Notes for Grandma
Many of us who are now Grandparents find ourselves lost between two worlds. On a recent trip to visit a Grandson (8 years old) I did not understand a thing he was talking about. His conversation was all about Pokemon and Minecraft. I was telling my son about this when I returned and he suggested I play Minecraft so I would understand at least part of what my Grandson was talking about. He copied a world he had already created for his sister and we got each of the oldest grandchildren copies of Minecraft. The main players were three 8 year old's and a 7 year old. All boys. A couple of them had younger sisters so we occasionally had a 6 and a 4 year old join us. We played in survival mode but with no mobs for the first year of so, then added in mobs.
At first I didn't have a clue. I have never played any video games and could hardly move. My daughter and son both logged in with me when the Grandkids weren't online and taught me how to play. Even now I get lost all the time, die frequently and have a hard time keeping up when we go on a quest. Part of this is because my computer is old and refreshes at a slow rate.
Having said this. The world we created was marvelous! We had a roller coaster that went virtually everywhere. Someone built a post office where everyone had a chest with a sign indicating who it was for. Buildings popped up randomly. We had a large fenced in area in the middle of the town that contained dozens of pink and purple sheep. I gathered that the 4 year old wanted these and her brother set it up for her.
Every time I logged in there were new things to see. I found some patterns online and made a huge "Steve" out of wool. I also made an angry bird and a little pony. Wherever I built, the Grandkids thronged around and rapidly filled up the space with their own creations. I had to accept this even though sometimes it would have been nice to have more space!
One day I logged on and saw a wonderful pirate ship. I found out later that my daughter had logged on as her son and created it. Within a day another pirate ship was next to it, built by another grandson. He didn't use a pattern and his ship was delightful. Another grandson created a hot air balloon and an airplane.
There was a little contention as well. Kids got upset when things were taken from their houses or someone built onto something they had created. I had to talk to them and set up some rules about what they could and couldn't do. This was especially tough if the younger girls were online with the older kids because they didn't know how to read and most of the conversations were typed in when they were playing without me. But overall the experience was positive.
Here are some suggestions if you are thinking of playing Minecraft with your grandchildren. I hope they are helpful.
Let me know if you have any other challenges or questions by sending me a note on the contact page. I will post them here if I can help.
At first I didn't have a clue. I have never played any video games and could hardly move. My daughter and son both logged in with me when the Grandkids weren't online and taught me how to play. Even now I get lost all the time, die frequently and have a hard time keeping up when we go on a quest. Part of this is because my computer is old and refreshes at a slow rate.
Having said this. The world we created was marvelous! We had a roller coaster that went virtually everywhere. Someone built a post office where everyone had a chest with a sign indicating who it was for. Buildings popped up randomly. We had a large fenced in area in the middle of the town that contained dozens of pink and purple sheep. I gathered that the 4 year old wanted these and her brother set it up for her.
Every time I logged in there were new things to see. I found some patterns online and made a huge "Steve" out of wool. I also made an angry bird and a little pony. Wherever I built, the Grandkids thronged around and rapidly filled up the space with their own creations. I had to accept this even though sometimes it would have been nice to have more space!
One day I logged on and saw a wonderful pirate ship. I found out later that my daughter had logged on as her son and created it. Within a day another pirate ship was next to it, built by another grandson. He didn't use a pattern and his ship was delightful. Another grandson created a hot air balloon and an airplane.
There was a little contention as well. Kids got upset when things were taken from their houses or someone built onto something they had created. I had to talk to them and set up some rules about what they could and couldn't do. This was especially tough if the younger girls were online with the older kids because they didn't know how to read and most of the conversations were typed in when they were playing without me. But overall the experience was positive.
Here are some suggestions if you are thinking of playing Minecraft with your grandchildren. I hope they are helpful.
- Learn how to play yourself before trying to play with them. Don't expect your grand kids to be patient enough to wade through the basics of game play. There are a ton of helpful resources on the Internet. If you know some adults that play, have them show you. It can be fun to play with your adult children as well if you can talk them into it.
- Be patient with your grand kids. I have found that their selective hearing is amplified when playing Minecraft. Voice-over programs like Skype can make this even more difficult. When they absolutely won't listen to me, I just let my Minecraft character stand as if I were out of the game until they notice and ask me what's going on. Then I repeat what I had been trying to say to them. Also, even though it is possible to type to each other in the game, I would strongly recommend using a voice-over program.
- Play in your own world before trying to play with the grand kids. Teach yourself how to survive, kill mobs and build. Trust me, even with all these skills you will still be at a disadvantage. These kids are smart! They pick up games like Minecraft as easily as we might drive a car.
- When playing in your own world practice in survival mode and master the basic skills before trying things out in creative mode. Not only is it funner (in my opinion) but if you start out in creative mode it will be more difficult to learn the skills you need in survival. You will likely be too used to getting all your supplies without the, sometimes painful, process of gathering them.
- Enlist their parents. Things go much smoother if Mom and/or Dad is in the loop. They can help with scheduling time to play, installing software, connecting to the server and hopefully setting up a voice-over program to use. Although it is possible to play without this support, it is much more difficult.
- Have fun! Let your guard down. Don't take things too seriously. If you want to build a house of cobblestone and your grand daughter starts adding in pink wool, go with the flow. You can always build your dream house in your own world.
- Kids like some adventure and danger. Get in on the fun by jumping in and fighting the mobs. Sure you might die, so what. It's a game after all.
- Create adventure by adding challenges. Like, "lets see who can get to the top of that mountain first". I bet they will beat you to the top. It is good for them to beat an adult sometimes.
- As you learn more about the game and each other you can add in other challenges too. For example in a future book we are going to have a "house building" challenge. We will also have a "resource challenge" to see who can get certain resources first. This will be kind of like a treasure hunt and should provide for a really good story in the new book.
Let me know if you have any other challenges or questions by sending me a note on the contact page. I will post them here if I can help.