Another Way To Play

If you don't have a server to play Minecraft with your Grandkids here is another idea. My Grandson, who is 8 suggested this one day and it was quite fun. Connect on Skype or another Voice Over program before starting this.
Set up:

First you decide on ground rules, like to you want cheats on or off
Then one of you creates a new world.
The one who first created the world goes to their main screen and types in /seed and hits enter. This will give the seed of the newly generated world.
They read this seed number to the other player
The second player creates a world on their own machine with the same settings settled on in step 1.
On the create world screen there is a box for a seed number. The second player enters the number give to them by the first into this box.
They verify that all other settings are the same. Such as allow cheats on or off etc. Type of Biomes game mode etc.
The second player generates the same world and both players try to survive or do whatever other challenges they want.

Three ways to play:

With my first grandson we just tried to survive. We allowed cheats so we set up KeepInventory True and MobGrieving False and most nights we would each type in /time set 0. This would change the night to day. Of course it didn't matter if we both did this as we were on two different but similar worlds on our own machines so our actions didn't affect the other person.
Another way to play would be to go into creative mode and both try to build something specific in the timeframe where you are both on. Like a house or a giant toy or the biggest roller coaster in the world etc.
When I played this way with another older grandson we turned cheats entirely off. We came up with a list of items and gave them each point values. Then we competed to survive and also get the points. We tied the first night but when we played again a week or so later in the same world and continued our points he won because he completed a three story 10x10 house and I didn't. Here are the points we decided on but there can be more or less depending on what you want to do with your own Grandchildren. We didn't require that these were all available in a chest at the end of the playing time just that they HAD been at one point. We relied a lot on the honor system.

Things to find:
- 5 points for each type of mineral found. Only one count for each of these no matter how many of each you had gathered.
  - Sand, sandstone, granite, andestite, diorite, cobblestone, dirt, coarse dirt, moss dirt, coal, iron, gold, lapis lazuli, nether quartz, nether rack, glow powder, clay, dry clay (only 5 pts only no matter the color))
- 5 points for each type of processed mineral. Only one count for each of these no matter how many of each you had made.
  - Glass, cooked cobblestone, polished granite, polished diorite, iron ingot, gold ingot, glow stone block, nether brick, brick, mossy stone)
- 5 points for each type of wood. Only one count for each of these no matter how many of each you have.
  - oak, dark oak, spruce, jungle, birch, acacia,
- 3 points for EACH diamond or emerald found (you can use them just remember how many you found or write it down before you use them up)
- 10 points for finding each biome (plains, mesa, taiga, savanna, jungle, river, swampland, desert,ocean, extreme hills, forest, roofed forest, flower forest, plateau, sunflower plains etc)
- 20 points for EACH spawner discovered
- 20 points each for finding any of the following. Yes you can all discover the same items since you are on your own computers in similar worlds. These would count for both of you.
  - Mine, village, dungeon, desert temple, jungle temple, witches hut
Things to do:
- 20 points for building a 10X10 three story house
- 20 points for planting a 7x7 fully planted garden
  - Extra 5 points each type if you have sugarcane, carrots, potatoes, beetroot
  - Extra 10 points if you have watermelon, pumpkin,netherwart
- 10 points for each type of food you make (bread, mushroom stew,pumpkin pie, cooked meat(any kind), cake)
- 10 points for catching a fish
- 10 points for crafting a full set of any type of armor
- 30 points for building a Nether portal
- 30 points for creating an enchantment table
- 10 points for each TYPE red stone automation (if you built 20 detector rails you could only count this once for example)
- 10 points for crafting a clock
- 10 points for crafting a compass
Collections (12 of each type only give you 20 points so if you had 12 cows and 12 sheep you would get 40 points but if you had 24 cows you won't get 40 points)
- 20 points for collecting 12 of cows, sheep, pigs, or chickens.
- 50 points for collecting 12 horses
Monster killing (each type only gets counted once no matter how many of them you kill)
- 5 points for a skeleton, zombie, baby xombie, spider, cavespider, silverfish, pigman
- 20 points for a creeper, witch, enderman, ghast
Making pets
- 20 points for taming a dog, cat, horse or donkey
Extra credit
- 50 points for a fully automated roller coaster. Must go at least 50 blocks up and loop by itself.
- 50 points for a automated garden (where water harvests the garden)
- 50 points for a 10x10 completely underwater house 3 blocks tall
- 50 points for a flashing neon sign
- 50 points for a 1 minute fireworks display