Summer Bucket List Giant Calendar
Summer Bucket List printable for families, such a fun and simple way to keep your kids busy during the summer!
I was so excited when this idea popped into my mind that I couldn’t get started fast enough.
Here’s how it works: Rather than using a summer bucket list like we’ve done in the past, this year we are basing our adventures off of the Obscure Holidays calendar. Hot Dog Day? Hug Your Cat Day? Teddy Bear Picnic Day? Yes, please! Sign us up for all the simple, silly, joyful celebrations of summertime.
This 2021 Summer Holiday Calendar and Bucket List was created to help add a little fun, and take out the stress of planning summer activities for your kids. Your purchase includes the PDF for a 24″ by 36″ calendar to print hang on the wall. It features hand-drawn illustrations for dozens of fun and silly holidays (and several that are more important). From Hug Your Cat Day, Yo-Yo Day, and Say Something Nice Day to Avocado Day, Relaxation Day, Book Lovers Day and Take Your Houseplant for a Walk Day, this calendar is full of simple ways to connect with your children this summer.
Color in the doodles as you celebrate each holiday (of course, you don’t need to celebrate every single one!). Use this cute holiday calendar as a countdown to your own family adventures, there’s plenty of room to write them on the calendar as well!
When I sat down to start doodling these illustrations, I was surprised by how many “holidays” actually exist. There really is at least one for almost every single day in the summer. Some of them are ridiculous, and some are more meaningful.
While the list is full of really silly celebrations, there are days that offer more depth and diversity as well. Both D-Day and V-J Day are on this list (the anniversaries of the end of fighting in WWII). Your whole day does not have to be focused on dark topics, of course. But touching on these momentous times in history is a fantastic way to help your children learn and connect with the experiences of others.
Juneteenth is a perfect example of this. The celebration of the day all enslaved people learned they were liberated under the Emancipation Proclamation. Short story: it took a while for news to reach everyone (dive into the longer and more difficult reasons why as you study this topic). This should be a much more widely-celebrated holiday. The day ALL people were free.
For each of these more difficult days, we will spend some time discussing the difficult concepts of race, equality, ignorance and fear (all of which we discuss often in our homeschool) and then we’ll talk about what we can DO about it. I certainly don’t have all the answers. But I know that doing nothing is not an option.
For the lighter celebrations, I plan to look over the list of upcoming holidays and add any supplies needed to our weekly grocery shopping trip. This does not need to be elaborate by any means. A lot of the celebrations revolve around food: corn on the cob day, avocado day, chocolate ice cream day, etc.
But it would be fun to celebrate Sunglasses Day, for example, by decorating those ridiculously large sunglasses you can find at the dollar store and then sending the kids on a parade around the neighborhood. Watch videos of Barbershop Quartets on Barbershop Music Appreciation Day (or, even better, watch The Music Man together!). Take Your Houseplants for a Walk Day could be a really fun memory, especially for (deprived) kids like ours who don’t have any actual pets.
I created a giant Summer Bucket List Coloring poster to go along with the holidays. Nearly every day features an illustration related to the holiday. We’re going to color them in as we celebrate, whether that’s with a simple dish of vanilla ice cream on Vanilla Ice Cream Day, or a more involved tea party for our Teddy Bears, complete with finger sandwiches.
This giant coloring poster has room to include your own plans as well. We’ll be adding in our family reunions (so dear to us after so much time apart lately) as well as camping trips and other summer plans.
Do we need to do something for every single holiday? Of course not! But what a fun, simple way to not have to make a plan yourself. Make each day as simple or as elaborate as you’d like.
How it works:
Purchase the PDF printable from my shop.
Send the file to your local printer (Staples costs about $4; our small local shop is less than $3) and ask them to print it.
Hang it on your wall!
Add in your own family celebrations and adventures.
Color in each obscure holiday as you celebrate it (Or not. Use this however you want!)
Share on Instagram! I would LOVE to see how you are using this giant calendar at your house!