The Bucket List

The Kid Bucket List was orginally created to document a range of experiences, skills and activities that I wanted Striker and Sunshine to try before they finished high school. I started the list on my parents farm balcony as I reminiced about my own childhood with my mother and realised, that as city kids,  my own children were unlikely to enjoy many of the things I had taken for granted unless I provided the opportuities after school, on the weekends and on our school holidays.

Over time, the Kid Bucket List evolved with our readers revealing a preference for our travel stories. However, the quest to continue simple pleasures in our own backyard such as bird watching, planting own garden and catching tadpoles, continued to be activities we did offline. 

I have streamlined the Kid Bucket List below into some easy to read key areas. It is a dynamic list as I add and tweak it all the time as the kids interests change and their curiosity leads us to new discoveries. I hope it helps you find some fun activities to experience with your kids. 

The Kid Bucket List

The Kid Bucket List of Animal Experiences

Go whale watching
Milk a cow by hand
Milk a goat
Catch a crab
Watch a chick hatch from its egg
Catch a tadpole (and then let it go)
Shear a sheep
Have a snail race
Catch a fish (or try) 
Catch a yabby
Hold a crocodile 
Catch a caterpillar and watch it change into a butterfly
Pat a Tasmania Devil 
Watch a wild penguin march
Go orca watching
Ride a camel
Spot a wild monkey 
Feed a baby calf, kid or lamb by milk bottle
FInd a butterfly and let in land on your finger
Go bird watching

The Kid Bucket List of Imaginative Play

Have a pirate dress up day
Build a sandcastle at the beach with a moat 
Be a superhero for a day 
Build a fairy house in the garden

The Kid Bucket List of Educational Activities

Conduct some science experiments 
Learn to code

The Kid Bucket List of Construction

Turn a box into a cubby 
Build a fort – Indoor
Learn to make paper planes and see whose flies the furthest

The Kid Bucket List of Skills

Learn to use chopsticks
Learn to blow Chewing Gum bubbles 
Learn to finger Knit
Build a cubby house from sticks 
Learn to skip with a skipping rope
Learn to ride a bike
Learn to whistle (first mouth, fingers then leaf/grass)
Learn to do a cartwheel 
Learn to snorkel
Learn to Skate
Learn to make a bed
Learn to cook a BBQ
Learn to tie shoe laces

The Kid Bucket List of Specific Places

Australia

Go to Carols by Candlelight
Go on an Aussie Road Trip 
Swim in the Indian Ocean 
Visit the Australian Fossil Mammal Sites
Visit Lord Howe Island 
Walk the Longest Timber-Piled Jetty in the Southern Hemisphere: Busselton Jetty
Snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef
A picnic at Hanging Rock
Visit Australia’s Capital City
Skipper a paddle steamer on the Murray
Visit Norfolk Island
Catch the Ghan from South Australia to Darwin (or Darwin to South Australia)
See Uluru with our own eyes

Overseas

Go to Disneyland 
See at least 4 of the natural wonders of the world
See at least 4 of the ancient wonders of the world
Swim in the Atlantic

The Kid Bucket List of Outings to Remember

Get Lost in a Maze
Visit a zoo
Visit an Art Gallery
Eat dessert in a book store
Explore a castle
Discover how money is made
Go to a professional football match
Visit a museum
Explore a bazaar 
Explore ancient ruins 
Get 3 stamps in our passports
Visit an aquarium
Go to the Drive-in Movies
Walk the labyrinth 
Visit an island 
Experience a live musical 
Enjoy a Mummy and Daughter trip away
Go to High Tea
Go to the theatre 
Visit a brewery
Climb a Lighthouse 
Take photos in a photo-booth together 

The Kid Bucket List of Transport

Catch a bullet train
Catch a tram
Catch a ferry
Catch a long haul flight
Fly in a helicopter
Take a ride on a hovercraft
Drink hot chocolate above the clouds

The Kid Bucket List of Cooking and Baking

Turn cream into butter
Learn to flip pizzas
Turn a pumpkin into a jack-o-lantern
Make a pavlova

The Kid Bucket List of Things to do at home

Find and write to a penpal
Spend a day taking photographs (each with our own camera)
Start a journal 
Make our own stamps and create wrapping paper

The Kid Bucket List of Things in Nature

Find a fossil 
Find a nest
Eat berries off the vine
Learn to skim a stone
Make mud pies
Make a Dam
Fly a kite 
Roll down a hill 
Eat bush tucker
See how many different shells we can find at the beach 
Play in the snow
Watch a sunrise
Sink or float scavenger hunt 
See how many different coloured rocks we can find at the river
Walk through a bamboo forest
Explore a cave 
Catch a wave
Slide down a grass hill on cardboard

The Kid Bucket List of Adventure

Build a campfire, boil a billy and roast marshmallows
Sleep in a hammock 
Count the stars
Cook damper and boil a billy
Go on a Treasure hunt
Go on a geocaching adventure
Take a High Ropes adventure 
Paddle a kayak
Take a flight at iFly (indoor sky diving)

The Kid Bucket List of Food Foraging

Pick chestnuts 
Grow our own mushrooms
Grow our food 
To market, to market 
Go fruit picking
Collect eggs

The Kid Bucket List of History

List the 11 UNESCO convict sites
Visit the Australian Fossil Mammal Sites
Dip our toes in a UNESCO lake
Visit an old Gaol
Discover the land of the Mungo Man
Explore a castle
Walk around Ancient Roman Ruins
Find historic Monk Cells in a mountain

The Kid Bucket List of Japan 

Spot a real Geisha
Walk across the busiest pedestrian crossing in the world
See a Sumo Wrestler with our own eye
Climb a castle
Learn to be a samurai
Feed the deer

The Kid Bucket List of Prospecting

Pan for gold 
Find a ruby
Find an opal
Find a sapphire