The summer holidays are some of my favourite holidays with the kids. 6 whole weeks with no school runs and plenty ice cream. While I LOVE the rainy weather, the kids aren’t so fussed for it. So when school breaks for the summer, we use the first day to sit in our pyjamas and decide our top things we’d love to do over the summer.

Each year we put together a fun list of things we want to do, we make a list to pop on the wall or a jar of things we can pick from when we feel a bit stuck. The kids get to choose their top 3 things and the rest of the list is filled with ice creams and little things we can do easily on a lazy day.

Summer has well and truly hit in the UK and we’ve had heatwaves all week and set to continue well into next week too. So, use plenty of suncream, keep hydrated and have fun completing your lists.
Here’s some of ours.

TOP of the kids lists:

Harry Potter Marathon – This is top of their list every single year. The first few days of the summer break is always a write off, they are exhausted and want to just lie around in their pjs with no routine.

Sea Glass Collecting – We have a few favourite beaches around Scotland. Sometimes we grab a few jars and fill one each full of seagrass and treasures. This is my all time favourite thing to do with the kids.

BBQ & pizza make your own – Always a winner for an easy dinner on a summer evening.

Dance in the Rain (in our pants) – Edinburgh is so well known for it’s wild weather. When it rains in the summer, and it’s warm. The kids will RUN outside, strip to their pants and dance around until it stops or they are brought inside, which ever is first.

Learn to cartwheel – 3/4 have mastered this one now, and I think this and hula hooping will be a yearly addition to any summer list we make. If you watch my stories all you’ll see is Emily cartwheeling any chance she gets.

Scooting at the beach – Any excuse for the beach.  We’ll spend around 80% of the holidays there.

Ice cream dates – Ice cream is life.  I think we’ve tried every ice cream stop in the city.

Paddling in the sea – Always great on a hot day, we usually wait until the crowds have gone home and spend a quiet evening paddling, while the sun is still up and it’s a little cooler.

Rock Painting – Super cute rocks are left all over our little town, so we are going to paint and leave some too. Let us know if you spot one in Edinburgh.  

Make paper boats/planes – My dad taught me the art of origami when I was little and boats are our favourite.  So fun to see them floating on the river.  

Day at the River – The river is our second home after the beach.  The River Esk runs right through here so we nip along, collect the wild garlic and take lunch with us.

Visit the Fairy Garden – The walled gardens down near Berwick have a fairy garden you can freely walk around.  It’s a great free day out, you can collect sticks and make wands before you go, or collect them in the magic fairy wood for a craft session another day.

Picnic dinner at the park – Which is a regular thing for us anyway.  Better when it’s sunny though.

Visit a castle – We take our Historic Scotland pass seriously.  We are working our way around them all slowly, but hope to tick off ALL the castles on the entire list someday. We’ve made our way through almost every single one within an hour of here, time to go a wee bit further!

Camp in the back garden – I’m not a camper, it doesn’t appeal to me in the slightest, I love home comforts, so a little back garden camp is ideal for this. Pop up a tent, lots of blankets and snacks and off you go!

Star gazing – Which brings us nicely to this one. This is best for the end of the summer, when the evenings start to get darker a bit earlier, I don’t think my kids would last until 11pm

Watch a sunrise – We’ve got more chance of this one, Harry is an early bird and rises with the sparrows. Top tip, get all your things sorted the night before. Wrap up cosy and take a flask of hot chocolate for the car, and enjoy!

Sand castles – Obviously. 

‘Camping’ by the river – We plan on a whole day by our favourite river, pitching a tent, napping, paddling & roasting marshmallows on the camp stove, it’s the perfect full day activity.

Eat donuts for breakfast – ANY excuse to have this on the list to be honest.

Here’s a wee printable, or screenshot and keep on your phone for fun.

Whats at the top of your list?  We’ll be sharing as much as we can over on Instagram Stories if you would love to keep up with our summer over there!  If theres something you think we would LOVE to do, pop it below!  Tag @MyLittleWildlings if you share on your socials so we can keep up with the fun too!
Theres still space on our board 🙂

Happy Summer!

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