Minecraft is Educational

Hiya, Bellistik here and it's Minecraft Monday!

I home school my kids and I like the approach of unschooling or natural schooling. I love it when I can find new ways to teach the kids math, English, science, society and environment etc. that is so fun and immersing they don't even realise they're learning.

One great example is cooking; they learn maths such as fractions, we can get into science such as water evaporating and foods changing when cooked, we talk about nutrition and we can try different foods from other cultures.

As a gamer and a mum I welcome the kids to play games twice a week but I especially like Minecraft (and so do they!). Minecraft is open world and creative so instead of running pre-made levels they're free to choose what they do. Here's some great ways they learn through Minecraft:

1. Creativity. They're free to be creative, making and doing what they please.
   
   
2.  Hierarchy of needs. Kids are looked after and their needs are pretty much met for them but while playing a survival game like Minecraft they have to learn to put their basic needs first before going off and playing. For this they need to make tools to find and make food and shelter. As well as weapons and armor to protect them from monsters.
   
   
3. Problem Solving. As you enter Minecraft you are stood with nothing on a vast landscape. You must find resources to survive, you need food, shelter and safety; these need to be met continuously through out your game play, while balancing your survival you can be creative and build whatever you like and problem solve as you go. 
    
4. Math. To be able to build weapons, armor and tools etc. the kids need to use recipes:
   
   
   
   
   
   As well as testing their memory to remember the patterns needed to re-build tools when they break, they also need some math skills. Some recipes call for multiple items to create one:
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Some items also create multiple items:
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Minecraft provides kids with opportunities to use addition, multiplication, subtraction and division. While designing and building in Minecraft it's also handy to have an idea of length, width and depth.
   
   
5. English. To play Minecraft it's important to be able to read and sometimes type, especially when playing with others. 
   
   
   
   
   
   These are just a few subjects kids learn while immersed in their Minecraft world. As they get older they can also jump into the code and change how the game plays.
   
   Kids are like sponges and learn fast and we all learn best when we're enjoying it! 
   
   
   Happy crafting!
   
   
   Bellistik