“Mami, realworld minecraft is way more difficult and tiring.”
All the boys enjoy playing with MInecraft, watching Minecraft videos, and building their future homes and worlds. As we cannot always hang out together, a little of alone playtime with video games is part of the Summer menu. The kids show us their creations and their favorite videos, but the best part of hanging out together is the sobremesa or tertulia discussion about what they are doing and “learning”.
My favorite learning moment was Jim’s outdoor activity for the kids: “let’s go build a wall”. From their Minecraft point of view it sounded FUN, it sounded do-able. I was excited to see THAT project. The instructions were simple.
- Weed garden
- Till and prepare the soil.
- Make a bed of gravel
- Move rocks from pile to a clean line on the terrain. Larger rocks on the bottom.
Two hours later we had a partial old-fahioned wall construction. The lesson of the day was the realization Javier had, which started this entry.
The next day, Javier started telling his father about his “great diamond axe” how it was the best because it was the strongest…. which became an invitation to discuss the actual properties of diamond, steel and other materials. They talked about hardness and strength and how they are not the same and why we do not make axes out of diamonds. Yes Minecraft is cool, Minecraft is fun , but Minecraft is far from a science textbook and realworld building.