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Inside: Have you ever considered creating a special bucket list for kids? Having a list of ideas at hand will help you plan a happy summer and be more intentional when it comes to planning family activities!
This summer is a very special one for our family. It’s the last summer before our son starts school this August. Also, the beginning of fall will bring a big change in our family as a new baby will join our family, so this makes us want to enjoy this summer even more!
I am a big fan of bucket lists because they help us be more intentional about the things we do as a family. We already have a nice summer bucket list that we used last year to inspire us to plan a happy summer, but this year I decided to make an additional list with some special activities I want us to do during the summer months.
If you are looking for some unique ideas to try with your kids, I hope that this list will inspire you to plan a summer with a lot of joy and connection!
Ideas for a special bucket list for kids
Here is our list of ideas that we plan to put into practice this summer. It took me some time to put this list together but I can’t wait to try all these experiences with my son!
Some of the ideas on my list include links to local places where we plan to go but most of them can be easily adapted no matter where you live.
1. Spend an evening watching a movie next to the pool, under a blanket.
2. Make homemade chocolate. – I have a delicious recipe that I discovered some years ago but I never tried it with my son. I plan to try it with him this summer and I’m pretty sure he will love the idea!
3. Spend a day (or even a whole weekend) at a farm. – I loved the idea of a Farm-to-Table experience at a farm near San Francisco and an overnight stay at the Flying Pig B’n’b, in the middle of a nice little farm. I also hope to have the chance to visit the Hidden Villa again and to explore the Deer Hollow Farm.
4. Go to 3 new parks near our home. – I recently discovered a unique park near us that I think my son would love. It’s called the Magical Bridge Park and it’s considered one of the most innovative and inclusive playgrounds in the country.
5. Sleepover at a museum. – A few museums in our area have summer sleepover events and we want to try one of them. Some of the sleepovers require a tent (like this awesome event at the Children’s Fairyland in Oakland) and we don’t have one, but we also discovered this lovely sleepover at the Monterey Bay Aquarium that only requires us to bring our sleeping bags.
6. Spend a few hours at a cat cafe. We went to a cat cafe when we visited Vancouver last year and my son loved the experience. So when I found out about the KitTea Cat Cafe in San Francisco I knew I wanted to add it to our bucket list!
7. Eat at a themed restaurant. One of the restaurants we want to try is Uncle Buck’s FishBowl and Grill Restaurant in San Jose. It has a huge saltwater aquarium, unique decorations, and a bowling alley that can bring us some additional fun after dinner.
8. Go play mini golf. I discovered a lovely mini-golf course named Stagecoach Greens in San Francisco and we plan to go there to test it.
9. Spend a day in nature in a natural preserve. We plan to visit the McClellan Ranch Reserve in Cupertino. It’s close to our house but we never had the chance to visit it so I can’t wait to discover what it has to offer.
More ideas for a special bucket list for kids
10. Go to a special exhibition at one of the children’s museums near our home. My top choice is the Dinosaurs’ Land of Fire and Ice at the Bay Area Discovery Museum because my son will certainly enjoy the cute dinosaur replicas.
11. Have fun at a county fair. There are several county fairs happening close to our home this summer so we want to go to one of them and have some fun together. The Santa Clara County Fair happens at the beginning of August so it seems a great choice for us!
12. Visit a nearby museum that we never visited before. The Tech Interactive museum is on my wishlist because I heard some great feedback about it and it seems perfect for families!
13. Go bowling. We had a great time playing bowling during our last vacation and I hope to repeat the experience soon. My son used a lane bumper and had a lot of fun competing with us and scoring points, so I’m sure he will be happy to try this again!
14. Fly the kite on the beach. This was my son’s idea and I can’t wait to put it into practice!
15. Have a family pajama party. My son goes to a day camp for one month and a half during the summer so we have an early bedtime during the week. A surprise pajama party would be a great idea to add some fun to one of our evenings and I’m sure that he would love staying up late one night!
16. Have a board game marathon outside the house. We love playing board games together but I want to make our family game nights more fun by changing the location. I’m not sure yet where we could host the game marathon but my son will certainly come up with some interesting ideas. 🙂
17. Have a special breakfast on Saturdays. We already started putting this into practice and it has been a lot of fun! We had breakfast at a crepe shop and a donut shop and both of them were a great way to start our weekends!
18. Watch 16 family movies together. Since the summer started we watched “Secret life of pets 2” and “Alladin” at the movie theater and ” Secret life of pets” during our at-home movie night. I can’t wait for us to watch more movies together! We plan to have regular movie nights at home but also go to the movie theater and drive-in cinema.
19. Go to an amusement park. We plan to spend one afternoon at California Great America and enjoy the family rides!
This is our list for the summer! I hope that we will get the chance to put all these ideas into practice and enjoy many happy family moments together!
If you like the idea of creating a summer bucket list for your family, here is a printable list that you can download and use as inspiration!
I wish you a wonderful summer with many joyful moments with your little ones!
>> Want to remember this? Share these ideas to your favorite Pinterest board!
photos from depositphotos.com
