Interior Design: Now with More Cats!

On last week's vocabulary test, I asked students to describe an attractive room.  Aside from demonstrating if they knew the meaning of the word, the question also gave a peek inside their eight-year-old aesthetic sense.  Apparently, the gold standard of attractiveness to third graders is, well, gold.  Several kids included gold in their decor.  Perhaps taking some cues from European royal palaces, one student described the most attractive room ever as having gold everywhere.

Not surprisingly, another hallmark of a living space attractive to third graders is a large supply of toys.  Toys featured in their answers from "scattered with," "filled with," to "lots of."  Oh--and throw in several mentions of TVs and cookies.

Attractiveness, to eight-year-olds, also involves "a good smell" as well as the color pink.  Flowers featured heavily, including rainbow flowers which perhaps would be giving off this enticing smell.

And just to warn you--if you ever find yourself on one of those home redecorating shows where you  swap places with your neighbor and decorate their house, and your neighbor happens to be a third grader, you're going to wind up with butterflies all over your dining room.  Another student's idea of attractiveness was cat designs, so be prepared for some of those too.  Add in a few handprints, and some "obstacles" and you will have yourself the most attractive room that a third grader could ever imagine. 

Perhaps that sounds like just your style of interior design, but as for myself, I won't be hiring a third grader anytime soon to redecorate my apartment!  While I do appreciate "a good smell" as much as the next person, I'm not so sure about gilded cats all over the walls.

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