Homeschool Minecraft

A new Minecraft computer program for Homeschoolers written by a Renita who is a wonderful homeschooler and blogs over at Krazy Kuehner Days.  My kids tried it out this month and LOVED it.  I loved that it is going along with what we are studying right now in our history lessons and I am seeing my kids carrying over some of what they learned with me into their creative builds.  I have been able to use this class as a reward for the children after completing our regular work.

Each class is a month long and is broken down into 1 week periods.

First the kids are given readings and videos to watch on the weekly topic

Next the kids are given one or two weekly builds related to their reading assignments

Extra assignments are offered for kids and parents to do at home if they chose.  Lastly there is a weekly quiz that the kids complete.

For this class the kids made explorer cards for 2 of the explorers they learned about

We also completed a map of North America and what areas different countries were claiming as theirs.   there were plenty of other activities to chose from but these are just the two I chose:)

Firedrake while building her James town fort added the names of the original settlers to her fort wall on her own accord along with their known skill or title:)

She even remember that there was one grave buried outside the fort based on our field trip to the fort way back in Oct:)

MarioFan built a viking ship...and I was please to actually see him building things instead of continually blowing things up which is he usual habit when on his private mine craft system.  In just a few short weeks he is becoming  more creative with his builds.  At first he could only build in squares and rectangles but now he is getting the hang of building in different shapes and visualizing his builds and taking much more time and thought into his builds.  Considering this child is not really a artsy kid this is a huge improvement:)

Firedrake's viking ship and fountain of youth which is distinctly shaped like a water breathing dragon:)  Since no one knows what the fountain of youth looks like, the kids are encourage to be creative builders.

Still not convinced that mine craft can be educational-- here is another resource completely different than this site that gives even more information why mine craft could be used successfully as an educational tool:)  I needed to convince my husband of this point myself when I wanted to give these classes a try:)

Pros of the classes:

1. inexpensive

2. educational lesson plans that can be incorporated into your lessons
safe environment with other children to build and play (this is something my kids have wanted to do but I have always been resistive out of concerns of who is online).  This class is carefully monitored by an adult I trust and after observing a few classes, I now allow my children to log on during their free time:)

3. great consumer service--I signed up for these classes the week my husband was out of town and I am not a computer whiz so I had to call several times to get the computer working-- this was completely in my error not the system and the admin politely walked me thru every step so I could get it working:)  Thanks Renita:)

4.  the program is built so there can be no destructive behaviors which was very important to me and to my children.  No one can tear down their buildings!

Cons:
I can only think of two and it isn't the fault of the class.

1. If you have two children and both wish to be online at the same time you need 2 licenses for mine craft.  Prior to this we only had one license and the kids shared their online time.  Once that was sorted out the class was smooth sailing for us:)

2.  If you have a child who tends to be screen addicted or obsessed about mine craft you will need to carefully monitor their online time.  My husband and I have had to put time limits on the kids computers as they were beginning to sneak into the computer room to play.  Since I have one child who would rather play on the computer than anything else I have to be vigilant in that area:)!

I thought these classes were so good I volunteered to do this review!  These thoughts are all mine and I wasn't asked to do this review.  I wanted to pass along a great 'new to me' resource using my kids favorite online game.  New classes are being added all the time and there is also classes that may appeal to girls such as the American girl series:).  why don't you head over and take a peek:)
Homeschool with Mine craft