Do your kids want to build a snowman, visit the beach, or go camping? Help them write their own bucket list with these tips.
Each year I write a bucket list. It’s not a bucket list for the rest of my life, but a bucket list for the next year; things I want to accomplish or learn, places I want to visit, and fun things I want to try.
Last year for the first time I had my eldest son make a bucket list. He scoffed at the idea at first, but after discussing it he gave in and made one. Throughout the year we’ve been crossing things off that bucket list. I never knew he wanted to do things like getting his scuba diving certification, bench press a certain weight, attend the release of Jordan shoes (who even knew you could line up at the crack of dawn for shoes), and learn to drive a car. We haven’t crossed everything off his list, but because of this list, I was able to help and support him in accomplishing as many things as possible.
This holiday season I will be sitting down with my younger kids and have them create their own bucket lists. They will probably need a little more help coming up with ideas, so I’ve been making notes of things to suggest.
Before I share some of those ideas with you though, let me share a few tips for helping kids create a bucket list:
Kids bucket list tips
- Make it doable. You may not get everything crossed off and that’s okay, this is just a guide, where they will feel a sense of accomplishment as they cross things off, and you will gain creative ideas on activities to do with them.
- Keep it small. You don’t need 100 things on the list. Start with 20, kids won’t feel so overwhelmed.
- Variety. Give them a variety of options for example – something to learn, something to do, a fun place to go, something totally for fun.
- Alternatives. Instead of making a bucket list for a year, you could make a summer or autumn bucket list, or a list of things to do before they turn a certain age.
Kids bucket list ideas
- Jump in mud puddles and make mud pies.
- Go on a scavenger hunt.
- Learn how to make my own breakfast.
- Plant and care for my own garden.
- Learn how to skip rocks.
- Go geocaching.
- Make a snowman that looks like Olaf from Disney’s Frozen.
- Learn to hula hoop.
- Hike to a waterfall or to the top of a mountain.
- Write (or draw a picture of what you did) every day in a journal.
- Become a Jr Ranger at a State or National Park.
- Do something nice for someone else, just because.
- Go to the library every week, or at least once a month.
- Fly a kite.
- Put on a magic show or puppet show.
- Camp outside under the stars and learn about the constellations.
- Watch a sunset and sunrise.
- Pay someone a compliment.
- Go tide-pooling.
- Find a pen pal and write them a letter – contact your friends in other states or countries who have children to arrange this.
- Learn to play an instrument.
- Tie their own shoelaces.
- Go to the County Fair and indulge in the food and rides.
- Build a sandcastle and swim in the ocean.
- Have an egg and spoon or potato sack race.
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