Welcome to the first posting of our Annual Summer Bucket List. It is chock full of fun activities to do with your kids. Most are low or no cost if you already have everything you might need at home. We put everything into categories so hopefully you can quickly find what you would be interested in.
Indoors:
King/Queen of your own castle using paper towel rolls and toilet paper rolls
Make your own indoor fort. You can use a table, chairs or your couch for this one.
Pajama day!
Paint Rocks – you can even paint the rocks with the alphabet and use them for creating words
Tie Dye your T-shirt with sharpies – so glad there is now an alternative to the traditional tie dye
Make your own ice cream – wiki shows several different ways to make it. I love the individual sizes.
Make your own artwork placemats or if your kids are younger you can make sight word placemats
Decorate your own water bottles so your kids will want to drink water every day
Flashlight tag (here is an outdoor version) we just play hide and seek in the house with the lights off to get the kids more comfortable being in the dark.
Make your own bird feeder
Make glow stick Lanterns
Make your own Lemonade or rootbeer/coke floats
Play balloon Ping pong – my oldest still loves to play this
Make your own play-doh – this also has a link to a gluten free version
Make your own Flubber
Outside:
Go on a Nature Scavenger Hunt – you can make this as challenging as you want
Make a pvc sprinkler – don’t be surprised when your kids want this even when they are older
Photo walk in your Neighborhood
Watch the 4th of July Fireworks – place other than just DC
Visit the National Zoo – check and see if there are any specials happening
Picnic in the park or at your favorite playground – link for how to pack for a picnic safely
Camp out in your backyard
Water bomb fight – just saw these and can’t wait to try them and so much better than balloons
Outdoor Twister anyone?
Go get freshly made donuts from Krispy Kreme – if your really adventurous you can see how many you can visit across the USA!
Go to Burke Lake and play frisbee golf – free entry if your a fairfax county resident
Paint with water – if you have a wooden fence, this is great for it
ABCPhoto Walk – What kid doesn’t love taking pictures?
Make your own sidewalk chalk
Make your own bubbles or glow in the dark bubbles with non toxic glow in the dark paint
Have a neighborhood squirt bottle water fight – my kids love this as the squirting is less powerful that the water guns
Go to a Nationals or local team game
Make water bottle bubble blowers – this is perfect for kids who are begging to blow the bubbles themselves
Classic Outdoor Games
Go to a drive in movie – you will have quite a drive, but the nostalgia will be worth it
Have a watermelon eating contest or if your brave a seed spitting contest
School Skills:
Find a book you all can enjoy and read a chapter out loud every day
Write daily in a journal
Family Togetherness:
Date Night for each child
Beach trip!
Acts of kindness – Stole this one from Dine & Dash’s website
Read books your child usually wouldn’t pick
Want to check out some other bucket lists? The Taylor House, Dine and Dash, Over the Big Moon.
Karin
Hallabolou & You 