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 … Read More
Wisteria season in London is something special – so beautiful, so fragrant, and just magical. We love walking or cycling to some of our favorite spots and hopefully sharing this map will make it easy for you to do the … Read More
Rouen was such a dream to visit! It’s been loosely on my family vacation list for a long while because I thought it would be fun to see the place that inspired so many of Monet’s paintings. I had no … Read More
We visited Egypt with kids a couple of years ago and had an absolutely amazing time. It had been on our bucket list for years, and felt absolutely magical finally being there with our 6 kids and seeing sites we’d … Read More
Dan and I did a NYC couples’ trip about 2.5 years ago that we absolutely loved – we visited some museums, libraries, and hidden gems, and ate some delicious food. It was such a fun time! The Late Show with … Read More
If you’re planning a family trip to London, there’s so much more to see beyond the usual tourist spots. These hidden gems are perfect for kids and adults alike, offering a mix of quirky museums, historic landmarks, interactive exhibits, and … Read More
Winter travel with kids has its own kind of magic. These are a few destinations in Europe we’ve loved visiting in winter (or winter-adjacent 😉) months that I think would be great picks for other families, too. Hope this helps … Read More
I love thinking through some intentions at the start of each year! I loved that most of my goals last year were focused a bit more on lifestyle instead of specific accomplishments, and I’m excited to continue that in 2026. … Read More
2025 seemed to mark a year of more one-on-one birthday trips with our kids, which was really exciting! T and I went on his 10th birthday trip to Japan, and Dan and K finally made her 10th birthday trip to … Read More
I always love looking back to see the most popular blog posts of the year. It’s so fun seeing what you all have enjoyed and found helpful both from home and when traveling! It also helps me see what content … Read More
A few days ago, I shared some of my favorite products from the year – it’s always fun thinking about what has really served me and our family over the year and gotten repeated use. Then I always love seeing … Read More
K is not at all into makeup and beauty and skincare, which I tend to see a lot on teen girl gift guides. She’s rather bookish and outdoorsy (a fun combo), and loves music and jewelry. Here are a few … Read More
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 ;)).
We have 7 Summer Fun Club categories:
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. 😉
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!
