Published: May 15, 2008 EST

(ARA) - From the day a child is born, it is the parents' job to help their child grow and develop. Early on, the nurturing is done through close contact, speech and touch; as the child gets older, by providing him or her with an environment in which to thrive.   When your child is ready to trade the baby animals and ABCs on the walls for a new look, you can get your design inspiration from your son or daughter's classroom. Teachers go to great lengths to cover the walls with learning materials like maps and calendars, seasonal decorations and even their students' art work.  Help your child develop a love of learning by providing them with a complimentary environment at home.

A good decorating rule of thumb is to create a place for your child to just relax and daydream, a space big or small where they can comfortably read books, play with toys or study.  When you're ready to decorate, go with a theme that is both imaginative and educational.  Geography is a great school subject to use as a decorating theme.

Whether your child is already an accomplished world traveler or has only made it as far as the next state, putting up a world map will allow your child to travel the world anytime.  Think bigger than just a world map out of the back of a National Geographic Magazine. Why not a world map that takes up the whole wall?  We found a fun and colorful wall-sized world map wall mural through the Pottery Barn Kids catalog (www.potterybarnkids.com) as well as a variety of accessories and bedding to compliment this decorating theme.  

The Pottery Barn Kids bedroom featured an 8 foot 8 inch high by 13 foot wide world map mural that covers one standard wall. The world map wall mural shows, in detail, up-to-date country boundaries, capitals, major cities, oceans, time zones, latitude/longitude, topography, elevations, ocean depths, shipping lanes and even nautical miles. It is simple to hang in just part of a Saturday afternoon. The wall mural kit includes eight easy-to-handle panels, paste and step-by-step hanging instructions.

"The cool thing about this map is that since it's printed on a heavy coated paper, kids can write on it with a dry-erase marker," according to Susan Kelley of Environmental Graphics, the wall mural's manufacturer. "One great idea for kids is to use our world map wall mural as a way to plan for and remember a family trip. Kids can outline the travel route and mark points of interest they will be visiting. After the trip, it can be used to display photos and other souvenirs from their trip. Because of the sheer size of this wall mural, it is easy to see the details of a given area that would be all together lost on a smaller map."

Once the mural is up, there will be no need to change it in just a couple of years.  This décor will grow with your child. A younger child will enjoy the world map's beautiful colors. Also, you can begin teaching your toddler or young child where different oceans, cities, countries and continents are located. As your child gets older, the map can be used as a reference for family trips, current events, geography lessons and school reports.

To complete your child's "world traveler" room will not take much more work. Just paint the other bedroom walls in an earth-tone pallet-perhaps a shade of blue or green- to match the wall mural and then add matching bedding and pillows.

Now you are done and have given your child the best bedroom in the world!

Copyright © 2005, ARA Content