My first experience with the idea of a bucket list came from the movie Bucket List with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. This movie came out in December of 2007 and it is about 2 men trying to come to terms with their lives and things they have/have not done with their time. Coupled with that, they develop a desire to complete a list of things they want to do and see.
Google Definition: Bucket list (noun): a number of experiences or achievements that a person hopes to have or accomplish during their lifetime. (July 9, 2017 google search)
Bucket Lists seem to be a fun idea that people enjoy. These lists can be created for all sorts of ideas from a simple Summer Bucket list, to 50 before 50 lists, travel, food, love, reading, to just about anything you can think of. Interestingly, I have never actually created my own bucket list although I do find the idea attractive. I have recently created a travel bucket list, but it revolved around the desire to travel with my children. On the same note, today I am creating a Family Time Bucket List. This is a list of things I would like to do with my husband and children before the boys reach the age where they fly the coop.
Family Time Bucket List:
- Complete my Family Travel Bucket List
- Have a one-on-one date with each child where we spend a good part of a day doing fun things out of the house together. Each day geared to the interests of the child (visit a museum, lunch, ice-cream and that sort of thing).
- Set up a scavenger hunt for the family.
- Have a family game night complete with snacks and prizes.
- Walk (or run) a 5K race with your family (particularly the Mother’s Day Race).
- Sleep in a tent in the backyard (this a very different experience from camping in the RV, and what child wouldn’t love sleeping in a tent?). Perhaps build in some ghost stories too.
- Some kind of star gazing adventure.
- Participate more in activities that screams inner child for the adult, but pure fun for the kids: water balloon fights, flying kites, running through the sprinkler, building sandcastles, splashing in puddles, and so on.
- Hiking in some of the beautiful provincial parks that we visit.
- Get lost in imaginative play.
- Fishing, regular and deep sea.
- Horseback riding.
- Attend a sporting event (likely baseball or hockey).
- Cir-de-sole
- Teach them to cook, and let them trying making a family meal (i.e. pancakes for breakfast).
- Encourage them to believe in magic and imagination.
- Climb a tree.
- Craft, craft, craft and create.
Ride a rollercoaster.- Eat dessert before dinner.
- Write a story together.
- Do some science experiments (i.e. create a model volcano).
- Do some
puzzles, car modelsand other building activities together. - Create a bucket list together and work to complete it (i.e… A summer bucket list).
- Document our bucket list fun together via pictures and scrapbooks.
- Hunt for treasure on the beach.
- Create a time capsule.
- Ride a camel.
- Bury one of us in the sand.
- Rafting.
- Explore a cave (preferably on a guided tour).
- Tree walk and zip-line.
- Dance in the rain.
Skip rocks on the water.- Go to a drive-in movie.
- Ride a train.
- Go to a Family reunion.
- Collect something.
- Continue to make positive and fun family memories in any way we can.
- Say “I love you” every day.
That’s 40 ideas that come to mind as a starting point. What’s your family bucket list look like? Do you have any ideas or activities that you would be willing to share?
By Shari Marshall – 2017