Minecraft
My attempt to understand why kids love it. Unless you give it a try , you will never know!
Every now and then you might have yourself thought or heard people talking about how they played outdoors while they were kids and these days kids don’t get to climb trees or jump over walls. Well even if kids do, it happens virtually and not in reality.
Playing with friends now is a totally different phenomenon. Playing outdoors does not happen in most cases on account of reasons like security, lack of place, lack of friends to play with so and so forth. Or it is the tablet that keeps children from going outdoors.
What’s so great about the tablet? Most parents would know how hard it is to reduce screen time and get some physical activity in place. A parent myself, I have to make the effort to organise physical activity, organise play dates outdoors and even added some athletics classes in the mix.
But from time to time, a funny thing happens. The desire to be a child all over again I suppose slips in especially when I am in a good mood and want to have fun. One of those times, I attempted playing Minecraft with my son and his friends. That activity meant that all of us had to have iPads and we met each other virtually although we were seated right next to each other. That was a very difficult concept for me to comprehend, but these guys are pros. They were marching around the virtual space as if they know it all. They went about building stuff to protect them against odds. Slipped in and out of costumes or armours, what ever they are called with such ease. All this while I was still struggling to take my first steps and understand what I need to do to turn in some direction.
Needless to say, I gave up as I just could not keep pace. But I kept in touch with Minecraft, by reading books on it as well as listening to my son’s stories which he narrates with a lot of excitement. The other day, he told me that he is trying to find a monument in Minecraft which his friends have found but would not tell him how.
Fascinating lessons:
I stumbled upon an article about the world’s most active volcano and how it empties itself into the Pacific ocean. I showed the article to my son and explained how the molten lava when in contact with water cools down instantly to become land. He answered confidently that he already knows about such occurrences as that is how cobblestone is formed in Minecraft! Well that’s not the first time. Another day he announced that he and his friends discovered how to make glass on Minecraft. I learnt from him how glass is made in reality.
A lot of camaraderie has developed among the boys ever since they have caught the Minecraft fancy. They have learnt to support each other, they have learned to resolve fights, they have learnt to work together. As a parent I know what fun it is to play Minecraft. Having said that, I have to be honest. It is hard to be the strict parent who is screaming off her lungs, to insist that it is time for some outdoor play. After much heated discussion, we have reached an agreement. The number of hours spent outdoors playing will be rewarded with equal number of hours of Minecraft. So far it seems like a good deal. After all they are doing what they love most-play.
