Amazing Preschool Summer Bucket List Ideas
Inside: Create a Summer Bucket List for Preschoolers with this free printable to keep the summer exciting!
It's summer time, which means that it is the perfect time to take your little ones out and explore their world! From parks to new foods and fun ideas for games, this list has everything you need. So grab your preschooler by the hand and get started with these fun activities I picked with them in mind.
As tempting as it is to just let all the rules fade this summer, I really encourage you to keep your routines in check. Kids thrive on consistency, so make sure you're keeping something the same. We like to have different days for things, like Sundays are pancakes for breakfast, playing in the front yard, and cleaning up the living room before bath night and iPad time. They can expect this every Sunday.
If your family likes to keep a routine even during summer, these routine charts for kids are free to print and are super cute. They can bring a sense of normalcy when the schedule has changed so much.
No matter what, we are determined to make the summer of 2021 the best one yet!
With routines and structure in mind, I created this printable for you and your preschooler. The idea is you'll be able to add something new to try in each hexigon, and try new things all summer long. If trying them all each week is too much, make it a two week list, or monthly, or even the whole summer.
You know what works for you and your family, this is just an idea to get your started. If you'd like the printable, tell me where to send it, and I'll send it to your email for safe keeping.
I like to laminate this, and slap it on the fridge. We plan out what new things we will do this week, and write it out on the sheet. When my son was the only one home during the day, we had each day be a different activity, for example we would try a new recipe on Monday, visit a new park on Tuesdays (depending on the weather of course) and so on.
You can easily fill your summer days with the usual summer activities like going to the beach, or going for walks and bike rides, or searching for bugs in the back yard.
But even with all of these fun activities, you still need to have some structure and routine to make sure the summer goes smoothly. Part of our structure is our activity jar. You can read more about my summer activity jar by clicking here.
Summer is a great time to get out and explore the world around you. If the weather is a little crazy, you can always fall back on the printables:
Here are lots of summer printables for preschoolers, click to find all of them!
Some of the links below are affiliate links. That means I may make a commission if you click and buy. Please see my full disclosure policy for more information.
Related: Silly toddler interview questions here.
Best Books on Amazon with Kid's Activities
Here are a few awesome books I found at my local library with activities and fun experiments I could do with my preschooler. Check them out on Amazon by clicking on the image below!
You can click any of the images above to check the price on Amazon.
I picked these books because they're full to the brim of beautiful images, thought provoking experiments, but also require things you likely won't have to head to the store and retrieve.
Summer Bucket List Printable for Preschoolers
Why a bucket list? Because life is a fun adventure if you let it be, so let's make the most of us. It's easy to get stuck in the boredom of just sitting in front of screens and wasting the whole summer, but we aren't about that life.
Try these awesome activities to get your summer fun!
How to Get Started with Your Summer Bucket List for Preschoolers
These are some helpful hints to get you started with your Preschool Summer Bucket List:
Visit a New Playground
As a military family, we play this game every time we move someplace new. This is how we find the best playgrounds in any area. We go and try them all!
Start of course with your own town, then go to the towns nextdoor. I also love to Google “the best playgrounds in (your state)”, to find more options.
I have found really cool playgrounds by asking my local mom groups also. On Facebook I search my town name, and look at groups.
Eat Something New
Kids notoriously hate the idea of new food, so be patient, involve them in the process of choosing new foods to try.
My son LOVES blue, so we tried this simple and refreshing blue smoothie bowl recipe from A Day in Candiland. It's fun because kids can create their own add ins, like granola, mango or coconut, and it's BLUE.
Another great treat to try involves blueberries. This delicious cast iron blueberry crisp is perfect for summer. You can use fresh or frozen blueberries, and plop some ice cream on top.
Another amazing recipe I found is this hot cocoa bomb, it's a unicorn!
Pinterest is a fun way to find lots of new foods, scroll with your child to find something they'll love to try with you!
Make Something Awesome
Check out your local library, and see if they have craft kits you can pick up, they usually have a facebook live walking you through the instructions, as well as the instructions printed out for you. Our library has them all individually packaged so you can take them with you and do them at home.
I love hands-on activities like making playdough without flour, this one is simple and so pretty. My kids helped me create this, and the color is so pretty!
Read Something New
This is a great time to visit your local library. They usually have a summer reading program going on, you can win prizes and learn all summer long!
Other reading programs are Barnes and Noble, you read eight books, and fill out this sheet, bring it to your local Barnes and Noble, and you'll get a free book.
Learn Something New
I love using Creative Live to learn new things, they have a cool class for crafting with kids, my family really enjoyed it! Check it out by clicking here. It's kid's crafts with dad! Adorable and fun!
We are learning origami this summer too. It is a HUGE lesson in patience, and trying over if we make a mistake. Here are some fun books, as well as a massive amount of paper. I've bought all three of these and used them to learn origami with my kids. Click each picture to check them out on Amazon.
Another great tool you can use this summer is art boxes from subscription places. I usually buya bx and then cancel until we go through it, but a few I have loved are:
You can click any of those images above to be taken to CrateJoy and see it! I stand behind all three of those boxes for your child, but look around, maybe you'll find something else you love!
Visit Somewhere New
Take a second and think about what a tourist would like to see in your town. Go there! Have you been to all of the fun places your town has to offer? Is there a new indoor arcade or restaurant you want to try?
We moved here right before the whole world shutdown, so we have a lot of things we need to explore! I always ask on the local Facebook groups about fun places to bring kids and I get so many responses. You don't have to ask, even. Someone probably already has, use the search feature on these groups and look up “with kids” and you'll find a wealth of information.
If you're already knowledgeable about everything your town has to offer and want to travel a little further away, I have tips for you too!
Summer is the perfect time for camping in much of the U.S. One thing my kids want to do next time we go camping is birdwatching. We recently got new binoculars for kids and they renamed my office the “seeing room” because they're always looking at wildlife in the pond in our backyard.
We can't wait to try birdwatching while camping and I am excited to see which birds we can find next time we head out into the woods.
Don’t forget to make your own bug spray before you head out to camp. My girl is always getting bit by bugs, so we don't leave the house without it. We even put it on for the back yard.
See Something New
Make your normal trips interesting with different i Spy games, like this one, you can click it to save it to your phone!
Find ways to make normal trips fun, by adding something new. When we drive, we play a game where the kids find all the motorcycles and call them out. My father rides a motorcye and it's always been important to me that people look out for them.
Learn About Each Other
I feel like every year my kids change so much. One year they like the PJ Masks, the next they just want to draw all day, and their favorite colors aren't red, blue and green anymore.
Keep up with all the changes by asking your child these silly interview questions. Click here to see the silly interview questions to learn more about your child.
Do Something Kind
This is near and dear to our heart. When we first moved here, we didn't know anyone, so we baked all of our neighbors cookies, and now once a year we do it all again. A few other ideas:
Paint Rocks and leave them around town. We love painting kind words and affirmations on them, and putting them everywhere. Avoid grassy places, because the lawn mowers will ruin your beautiful art. Look for flower beds, window sills of public buildings, inside trees, or other public goofy places like that.
Make these easy donuts and give them to your local fire department, library workers, or another favorite local business.
One Last Tip
Remember summer is fun and exciting, but all of that fun can lead to overstimulated and overwhelmed kids. For your own sanity, schedule in some quiet time.
Be patient, and lenient with all of your plans when they're little.
I recommend keeping a journal so you can write out what worked well and what didn't work, so next year you'll know what types of activities are best suited for your family's needs.
Grab that printable, here is the link again:
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