SUMMER BUCKET LIST // PLANNING SHEETS

Still working on getting ideas for your bucket list? Grab these planning sheets. You can fill them out as a family or print one off for everyone to do individually. We use them as a brain dump or brainstorming sheet, and just write down whatever sounds fun for the summer, big or small.  If you fill them out individually,  you can come back, compare, and decide what goes on your family list! We usually do a little of each, both individual and family. After all our ideas are on paper, we let them sit for a few days or a week. We usually hang them up on the wall. Sometimes one of the boys will change their minds and cross one out or find a new idea and add it. When we come back together, we decide which ones will really fit our summer.

I hope you are coming up with some great adventures to have! My goal is to have ours up by the end of the weekend (we usually start our bucket list adventures on Memorial Day Weekend). Remember, this is supposed to be FUN not stress-inducing. I hope you’ll share pictures of your bucket list on my Facebook page or on Instagram! On Instagram, you can use the hashtag #mmhsummerbucketlist so we can all take a peek at your awesome lists!

The .pdf includes 9 pages. I’ll describe them below so you know exactly what you’re getting and some ways to use them.

Brainstorming Sheets: These come in two color schemes and each scheme includes wording for both an individual and a family brainstorming session. Why? Because at least one of my boys would be irritated to get a paper with pink on it.

Cost Planning: You could use this in many ways but here’s how we use them. We use this sheet BEFORE we finalize our bucket list. If we end up with a ton of adventures on our lists after brainstorming, we divide them up on this sheet depending on cost (rated $-$$$$). It’s nice to spread the adventures around cost-wise so you don’t end up with all big ticket adventures. Unless, of course, that works for your family then get to it! Hint: If your kids are keen on heading all over the country this summer, you can use this sheet to your advantage. Let the kiddos know they are, for example, allowed 1 adventure in the $$$$ box, 2 $$$ box, unlimited in the $ box, etc. Set the amounts as work for your family. For instance, for us, the $ box means free to almost-free. Assign actual amounts to each box or just estimate, it’s up to you!

Duration Planning: We use this sheet before and after we finalize our list. This is also divided into 4 boxes with durations ranging from an hour to a weekend+. During finalizing, we jot each adventure in the box with its corresponding duration. If we end up with too many weekend+ adventures, we try to scale back or see if we can squeeze them into day trips. We also look at our summer and see what is actually doable. This sometimes means scaling back on these longer adventures. After we’ve finalized our list, we go back and look at this sheet again. We look at what adventures we need to get on the calendar and plan ahead for. If they are less than a day, we typically don’t schedule them unless we need to plan ahead for travel, tickets, etc. 

Supply List: We use this list after we’ve finalized. There’s a space for the name of the adventure and then space to write the supplies needed. Some of our smaller adventures need supplies to complete; Silly String fights, Coke and Mentos experiments, tie-dying, etc. These also tend to be our spur-of-the-moment adventures which means when you want to do it, you’d like the supplies there and ready. We keep an extra bucket in our pantry with all the supplies for our upcoming summer. I don’t usually buy everything all at once, but if I see them while I’m running other errands, or placing yet another order on Amazon, I’ll buy them. It’s nice not to have to worry about supplies when the mood strikes.

To-Do List: This sheet is also used after finalizing our list. We use it to write down any tasks we need to accomplish to complete the adventure. Some to-do lists to consider are: booking lodging/travel, securing tour times, purchasing tickets, planning for your pet if it won’t be joining you and checking in with other friends who might be adventuring with you.

On the supply list and to-do list there is space for 4 adventures but print as many as you’d like to fit your needs!

Click the image below to download.  I love using fun paper like in the .pdf, but you certainly do not need anything special. You could use a piece of notebook paper, post-its, a shared OneDrive document-whatever works for your family.