March has a reputation for being unpredictable; cold one day, almost spring the next. But one thing it definitely has going for it? A great lineup of unofficial holidays. Some of them are silly. Some are surprisingly fun. And a few of them are the kind your kid will actually want to put on the calendar.
Here are some worth marking this year.
March 2: Read Across America Day
This one falls on Dr. Seuss’s birthday and is a great excuse to dust off an old favorite or finally start something new. Many schools do their own reading activities, but at home, you can keep it simple: let your kid pick whatever they want to read that evening, no restrictions. Sometimes, giving a middle grader full control over the book choice is exactly the kind of small thing that reignites a love of reading. Even a graphic novel counts.
March 4: National Pancake Day
March 4 is easy to remember because it sounds like a command: March forth. It also happens to be National Pancake Day, which means breakfast for dinner is not just acceptable but practically required. Middle graders love being in on a bit of family silliness, and this is the kind of low-effort tradition that sticks around for years. Add chocolate chips. Let them flip one.
March 8: International Women’s Day
A good one for starting a conversation with your middle grader about women they admire, whether that’s a historical figure, someone in your own family, or a favorite character from a book. It’s also a great time to hand them a story with a strong female lead and let the book do the talking.
March 14: Pi Day
3.14. Get it? Pi Day is a genuine middle-grade favorite, especially for kids who like numbers, puzzles, or any excuse to eat pie. Some families go all in with actual pie for dessert. Others just enjoy the math nerd energy of the day. If your kid is in that sweet spot where they’ve just started learning about pi in school, this one lands especially well.
March 17: St. Patrick’s Day
The classic. Middle graders are at the perfect age to appreciate the lore around this one; leprechauns, luck, the whole thing. If you want to lean into the fun, building a simple leprechaun trap the night before is the kind of creative project that takes about twenty minutes and is remembered for years. Wear green. Make something green for dinner. Keep it low-key, and it stays fun.
March 20: First Day of Spring
After a long winter, this one genuinely feels like something worth celebrating. Get outside, even just for a walk. Open the windows. Let the kids stay up a little later because the sun is finally hanging around past dinnertime. After months of short days and indoor energy, the first official day of spring has a kind of magic to it that doesn’t need any decoration.
March 23: National Puppy Day
If you have a dog, your kid already knows about this one and will remind you approximately ten times. If you don’t have a dog, this is still a perfectly good day to visit a local shelter, watch a documentary about dogs, or simply spend a few minutes looking at puppy videos together as a family. No one is immune. It’s a good day.
March 26: Make Up Your Own Holiday Day
This one is exactly what it sounds like. Let your kid invent a holiday, name it, and decide how it’s celebrated. It’s a surprisingly good creative exercise, and the results are usually hilarious. National Backwards Dinner Day. Pajama Hat Day. The Day You Have to Talk Like a Robot Until Noon. Whatever they come up with, play along. The weirder the better.
March 31: National Crayon Day
Middle graders will roll their eyes and then immediately want to participate. Pull out some paper and a box of crayons and just draw something together with no agenda. It’s the kind of low-pressure creative time that feels almost too simple, and works every time.
You don’t have to do all of them. Pick two or three that fit your family and put them on the calendar now, before March quietly slips by. Sometimes a small, planned reason to do something together is all it takes to turn an ordinary week into something a little more memorable.