A Space of His Own

When you're 6 and want to build with Legos in peace, you need a space to do that.  We are very, very blessed to have a home here with 4 bedrooms.  Each child has a place they can call "mine," or as baby H would say it, "mines!"   Honestly, of all the houses we looked at, very few had more than 3 bedrooms.  Big houses are not the norm, at least not in Horizontina.  And Big families are not too common here either.  This is very much a 1 to 2 kids society.

D essentially has a window unit air conditioner, that can make (some) heat when used during the winter.  We also have the flexibility of space heaters, which I normally try to avoid in children's rooms, but on really cold nights we've used them.

Luckily, we were advised by a former ex-pat to bring down comforters for everyone.  With footie pajamas and a down comforter, you can keep a kid pretty warm at almost any temperature.  Because D has the corner room (with  more windows), his is usually the coldest bedroom.  Single pane windows with no gaskets or sealing of any kind don't keep out a lot of cold.  Enter DaddyHealy and his endless supply of weather stripping (isn't he awesome?) and we have a much more comfortable boy!  We have had his bedroom down to 48 degrees at 3 in the afternoon on a very cold day here.  Thankfully, those days are not too common. 

This lucky boy has an aunt with enough foresight to buy him removable car "wall stickers" for his birthday, which turned out to be a really cool way to personalize a rented room.  At home his room is painted green.  Since that was not an option here. this was a super neat way to make this space his own.  And when it's time to vacate the house, they come down as easy as they went up.

We bought the furniture for bedrooms under the same furniture allowance from the company.  It has given us some flexibility to do wonderfully fun and impractical things, like buy a night stand that doesn't go with any of the furniture, but sports pictures of his favorite Disney characters.  I honestly don't care if he doesn't like this movie anymore in 2 years, because that's all the longer this furniture has to last.  When the plain black nightstand and the Cars nightstand are the same price, why not?  In the US we are way too practical to buy something like this.  It's a  fun treat here.

Because he's our big school boy, we decided a study desk was a requirement for his room.  It doubles as a nice place to build Legos, color, and practice magic tricks.   You can also see to the right D's "guarda ropa" or armoire.  Just enough storage space for a little boy's clothes (and Legos too).

This bookcase was left by the homeowner.  It's actually a moveable piece of furniture, but it was left in D's room and I could not think of a more perfect place.  He is our little reader.  Though he would be entering first grade in the US this fall, he is reading at a high third grade level.  He devours books.  He has told me things like "I just can't stop reading!" and "My favorite toys are my books."  What a blessing!  Long may it continue!  When he was starting to read chapter books and his peers were not yet reading Dick and Jane, we taught him to not brag but defer his abilities to his Maker.  He now tells people, "I'm a good reader because that's the talent God gave me."  We've talked about how some kids are great at sports, some are good listeners, some are smart about math or science, or very compassionate.  God has given us all a talent, and it's how we use it that matters.  A lot to grasp for a little boy, but he's considering when he grows up he could read at story time at the library.  What a cutie.  It does make us amazed and proud, and very thankful too.

At one point we had to remove all books over 20 pages from his room because after we put him to bed at 8:30, we'd find him when we went to bed at 10pm with a book and a flashlight.  We now have an understanding, and bedtime means bedtime! 

When the girls nap on weekends or holidays, he usually goes to his room and reads.  I like to give him a new book during that time and he will easily complete a 3rd grade level chapter book in the hour I make him stay in his room.  Needless to say, coming back from our US visit we'll be lugging a suitcase of books.  How I miss the library!