The last week of January is definitely a good time. The glow of Christmas has worn off, homework and long term projects have stacked up again, and chances are that Punxsutawney Phil will be catching sight of his shadow on Ground Hog Day predicting six more weeks of winter. For kids up north, that’s six more weeks of indoor recess and/or gym. For those lucky enough to live in warmer climates, it’s a month and a half more of an outdoor world that still looks…well, brown and dead.

This week, my two grade school daughters will go to school in their pajamas, attend an ice cream social, wear a silly hat, guess how many somethings are in a jar, and play candy bingo. They’ll raise money to buy school supplies for a first grade “sister school” classroom in Micronesia. They’ll have far more fun participating in those activities than they expect—maybe even enough fun to get them motivated for the science fair projects that await them in the spring.

As a parent, I love Catholic Schools Week because it reminds me of how things used to be when everybody knew that nobody needed special and expensive gadgets to have fun. Simple silliness was sufficient. And you know what? It still is!

Whether your kids attend a parochial school, home school, or public school, why not look for a simple way to enjoy being together even more this week? It doesn’t have to cost anything, or be the very best and most wonderful activity ever conceived. It just has to be a little out of the ordinary, a little silly, a little something extra added to your day. Life is serious business, and the children in our lives will have decades to discover that. Many already have. But the years for wearing your clothes inside-out, or signing your name with the opposite hand, or desperately trying to speak “pig Latin” are fleeting. We ought to take them with both hands, and say thank you to the God who so graciously gives them to us.