Embracing Now: 3 fun ways to enjoy your summer

Mamie L. Pack

8 years ago

“Summer, Summer, Summertime!”

It’s official!

Our household is now on summer break. For the next ten weeks, our family will be in full summertime mode. Needless to say, this momma has been counting down the days until we completed this school year.

I love summer.

No matter how old you are, where you live, or how busy you are, something is exciting about the summer. Maybe it’s the idea of spending countless hours out in the sun, enjoying sweet watermelon at another cookout, road trips to visit family, or a cold popsicle on a hot day. Summer is just a fun time.

With a household full of boys and two working parents, we are creative in continuing to build summer memories while keeping our boys learning and active. So I am always looking for helpful ways to make the most out of summer. How about you?

Let’s chat about three fun ways we plan to enjoy our summer and hope they can help you plan a fun summer too!

Create a summer bucket list

Creating a bucket list is one of our family’s favorite activities. We create bucket lists all the time, whether it’s summertime or Christmas break. Bucket lists allow everyone to have input on what you do as a family. At the beginning of summer, we sit around at our family meeting to discuss what we want to do during the summer. We do create some budget boundaries to help them understand how to be financially savvy and the importance of planning. Other than that, we let our fellas give all sorts of suggestions.

Creating a summer bucket list is a simple way to involve everyone in making memories. Our fellas look being able to choose which activities we will do for the day and then check it off. Plus, it helps cut down on the dreaded “I’m bored” that is bound to come up multiple times during the summer. (Remember, this is a great activity for couples and families).

Whether you are the adventurous type or prefer to be a homebody, a summer bucket list is for everyone. I encourage you to check out all of the local activities. A few activities you can add to your summer bucket list are:

Participate in summer reading challenge at your local library or Barnes and Noble
Go for a hike
Have a water balloon fight
Visit a friend
Go berry picking
Take a dance class
Try a new recipe
Visit a historical site in your community
Make a vision board
Dance in the rain
Make s’mores
Visit a friend
Volunteer
Start a garden
Have a movie night
Camp indoors
Have a picnic in a park
Go star gazing
Enjoy an outdoor concert
Go on a bike ride
Write letters to support our active duty and veterans
Volunteer at a nursing home
If you are a military family like us, check out the Blue Star Museum program

Build your own summer camp

Many of us have fond memories attending some sort of camp or vacation Bible school during the summer. So why not plan your own? Whether you are a couple or a family of five, you can create your summer camp complete with themes, activities and field trips. Plus, it doesn’t have to take up the entire summer. You can create your own timeline and decide what activities work for you.

Some summer camp themes could be:

Welcome Summer: set aside a day of no planning, just enjoy the day: enjoy your favorite summer food; talk about your favorite summer memory; create a new favorite summer memory; learn about how people celebrate summer in different cultures
Art camp: visit local museums (in person or virtually) exploring various forms of art, plan a painting party, host a gallery dinner where everyone brings a piece of handmade artwork.
Sports Camp: learn about an unfamiliar sport, research athletes who significantly impacted the sport, attend a local sporting event, create your team name, mascot, and player.
Fun under the sun: plan events outside each day. Go on nature walks, create a checklist of all the local parks and playgrounds then visit them all, plan a picnic, go to the beach

Plan a no-spend weekend

A trip anywhere can add up quickly when you are a large family. One fun way we enjoy the summer is to plan no-spend weekends. Some of our best summer memories are “no-spend” weekends. From running around playing tag or building a fort in the living room, these are some of our favorite memories. We don’t need to continually spend money to enjoy spending time together as a couple or as a family. We can have a great summer simply spending quality time together.

Below are 20 ideas to help you get started. Don’t forget to invite a few friends over too! The more, the merrier.