Creating a Summer Fun List

A family tradition at the Henderson House is to create a summer to do list. We started this a few years back, and it’s something the girls look forward to every year. It also gives them a tangible reference when they’re “bored.” When summer comes to end, we come back to our list to reflect on our adventures that year.

1. Add variety

We try to add a variety of options: indoor and outdoor, traditions and new experiences, learning and pure fun, quick and easy, or harder with more preparations. In the past our list included things to do at home and adventures to take, but we focused our list on stay at home items this year since the summer is so uncertain. Since I teach I always have the privilege of being home with the girls in the summer and so far my husband has had the privilege of working from home during the pandemic, so we focused our energy in finding fun things to do while staying safe at our house.

2. Everyone contributes

We begin drafting a list of ideas and everyone contributes. It usually includes things the girls want to learn how to do, things we’ve seen other families doing on social media, and things we can’t get done during the school year. This year Eleanor really wants to master whistling, something she’s been working on since before the summer. We’ve watched another family grow butterflies on their Instagram stories, and tie dying was something I loved doing as a kid but has become a trend on TikTok and other social media platforms. A friend even suggested trying to tie dye with organic materials. Once we post the list, we crowdsource for other ideas, too. After we posted our list last year, we got so many other good ideas that we essentially created a second list to complete.

3. No disappointments deal

We always have a conversation about how we aren’t going to throw big fits or be bummed if we don’t get to something on the list or if something on the list doesn’t go our way. We make our best effort to get things done, but we can’t be mad at each other if something doesn’t get crossed off. I feel like 2020 has been a constant lesson in this, so I almost felt it could go without saying this summer. Anything that wasn’t accomplished the previous summer can always be a goal for a different time of year or for next year’s list.

4. Include family and friends

The girls love to invite family and friends to complete things on the list. We can still do this during the summer even if it’s from 6 feet away. A lot of awesome summer activities still make sense social distancing: bonfires, tie dying, etc. And some of the items on our list this year can be done through FaceTime calls too. We’re all working on memorizing a Psalm, and we can encourage family and friends to do that as well and we can share on FaceTime if we can’t get together.

Share your ideas

Share your ideas for your list! A lot of the fun is seeing what others want to accomplish during the summer. What fun will you be having?