School’s out… Now what do we do? Several years ago, I sat my little boys down and asked what they wanted to do during summer, and we made our very own summer bucket list.
We got out a notebook, and they began shouting out things they wanted to do. Little things like getting a blizzard at DQ, to take a vacation at the beach, go to Disney, or fly in an airplane. They listed bowling and laser tag and as we wrote every one down, I knew that I had to reign this in. I told them we may not be able to do everything, but we could certainly talk about them and use our wishes to make a doable summer bucket list.
We categorized them into Big/Little/Tiny. Big would be a vacation to the beach as it cost money/vacation time and it is a BIG item on our bucket list. Little would be a trip to the park and have a picnic and play, as a Little item we could do it after work or on a Saturday, does not cost much but requires a little planning. To my surprise, many of the things that the boys had mentioned on our bucket list were what we called Tiny. The tiny things included drawing with sidewalk chalk, taking an adventure walk or having a Nerf gun war in the backyard, or using our bubble machine on the porch and catching and popping the bubbles. These Tiny things were more things that took time, and things we probably already had, but we just had to make it a point to do them.
My husband and I had to talk about what a Big bucket list item would be and then go from there. We paired the list down to quite a few little and tiny bucket list items and presented them to the boys. A trip to the beach was at the end of the summer, but before that trip, we could fill our summer with little and tiny items.
We started attacking them a few a week and then check in at the beginning of the month to see what we had accomplished and what item we wanted to do next. It was like a fun reminder to keep having fun and do things that we had expressed that we wanted to but sometimes forget to do.
The last week before school we got out the list and tried to finish the last few items before the new school year started. It was so much fun, and I can’t wait to sit them down and do it again this summer.
So go gather your kids…..get a piece of paper and brainstorm…..you will be so glad you did, and at the end of the summer….you will have made a bucket full of memories.
