  A list of ideas to display and prevent the words, ‘I’m bored’.  The kids contributed with their ideas, too.  My goal was to make sure the activities were well balanced.  I added in ones that I knew we would most likely do no matter what and those that required a little bit of work.  For example, we will see fireworks most likely at a Tincaps Baseball game or even in our own neighborhood on the fourth of July.  Then I added in ideas like making homemade ice cream which would require some prep work from me at the grocery store.

Some of our favorite outdoor activities include:

1. Nature walk
2. Scavenger hunt
3. Fly a kite
4. Watch fireworks
5. Play Frisbee (decorate a Frisbee)
6. Dance in the rain
7. Blow bubbles (bubble machine)
8. Stargaze
9. Catch fireflies
10. Build a sandcastle
11. Picnic at a park
12. Go Fishing
13. Watch a sunset
14. Collect seashells
15. Bonefire
16. Make a fairy garden
17. Bury a time capsule
18. Family bike ride
19. Lemonade Stand
20. Paint rocks
21. Christmas in July party
22. Backyard camping
23. Make sidewalk paint
24. Extreme Lego day
25. Homemade play doh
26. Backyard drive-in movie
27. Frozen paint art
28. Paint pottery
29. Sleepover with friends
30. DIY kaleidoscopes
31. Make tie dye shirts (or other items)
32. 1 mile race (or bike race)
33. Plant a pizza garden
34. Throwable Paintballs

Who doesn’t like an adventure?  Here are some excursions to try:

1. Drive-in Movie
2. Backyard outdoor movie
3. Pick Strawberries
4. Waterpark
5. Go Camping
6. Visit the zoo
7. Children’s Museum
8. Putt-putt golf
9. Bowling
10. Rock Hunting
11. Chuck E Cheese
12. Library
13. Aquarium
14. Candy factory (i.e. Albanese or Dum Dum)
15. Go Carts
16. Baseball game
17. Visit nature center
18. Day trip to a annual destination (i.e. Lake Michigan)
19. Attend a festival/ carnival
20. Sleep over at the zoo
21. Date night with each kid
22. Attend a parade
23. Indoor trampoline
24. Amusement park
25. Hot air balloon ride
26. Visit a state park
27. Roller skating
28. Go out for ice cream
29. Explore new play grounds

Summer is not truly summer with out water…so our best water activities are:  

1. Paint slip ‘n slide
2. Splash pads
3. Water balloon fight
4. Sponge water bombs
5. Paint water balloons
6. Swimming, and more swimming
7. Run through sprinklers
8. Make and sail model boats
9. Foam party
10. Make giant bubbles
11. Giant water pillow
12. Color water balloon fight (Add tempera paint)

Yummy cool treats and other things to make in the kitchen include:

1. Homemade ice cream
2. Eat watermelon (seed spitting contest)
3. Campfire s’mores
4. Snow cones
5. Homemade pizza
6. Breakfast for dinner
7. Homemade popsicles
8. Fresh Lemonade
9. Slurpees and Icees
10. Buy ice cream for the ice cream truck
11. Help cook dinner
12. Cook dinner over a campfire
13. Rootbeer floats
14. Hawaiian themed dinner

Ways to keep them on track and not loose everything they have learned.

1. Read at least 10 books
2. Science experiment
3. Learn origami
4. Build a model
5. Caterpillar to a butterfly project

Kindness in action and teaching kids to give back to the community and serve others.  Some ways to incorporate this is by:

1. Random Acts of Kindness
2. Walk dogs at a shelter
3. Write a soldier a letter
4. Visit a nursing home
5. Make cookies for a friend
6. Serve a neighbor

Once we have all of the ideas listed out, I added them to a list on the computer.  Then I printed it at a local Kinkos in an 16×20 format on poster paper.  Finally, we mounted the poster to foam board and cut it to size.  We display this in our kitchen to look at each day.  The nice thing about it is that we can decide on a few things that week and if I need to get some supplies then I can plan ahead.

So enjoy our bucket list!  I also want to know what you do for summer traditions too!  Post a comment below with your favorite memory as a kid or what you do now with your kids during the summer months.  The most important thing to remember is that you can’t stress yourself out.  You probably won’t complete everything on your list and that is OK!