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It’s still Fall y’all! Did you have a chance to check out my Fall resource round-up last week? There were a ton of free and paid resources for things you can do, read, or create in your homeschool this season. But today is a little bit different. Today we’re going to talk about creating a Fall homeschool bucket list.

What is a Homeschool Bucket List?

If you’ve been around the parenting blog block, you’ve likely seen the idea of a bucket list. I find people often talk about them around the holidays or regarding travel. Even if you haven’t seen people post about them previously, you may be familiar with the movie The Bucket List. Either way, it’s really a simple idea.

What are the things you would like to do or accomplish in a specific time frame? It’s that easy. Although you can include some of those “reach for the stars” and/or dream ideas to your list, it’s probably best to just include the more easily attained items. This is so your kids can feel the excitement and accomplishment of completing the list. 

You can create your bucket list in four easy steps.

1. Determine Your Time Frame

Quite often people will create a bucket list of things they’d like to do or accomplish before they die, but we’re creating a Fall homeschool bucket list. It’s important to remember that whereas Winter officially starts on December 21st or 22nd each year (in the Northern Hemisphere), it starts to get extra cold and may snow a lot sooner wherever you are.

Things to consider: how much time do you have left for actual Fall weather? What time do you have open and available in your homeschool to add in Fall activities? I’m in New York, so we usually have Fall weather through mid-December, but a friend in Alaska may already have snow and need to skip ahead to start making a Winter bucket list instead.

2. Pick How Many Items to Add to Your Bucket List

Now that you have an idea of your availability, it’s much easier to create your bucket list. Make sure to factor in both the available time in the season and in your schedule when choosing how many items you should include on your list. For example: if your homeschool only has open time on Fridays and there are only five Fridays left before it turns into Winter weather, a list of twenty items may be difficult to accomplish unless you incorporate weekend days in your homeschool planning.

It’s also important to factor in the ages of your children, their energy levels, and their likelihood of accepting or becoming disappointed if not all items are accomplished. I believe that my daughter would treat the bucket list as a to do list and remind me daily of the things we missed for months (and months… and months…) after the fact. Therefore it is much better for us to create the bucket list with my calendar beside it to schedule each activity as we go.

If your child is more likely to accept not completing your bucket list, you can include more items than you have time to complete. If this is the case, try to challenge your child to become creative and do things that represent each additional task. (No time to go apple picking? Maybe you can look for different apple varieties at the grocery store and try them all!) 

3. Brainstorm Activities with Your Kids

Now comes the fun part! What are the activities you actually want to do this season? Do you want to go apple picking, pumpkin picking, or on a nature walk? You may want to add baking experiences or pumpkin carving to your list. If you’re willing to do nighttime activities, you can often find places that display hundreds, if not thousands, of jack-o-lanterns. Don’t forget to ask your kids to name things they want to do as well. It may surprise you to hear their suggestions!

I would recommend that you make a separate list for your brainstorming. This will make it easier to choose some of the items to save for the future. It may help avoid any bad feelings or disappointment due to not doing those items this year.

4. Create Your Fall Homeschool Bucket List

Take everything you brainstormed and choose which ones to add to your list. This may become a negotiation with your kids, but that’s okay. This could be a great opportunity for your kids to learn about sharing pros and cons and how to make a case for why something specific should make it onto the list this year. Once everything’s been negotiated and decided, you can all make a poster of your bucket list to put on the wall, your fridge, or somewhere else that you’ll all see it.

Most importantly – add the bucket list items to your planner or calendar so you don’t forget! If your kids are older, they can help with the planning and create excitement for the other kids in your family. You can do countdowns to some of the bigger events/activities if they warrant it, or just remind your kids about upcoming activities.

What Made it onto Your Fall Homeschool Bucket List?

We’ve added several fun activities to our bucket list this Fall. Along with a few of the ideas I mentioned above, we’re definitely going to find a pumpkin or two to decorate and display, plus we have several recipes we’ll be baking, along with some fun crafts.

I’d love to hear what made it onto your bucket list. Leave a comment below!