Fall Bucket List 2015 70 fun family ideas

We LOVE fall and we are so excited to get started on our Fall Bucket List! I hope that you can also enjoy these ideas with your family to have a wonderfully fun fall season this year. There are a few Halloween and Thanksgiving things on this big Fall Bucket List of ours, but there is obviously tons more crafts and treats to make for those two holidays and they will probably get their own posts later on. Also, keep checking back because we will be coming up with a lot more fun fall things and posting about them as fall goes on as well.

1. Go apple picking.

2. Take a nature walk and collect leaves to preserve into a leaf book.

3. Take a hayride, we get one at the place we go apple picking.

4. Make an adorable leaf sun catcher from Fantastic Fun and Learning.

5. Attend fall themed programs at your local library, we've already been to one about leaves.

6. Make pumpkin ice cream.

7. Take an educational field trip to a cider mill.

8. Make acorn hand prints from Crafty Morning.

9. Of course go to the pumpkin patch, take pictures, buy pumpkins and gourds.

10. Paint pumpkins.

11. Carve pumpkins.

12. Host a Halloween party.

13. Make an autumn sensory bin like this one from Sow Sprout Play, we have everything on hand already for this bin, can't wait to make it!  

14. Get family pictures taken outside.

15. Teach your children why the leaves change colors.

16. Rake leaves or collect them in a kiddie pool for "swimming" in like we did once.

17. Do a hay maze or corn maze.

18. Make smores.

19. Bake an apple pie.

20. Make pumpkin pie play dough.

21. Donate food to a food bank and/or volunteer.

22. Do a trunk-or-treat.

23. Make homemade applesauce.

24. Have pumpkin waffles.

25. Have pumpkin pancakes.

26. Have pumpkin muffins.

27. Watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.

28. Play football, teach your kids the basics.

29. Sensory play with the insides of a pumpkin.

30. Watch Halloween movies.

31. Have a candy apple making night, there's tons of recipes out there and cute things to try! You could even just set out apples, caramel, and some toppings of your choice like a candy apple bar.

32. Make hand print turkeys.

33. Do this 1st Thanksgiving Time Line activity from No Time For Flashcards with your kids. We did it last year and will definitely do it again, it was so educational and helps kids understand the meaning behind the holiday.

34. Teach your kids the life cycle of a pumpkin. There are simple books about it at the library, and a couple years ago I printed out this great printable on it.

35. Make a few amazing fall themed bento boxes like these from Meet the Dubiens for your kids. Bento is so much fun, if you don't have a Laptop Lunch Box for your kids definitely look into it.

36. Teach your children all about apples, make sure they know all the parts. A couple years ago we did a poster board about the differences between the outside and inside of an apple and labeled the parts.

37. Zoo/petting zoo near you Halloween event.

38. Study Johnny Appleseed.

39. Do leaf rubbings.

40. Go to a kid friendly haunted house.

41. Go horseback riding.

42. Have a Harry Potter movie marathon.

43. Make hand print scarecrows like Crafty Morning.

44. Make a haunted gingerbread house like the Dating Divas. I love this idea, would be a great date or for the whole family. Kids will love this too!

45. Find a recipe you like for a tomato pumpkin soup and make it. I made one last year that was delicious.

46. Get some apple cider and see if your kids like it, or if you go to Trader Joe's don't miss out on the Cinnamon Pear Cider, my daughter's favorite fall drink.

47. Make pumpkin pie parfaits with this Weelicious recipe.

48. Make this adorable fall tree craft from Crafty Morning, they do a lot of cute stuff obviously!

49. Bake pumpkin snickerdoodles with this Cooking Classy recipe. 

50. Make a list of fall vocabulary/spelling words for your kids, study them, have a test.

51. Paint a pumpkin like a globe, very educational.

52. Making this pumpkin spice lattee oobleck is a must for us every year, from Learn Play Imagine.

53. Make a thankful tree or something similar. Last year I made a tissue box look like a turkey and we put in a little slip of paper with something we were thankful for each day and looked at them on Thanksgiving. I plan to keep this tradition going every year.

54. Make a pumpkin patch small world for your kids to play in. I've made one before, but it was inspired by this one from Buggy and Buddy. 

55. Take a hike.

56. Make corn cob dolls like The Magic Onions.

57. Roast pumpkin seeds.

58. Have your kids draw pictures of the fall changes and document weather in their nature journals.

59. Have a fun chili night at home or take it to the park in thermoses.

60. Make a pine cone bird feeder.

61. Read or tell spooky stories.

62. Do candy corn mani/pedis with your daughter, of course!

63. Go to a fall festival.

64. Donate clothes to charity.

65. Bob for apples.

66. Do a homeschool unit on fire safety, tour a fire station with a group of friends and kids as a field trip.

67. Make football cupcakes like Project Domestication.

68. Volunteer at a nursing home.

69. Have a family cuddle night outside stargazing.

70. Make a scarecrow.

Summer Bucket List 2015

This year I'm calling our summer bucket list "making the most of our summer"

There is so few summers while our kids are still small and they go by so quickly, I feel that it's important to have the most fun and make as memories as you can. That's why I think it's a good idea to make a list at the beginning of the season of all the things you'd like to accomplish so you can stay on track and feel a sense of accomplishment (and also instill that in your child) when you check things off the list! But anyways, here's our summer bucket list. Hopefully it gives you a few fun ideas of things you'd like to do as well to make the most of YOUR summer with your kids too!

• Make frozen banana pops

• Bake smore cookies

• Go fishing

• Learn about the summer solstice. You can do this by checking out some books from the library, watching videos online, and then doing some sensory play or crafts to bring what you've learned full circle.

• Go mini golfing

• Make a bird feeder. There are so many cute ways to make bird feeders, you can simply put some peanut butter and birdseed on a paper towel tube or find a more crafty option if you'd like. We're going to try this one this summer.

• Make banana smores on the grill

• Go to the zoo. You can even make or print a scavenger hunt form for the trip! 

• Practice map skills with a backyard safari

• Ice chalk. It's very simple to make, you just mix equal parts corn starch and water, a little bit of dish soap, and a few drops of food coloring, then pour it into an ice tray and let it freeze! It's great to cool down with on a hot day.

• Make popsicles. I've made some with just pureed strawberries when my daughter was a baby, if you have a baby just freezing any purees they have had, or breast milk works great for them! I usually make popsicles now with coconut water and pieces of fruit stuck in. Or pureed fruit and vegan yogurt, nut butters and fruit (sometimes even spinach blended in)! The varieties are endless.

• Chalk paint. The same recipe as for the ice chalk, you just don't freeze it! 

• Shaving cream and ice sensory play. Best thing ever to cool down on a hot day, even as an adult I love it. Here's a link to one of ours we've done 

• Have a picnic

• Do a beach/ocean themed unit

• Go to a water park

• Celebrate Teddy Bear Picnic day, like we did

• Do a fairy tale themed unit

• Play pool scrabble

• Celebrate International Mud Day, June 29th

• Feed ducks

• Swimming

• Visit a petting zoo

• Camping

• Have an outdoor scavenger hunt

• Make tie dye shirts

• Fairy garden, here's ours 

• Take some chalk art pictures

• Participate in a summer reading program at a local library

• Play in the sprinkler, maybe even make a rainbow!

• Bird watch

• Take a hike

• Have a lemonade stand, or do some of our fun lemonade stand themed activities, like lemonade stand water play or lemon jello sensory play

• Grow a sunflower

Winter Bucket List

There's not a whole lot of Winter left and there's so much to do! Make the best of the last weeks of your Winter with these fun ideas!

(Picture from last year, we haven't had enough snow to do this yet this year)

1. Making potato heads in the snow, just like in this picture above. All you need to do is form a snow potato head shape, and help your little one stick in the pieces.

2. Snowman breakfast with snowman shaped pancakes with coconut flake snow falling down on the plate, and vegan hot chocolate.

3. Tape Resist Snowflake. Use painters tape on a canvas to make a snowflake, then let your kiddo paint over it. Once the paint is dry peel the tape off and you'll be left with a really pretty winter artwork to display.

4. Bring some snow inside and make snow paint with it. All you need to do is mix some snow with food coloring.

5. Sparkly Snowflake Craft. Get some black or blue construction paper and use some glue to make a snowflake shape, then let your child shake some white sparkly glitter on top to make a cute snowflake craft.

6. Bring some snow inside to paint it. You can put a big sensory bin outside when it starts to snow and let it fill up, or just after it's snowed go shovel some snow into the big sensory bin. Then fill up a tall glass with water and add in an entire Kool-Aid packet. Then pour that into an empty water bottle and poke a small hole in the lid. Then you let your little one squeeze the water bottle over the snow to paint it.

7. Make a pizza that's shaped like a snowman with organic Mozzarella cheese and black olives as the eyes.

8. Make hot chocolate scented sensory rice for sensory bins or tot trays. All you have to do is take some uncooked white rice and put it in a ziploc bag with a little bit of alcohol until it's all coated. Then add in a packet of Duncan Hines Frosting Creations hot chocolate scent. Zip up the bag and shake it all around to get all the rice coated in the hot chocolate color/scent. Then you can lay the rice out on a sheet of foil until it's dry. Then get to using it for your sensory plays!

9. Make a mitten hand print. Paint your little one's hand with white paint and then put their hand print on a colored piece of construction paper. Once it's dry you need to cut the construction paper out around the hand to make it into the shape of a mitten.

10. Read The Mitten by Jan Brett. This is such a good story, and we got to meet the lovely Author and get her signature on our copy.

11. Winter I Spy from The Pleasantest Things. 

12. Build igloos out of sugar cubes. 

13. Take a bath with hot chocolate bath paint. Just mix shaving cream with a packet of Duncan Hines Frosting Creations hot chocolate packet,

14. Make snow play dough. All you need to do is make a batch of white play dough! You can use it with toy winter animals.

15. Make smores.

16. Paint a snowman with puffy paint. Make puffy paint just by mixing equal parts shaving cream and glue.

Summer Bucket List

Here's our bucket list for this summer! We plan on having lots of fun this summer, and I'm sure you do to so hopefully you can find some ideas you like on this list.

• Go to the zoo
• Make popsicles
• Swimming
• Ice chalk
• Go to petting zoo
• Camping
• Outdoor scavenger hunt
• Make & learn with homemade sun dials
• Bird watching
• Make tie dye shirts
• Feed ducks
• Orange Creme sensory dough pretend play shop
• Play pick up sticks
• Lemon oobleck
• Sensory pools
• Fairy garden
• Make mud pies
• Grow pineapple plants from pineapple tops
• Sand slime
• Make an earthworm observation tower
• Do ocean animal unit
• Have a wacky watermelon day
• Have a pretend play snow cone stand
• Make smoothie paints
• Outdoor pretend play foot spa
• Chalk art pictures
• Play duck pond
• Have a messy outdoor play date
• Put colored ice in the kiddie pool
• Play with shaving cream and colored ice
• Make an outdoor music station
• Ball watermelon
• Make a 2 liter sprinkler
• Practice color theory with colored ice
• Make a butterfly feeder
• Make a bird feeder
• Watch fireworks