get organized for summer

This is the fourth post in our series on getting organized for the summer. Click here to read the first, second, and third posts. 

Now that you have a vision for your summer and you’ve planned out the scheduled events, it’s time to add some fun into the mix. (Woohoo!) Perhaps you’ve seen “summer bucket lists” around the web or Pinterest. I love this idea—creating a list of fun things to do over the summer. For my own list, I wanted to come up with a list of things we could do…but not turn it into a checklist of things we must do. (I like pressure-free fun lists.)

One weekend last month, I went to a young author’s conference with Kailea, and coincidentally, the parent breakout session shared summer ideas for kids. The teacher presented a list of kid-friendly summer activities in alphabetical order, with an idea or two for each letter of the alphabet. Now even though my kids are well beyond the ABC stage, I thought this was a super fun approach to creating our summer fun idea list. Using the ABC approach forced me to think outside the box—since I had to come up with at least one idea for each letter. Then, once I started, I got on a roll. (You’ll see what I mean in a minute.) As you read the list, remember that my kids are older and some of these ideas are things that I think sound fun to do, too. And most important of all, by no means do I intend to do all of these things! They’re simply ideas of things we could do for fun this summer. I’ll let our moods be our guide as we decide what to ideas to actually do.

Summer Fun Idea List

A:  Art projects, art binders, Annie’s, art journal, art museum, Arch, art classes

B:  Botanical gardens, baseball games, blog, bike rides, barbecues, bowling, basketball, berry picking, berry pies, board games, biography (read one), backwards day

C:  Card making, camping, camps, cooking classes, canoeing, concerts, collage making, camp out at home, camp out at grandma + grandpa’s, Cardinals game, circus, Circus Flora, canning, card games, Christmas in July party

D:  Duct tape crafts, day in the life, drive in movie, dance, draw pictures, ducks (feed them)

E:  Eggplant parmesan. (What else starts with e that is fun to do?)

F:  Flea markets, fishing, fitness program, farmers market, fireflies, fireworks, fajitas, fish tacos, flavored water, festivals, friends, fudgesicles

G:  Garage sales, grilling out, gardening, grandma + grandpa’s house, gazpacho, golfing, go karts, guitar, grizzlies game, garden markers

H: Hammock, homemade ice cream

I:  Ice cream man, ice cream cones, iced tea, instruments

J:  Jam, journaling, juggling

K:  Kites, knitting, kale chips, kickball, kick-the-can

L:  Lemonade (fresh), library

M:  Movie night, monopoly, mini golf, music (listen to, record)

N:  Nature center

O:  Origami

P:  Popsicles, pool, pj day, photo-a-day, paintball, picnics at the park, painting, paper airplanes, paint pottery, planetarium, plan a party, project life, pesto (make some)

Q:  Quit a bad habit and replace it with a good, fun one.

R:  Read, race for the cure, run, river road, redecorate bedroom, rain (listen to it, walk in it)

S:  Snow cones, scrapbooking, star gazing, slip + slide, sewing, scrunch, s’mores, smoothies, science center, swings, sunset, sunrise, sponge tag, sports classes + camps, skip rocks, stamp collecting, sketch, sleepovers

T:  Tourist in your own town, tennis, tie dye t-shirts, t.v., time capsule, tae-kwon-do

U:  Unplug for a whole day

V:  Volunteer, vacation, volleyball, video recording, video games

W:  Water balloons, watermelon, walks with Maggie, write, wash the car, wash the dog

X:  eXplore some place you’ve never been before

Y:  Yahtzee, YMCA

Z:  Zoo

If you’d like a printable copy of the list or a blank one, click here: summer-fun-listsummer fun idea list

(You will need Adobe Reader to open the file which you can get here: http://get.adobe.com/reader/)

What’s on your summer fun list this year? And do you have any more ideas for E, O, Q, U, X and Z? Thanks for sharing!

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