How to Plan Your Year: May
Kids are counting down the days to summer vacation. Moms are looking forward to a day they don’t have to cook. The weather here in the northwest has started to warm up and we’re spending more time outdoors. From fun celebrations to necessary home maintenance, here’s what to do in May.
Start by choosing a few fun holidays to celebrate, add a few activities from the bucket list, and tackle a home maintenance project or two. By creating a plan for your month, you can be intentional about trying something new or maintaining a cherished family tradition.
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What to Do in May: Holidays
National Salad Month
May is National Salad Month. Challenge your kids to at least try a salad in May. Teach them to wash veggies, use a salad spinner to dry lettuce, or make a homemade salad dressing. Salads are a great way to pack in a whole bunch of healthy foods all at once!
Try my Eat the Alphabet Healthy Food Challenge to encourage your kids to eat their veggies!
Children’s Book Week + Screen-Free Week
The first week of May brings Children’s Book Week, along with Screen-Free Week. Hey kids, we don’t make all the rules. Swap your tablets, TVs, and phones for books, games, and nature walks.
Here are a few of our family’s favorite games
Teacher Appreciation Week
Teacher Appreciation Week is also the first week of May. Tell your kid’s teachers, your childhood teachers, and teachers everywhere how much they impacted our lives for the better.
12 Quotes to Encourage Teachers
Mother’s Day
Mother’s Day is always the 2nd Sunday in May. Let your family know just what would make the day special for you. My family knows that I prefer not to cook every meal on Mother’s Day (although sometimes I still do!), and we’ve developed a tradition of getting hanging flower baskets as a Mother’s Day gift. Now my husband doesn’t have to worry that he’s buying something I don’t really want, and I don’t have to give him a specific list or buy my own gift to get something I love.
For a fun “half-surprise,” you can have your kids complete a fill-in-the-blank Mother’s Day poem about you and make you a card using my printable templates.
Memorial Day
The last Monday in May is Memorial Day. Help your kids understand what this holiday means—a day to remember all those who died while serving their country in the U.S. military. You can also take a brief moment to participate in the National Moment of Remembrance at 3 p.m. local time wherever you are on Memorial Day.
May List of Fun Holidays
Here are some of the quirky, wacky “holidays” that fall in May. These are fun to celebrate with your kids for a little treat, a little learning, and a whole lot of fun.
Fitness Day
Celebrate National Fitness Day on the 1st Saturday of May. Try a new workout, squeeze in an extra-long walk on your lunch break, or start a 30-day fitness challenge. Whatever it is, set a fitness goal and start working on it today!
Check out my list of 30-day challenges to find a fitness challenge that’s right for you!
Star Wars Day
May 4th is National Star Wars Day. Watch a Star Wars movie with your kids today. Or…they’ll be thrilled to watch a Star Wars movie in the middle of the week even without you, and you can work on a project you’ve been hoping to get to one of these days.
Astronaut Day
National Astronaut Day is May 5th. Visit NASA’s website for lots of information to celebrate.
Clean Up Your Room Day
National Clean Up Your Room Day is May 10th. Every day should be clean up your room day in my opinion, but my kids are definitely not on the same page with me there. No excuses on May 10th. It’s a national day. Every kid everywhere has to clean up their room! For kids who want a little independence, but still need direction, I’ve got a printable Closet Clutter Cleanout activity to guide your kids through cleaning out their closets.
Eat What You Want Day
May 11th is National Eat What You Want Day. It seems very reasonable to me to make participation in National Eat What You Want Day on May 11th dependent on participation in National Clean Up Your Room Day on May 10th!
Do Something Good for Your Neighbor Day
National Do Something Good for Your Neighbor Day is May 16th. Be neighborly and offer your neighbors a plate of cookies. Bring their garbage can in from the street or offer to supervise the kids riding bikes around the cul-de-sac.
Vanilla Pudding Day
Celebrate National Vanilla Pudding Day on May 22nd with this kid-friendly snack or dessert.
Scavenger Hunt Day
May 24th is National Scavenger Hunt Day. Who doesn’t love a scavenger hunt? Your kids will be thrilled to celebrate this one.
Tap Dance Day
National Tap Dance Day is May 25th. Visit YouTube to watch a few classic tap routines.
Paper Airplane Day
May 26th is National Paper Airplane Day. Learn to build a few different paper airplane models and have a contest.
Hamburger Day
Finally, May 28th is National Hamburger Day. Fire up the grill and make your own, or treat yourself to your favorite local burger joint.
Grab a complete set of lists to plan your whole year with fun holidays, monthly bucket list ideas, home maintenance tasks, and more in my Etsy shop.
Complete Set of Monthly Lists
Monthly Fun Calendars / Monthly Bucket Lists / Monthly Home Maintenance + more!
Bucket List Ideas for May
My monthly bucket lists include seasonal activities, physical activity, planning or goal setting, self-care, organizing ideas, and more. Here are some suggestions for your May bucket list. Choose a few or do them all!
- plan summer activities for the kids
- set up a summer chore chart
- walk while you phone a friend
- make a relaxing music playlist
- try a new restaurant
- make cards for teachers
- have brunch
- make a lemon dessert
- go on a picnic
- watch a movie trilogy
- organize your junk drawer
- clean out your email
- plant a veggie garden
- visit a farmer’s market
- make a list of family movies to watch
100+ Family Movie Night Suggestions
Plan Ahead in May
Here’s what’s coming up in June. Keep these dates in mind for future reference and planning.
Father’s Day is the 3rd Sunday of June. Plan something special to show dad how much you appreciate him.
Get a fun Father’s Day printable and card as part of my monthly themed activities bundle available in my shop!
For most families, June is the end of the school year. Plan some kind of celebration to acknowledge the hard work your kids did this year. Kids usually love to see pictures of themselves, so a slideshow showing them fun memories from the past school year would be a great year-end celebration project.
Home Maintenance to Tackle in May
Window Screens
May is a great time to vacuum and clean your window screens before you open the windows all summer long.
Couch and Chair Cushions
It’s also good to clean your couch and chair cushions. Vacuum with an upholstery brush, use a lint roller to remove pet hair, remove covers and wash if possible. Read your furniture tags and test first, but baking soda can be used on most fabrics to clean and remove odors. Sprinkle lightly with baking soda and let sit for about 20 minutes. Then, vacuum baking soda up with the brush attachment to thoroughly remove it from the fabric.
Under Kitchen Sink
Clean under your kitchen sink this month. Pull everything out and get rid of anything that doesn’t belong. Wipe out the cabinet and return items to their place. After having leaks under my kitchen sink twice, I now use plastic tubs under my sink to store cleaners and supplies. If I ever do have a leak again, most of the water will be caught in the plastic tubs before reaching the wood.
Under Bathroom Sinks
Finally, go ahead and clean under your bathroom sinks also. There may be some overlap of cleaning supplies that end up in one cabinet and need to be returned to the other. If you do all the under-sink cabinets at once, you’ll know if you have unnecessary duplicate supplies or need to reconfigure your storage solutions.
How to Plan Your Year: May Lists
By taking the time to plan a few projects each month, seasonal bucket list activities, and a few holidays to celebrate, you’ll get into a rhythm of taking care of the work that needs to be done and making time for fun and family.
Use these lists of fun holidays, bucket list ideas, and home maintenance tasks as a starting point. Add your own projects and personal priorities for May and you’ll have a useful list of what to do in May.
My Planning List Bundle can help you create monthly plans to reuse year after year to organize your life.
Get it today and start planning your year one month at a time!
Printable List of Fun Holidays
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What to Do in May
