I realized a couple days ago that this is our ninth year of doing summer fun club, or our family summer bucket list for kids! It’s been such a wonderful structure structure to allow us to intentionally give our kids opportunities to practice skills, develop curiosity and understanding, work hard, and expand their world view – while also leaving plenty of time for nostalgic fun and unstructured play. Our kids love it and look forward to seeing what I suggest each year!
While they generally choose their own books to read through the year, this is a fun time for me to consider their interests and needs and choose some excellent, varied, diverse literature for them. I love it and it’s helped them find lots of new favorites that they wouldn’t have necessarily picked up on their own (and a few that aren’t their favorites, but that are still good/important for them to read ;)).
What Does The Family Summer Bucket List Involve?
We have 7 Summer Fun Club categories:
- FUN: these are the same for everyone and are mostly low-key, nostalgic summer ideas like making ice cream or skipping rocks, or things we’re planning as a family (like visiting a National Park)
- LIFE SKILLS: This might be my favorite section every year! These are intended to give my kids a push to carve out time for something that’s good to learn (cook a family meal, learn how to address an envelope, learn how to clean a toilet, navigate with a paper map, an online First Aid class for teens, etc.)
- READING: I usually choose 4-10 books each for my kiddos to read (depending on length and how quickly they read), and then they choose plenty of others on their own. Since we’ll be doing a big Europe road trip this summer, they’ll have plenty of reading time. 🙂
- ATHLETIC: These are usually goals to help my kids stay active, enjoy movement together, and sometimes work on a specific skill or interest they have
- ACADEMIC: These are mostly intended to help my kids love learning and develop their curiosity. There’s usually a bit of skill maintenance for things like math facts, but beyond that, this is really to help them maintain an excitement for education, especially in the natural world.
- ARTS: I always include a few different areas of the arts – visual arts, music, film, etc. Exposure is key here – I want the arts to feel familiar, and to give my kids chances to practice enjoying and interpreting them.
- SERVICE & FAITH: This final category is basically my Be A Good Person category haha. It’s easy to live in our own bubbles without thinking of others, so I want to give my kids opportunities to practice looking for ways to serve and doing things for others.
Many of the items are things we’d do anyway (like visit a National Park. or make lemonade), some are fun reminders (do an egg drop challenge, watch a musical), and a few give them a push to carve out time for something that’s good to learn (First Aid class, navigating without a map). And lots are things that are just ways for us to connect as a family (play tennis, make ice cream, skip rocks).
In the past, when they’ve completed the tasks at the end of the summer, they’ve gotten to choose a special one-on-one activity with Mom or Dad. These have included things like a trip to our local amusement park, dinner out at a nice restaurant, a waterpark visit, or a special bike ride and a treat. This year, we decided to let each kid plan out a “fmaily Yes Day” – we’ll give them a budget and they get to plan a special day. They could use all the money on a special activity, split it between multiple meals, use it for special treats, or whatever they want. It’s really fun, plus I figure it’s a good way to sneak in an extra planning/budgeting goal, too. 😉
Our 2026 Summer Bucket List for Kids
I loved putting together my kids’ lists for this year! For reference, this summer my kids are 15, 13, 11, 8, 6, and almost 4, and each have age-appropriate suggestions in each category.
If you’d like to each of my kids’ lists by age (along with a blank page at the end that you can use to edit your own if you’d like), just pop in your email below. When you open it, go to File > Make a Copy to save your own copy that you can edit to suit your own needs, interests, abilities, and areas for practice. Enjoy!
