where in the world?

Environmental Graphics

I'm certainly not the first person to ever think of decorating a kid's room with a world map, but maybe my dad was. At least that's what I thought when I was a child and we would visit our grandmother's house where there was a giant--albeit disintegrating and peeling--world map that he had glued to the wall of his boyhood bedroom. The map was fascinating, and I loved looking at places where countries had no states and city names had ten consonants to every vowel.

The other night I was putting Catcher to bed and telling him that Alex was in Mississippi [for work]. Catcher said, "I no see Mississippi," and it dawned on me that a giant map is just what he needs to keep his dad close when he's far away. It's also a great way to teach geography (I could use a little brushing up myself) and has the bonus feature of looking cool. This is probably my third really great idea for how I'll decorate Catcher's room if--and when!--we ever find a new house, so we'll see if it sticks. Actually, to be honest, Alex had the idea before I did.

Ikea