Alyson

Just a note to share some clarity that came to me from our family enjoying Minecraft together. We started playing Minecraft last month after reading about it here under your "Minecraft support" discussion in March. This rainy morning, they are all in their own rooms on their computers playing together in a shared world, Dad included (parents take turns on the office computer). I'm hearing a lot of talking up and down the hall, like "Please don't spawn animals in the tunnel, dude!" ...or "hey guys, come on over here if you want to help me dig out this new section." ...and "hey! I found something in a cave, come look." ...and "how do you spell 'build'?"

Meanwhile I'm going back and forth to each room to hang out for a while as they show off their cool forts and villages. It's so cool. We also play a lot of Wii, board games and card games together every day, and so this has been a good fit for our gaming family. I realize now that I had previously stayed away from Minecraft all this time -- not introducing it to the kids -- because I really didn't understand what it was all about, and also because I once heard a group of parents cautioning that once your kids start Minecraft, you will typically lose them to it forever = never able to get them off the computer again (just like those cautionary discussions about limiting "screen time" or food/sugar). It's been a few weeks for us with Minecraft, and no one is overloading nor becoming obsessed. Instead, I'm seeing lots of sibling-play, creativity, natural learning, cooperation and fun. (We don't have high-speed Internet out here yet, but when/if it comes they'll eventually be able to take it to another level with online play.)

We have been slowly making changes as a family over the course of this year, regarding how we homeschool, how we spend time together as a family, and also relaxing over food, bedtime and media. I'm seeing our experience with Minecraft as yet another example of what can come from choosing joy, while moving away from old patterns of fear/limits/control.

CASS KOTRBA

-=- I realize now that I had previously stayed away from Minecraft all this time -- not introducing it to the kids -- because I really didn't understand what it was all about, and also because I once heard a group of parents cautioning that once your kids start Minecraft, you will typically lose them to it forever = never able to get them off the computer again (just like those cautionary discussions about limiting "screen time" or food/sugar). -=-

Yes, this is another boogey man. My kids were both introduced to it this year and as it has turned out my son isn't that into it (at the moment anyway) but my daughter has become deeply involved with it. She does spend the bulk of her day Minecrafting but it is something I support completely. She is a very exuberant, creative, busy young lady and Minecraft has been a great resource for her. The reason a lot of kids like it so much is because it is so dang cool - it tickles all those neurons in the best ways! I can't believe all the things my daughter has learned on there. The trick is to see the value of it and how much learning is going on. My daughter has progressed to playing on multiplayer servers (there is an unschooling Minecraft server - http://www.icomputerz.net/<http://www.icomputerz.net/>) and loves to talk to the other players on skype. She spends most of her time creating amazing things with these other kids, building friendships & learning more than I can imagine. One day there was a wedding on the server and the kids decorated for it all day then exploded fireworks after the ceremony. Her entire next day was dedicated to experimenting with different combinations to see what kind of fireworks she could create. She loves to experiment so that was thrilling to her. Minecraft is so versatile that it is a great place for kids to figure out what aspects interest them most & figure out their strengths. She has really found a passion and it is fun to see how her ever increasing mastery of Minecraft is building her confidence. She will do other things if those things are really appealing to her but we don't pressure her, how she spends her time is her choice. Instead of expecting her to plug into me and what I'd like her to do I focus on plugging into her and learning about what interests her.

There is some good stuff about Minecraft on this page: http://sandradodd.com/videogames/<http://sandradodd.com/videogames/>

-Cass

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Virginia Warren

My oldest daughter (8) plays a lot of Minecraft. She has at least 50
separate mods across 5 or so versions of Minecraft on her desktop. She's
picked up a bunch of software engineering concepts and terminology through
her interest in mods and textures. She wants to make a mod. Java coding,
ahoy. She plays Super Craft Bros Brawl and is amazingly skilled. She's
learning to spell and write communicating with other players. She watches
Minecraft gameplay videos (Sky, Cupquake), people making Minecraft crafts,
Minecraft food, Minecraft song parodies, Game Theory on the value of
Minecraft diamond armor. When you try to describe the great many things
people can learn playing Minecraft, it sounds like exaggeration. There's so
much. Then you see it. And it's even more than you thought.

Minecraft is more than a game. It's a system. It's a raw material. It's a
Turing machine!


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

supermomblues

I absolutely love Minecraft. In fact, my entire family does. My five year old is reading on his own - big words too like "enchanting" and "netherwort". We also downloaded a Hogwarts map which sparked interest in the Harry Potter series, so we often listen to the audio book while we play together in that map. My nine year old has started trying to re-create the Fairy school from Winx Club. I just love watching how one game can truly foster their love of learning. For so long I fought allowing them to spend all their time on this game, but the more I say "yes" the more I realize just how much they're learning from this game.

Something else that's fun is when they start to get into redstone - making repeators and powered rail for rail carts, it can all get very intricate and complicated - which is a great introduction to things like programming and engineering.

Yeah . . . I love minecraft! :-)


--- In [email protected], "Alyson" <rocketcreek@...> wrote:
>
> Just a note to share some clarity that came to me from our family enjoying Minecraft together. We started playing Minecraft last month after reading about it here under your "Minecraft support" discussion in March. This rainy morning, they are all in their own rooms on their computers playing together in a shared world, Dad included (parents take turns on the office computer). I'm hearing a lot of talking up and down the hall, like "Please don't spawn animals in the tunnel, dude!" ...or "hey guys, come on over here if you want to help me dig out this new section." ...and "hey! I found something in a cave, come look." ...and "how do you spell 'build'?"
>
> Meanwhile I'm going back and forth to each room to hang out for a while as they show off their cool forts and villages. It's so cool. We also play a lot of Wii, board games and card games together every day, and so this has been a good fit for our gaming family. I realize now that I had previously stayed away from Minecraft all this time -- not introducing it to the kids -- because I really didn't understand what it was all about, and also because I once heard a group of parents cautioning that once your kids start Minecraft, you will typically lose them to it forever = never able to get them off the computer again (just like those cautionary discussions about limiting "screen time" or food/sugar). It's been a few weeks for us with Minecraft, and no one is overloading nor becoming obsessed. Instead, I'm seeing lots of sibling-play, creativity, natural learning, cooperation and fun. (We don't have high-speed Internet out here yet, but when/if it comes they'll eventually be able to take it to another level with online play.)
>
> We have been slowly making changes as a family over the course of this year, regarding how we homeschool, how we spend time together as a family, and also relaxing over food, bedtime and media. I'm seeing our experience with Minecraft as yet another example of what can come from choosing joy, while moving away from old patterns of fear/limits/control.
>

zurro

Caitlyn (6) first got introduced to Minecraft last Summer from friends in Florida and the unschooling conference, but between our computers being unable to run it and her still having other interests like Pokemon, we weren't actually playing it ourselves. Fast forward to a month and a half ago when she discovered some You Tube Minecrafter videos (Adam AKA Swimming Bird, Poet Plays, and Zack Scott) and she began spending entire days watching videos that they had done and asking me to try to get another computer that could run Minecraft. After a month of watching videos and talking about all the things she would build and do, I finally got another computer that would run Minecraft. That was two weeks ago and immediately upon getting it up and running *we* (because I sit next to her to look things up and read or research things) started really playing and in those two weeks she already has friends she plays with in from across the U.S., Canada, and Australia among others.

In just two weeks, not only have her reading, typing, and computer skills moved to a new level, but I've added new computer skills to my own "skill closet". I've had to watch videos and learn how to get Minecraft problems fixed, install mods, texture packs, and more. I've also decided to look for another newer computer so I can start playing with her!! As for that love of Pokemon, she's now able to enjoy Pokemon within the Minecrafting environment! And as Virginia noted, there are so many other things - we love watching Minecraft parody videos in particular, but the possibilities are endless.

This is a another good link from Sandra's site, written by a Connie Coyle http://sandradodd.com/videogames/minecraftlearning

Laura Zurro

--- In [email protected], Virginia Warren <vafnord@...> wrote:
>
> My oldest daughter (8) plays a lot of Minecraft. She has at least 50
> separate mods across 5 or so versions of Minecraft on her desktop. She's
> picked up a bunch of software engineering concepts and terminology through
> her interest in mods and textures. She wants to make a mod. Java coding,
> ahoy. She plays Super Craft Bros Brawl and is amazingly skilled. She's
> learning to spell and write communicating with other players. She watches
> Minecraft gameplay videos (Sky, Cupquake), people making Minecraft crafts,
> Minecraft food, Minecraft song parodies, Game Theory on the value of
> Minecraft diamond armor. When you try to describe the great many things
> people can learn playing Minecraft, it sounds like exaggeration. There's so
> much. Then you see it. And it's even more than you thought.
>
> Minecraft is more than a game. It's a system. It's a raw material. It's a
> Turing machine!
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>