Minecraft - The story begins

About a month ago I introduced the children to the program Minecraft.  I have known about it for about 2 years now, and whilst I recognised the learning potential of the game, I felt that by introducing it I would be opening the floodgates to nothing but Minecraft for the foreseeable future, with its infinite possibilities in a virtual world, I feared the infinite possibilities in the real world may be left behind.  After a lot of thought and reading on the subject, we decided the time was right to introduce it.  The first 3 days were completely dedicated to it, and Autumn found it quite tough having her playmate extracted from her play so suddenly and completely.  I helped her to find things to do on her own, but didn't like the idea of life adjusting and changing so utterly and completely.

We had a chat and I suggested that some sort of limit were introduced so that we could all continue to function as a family in the normal way.  My first suggest was playing it before breakfast.  This went down like a lead balloon and was followed by a moody teenager going round the house slamming doors and huffing and puffing a lot.  So I suggested that Evan come up with another idea that could help him to have Minecraft time and still allow us to do the things we normally do as well.  He suggested before breakfast and after dinner, unless something else needed doing.  I felt that this was a reasonable idea, and so did everyone else, so that is what we agreed upon.

So enough of the practicalities of finding a time and space for it to work with our family, now to the creations.

I haven't paid very close attention to all of Evan's projects, but here are some of the things that I believe he has worked on and created.

Digging to the centre of the world and finding lava;
a lot more digging really deep;
making a home with pretty garden features, a pond and water features;
a roller coaster;
using someone elses realm to make new spaces including a heated waterflume and heated swimming pool, more rollercoasters;
a penguin slide;
building pyramids to place beacons on;
In an octonauts land: an Octopod, an Octolab, several Gups and Octobots.

There are many other things that I don't know about as well.  Skills he has developed include:
Making signs, building floating structures, teleporting, discovering new ways of doing things, following maps, programming using Redstone, exploring the properties of minecraft materials,

He has also thoroughly enjoyed talking through his projects with people.  He is keen for his friends to start using Minecraft and to share his realms with the wider online Minecraft community.

Meanwhile Autumn has begun to use it too, exploring and building towers in the Frozen Minecraft 
world that has been downloaded for her.

Burbage valley

We had the most awesome few days exploring the wonders of Burbage Valley.  Stunning sky, creatures, company and adventures.  Thanks to our wonderful friends for joining us and making the experience so special.

Play

Play is such an important part of kids lives.  I am so glad we have the opportunity to let our kids to spend so much of their time doing so.  It occurred to me, that even though it is the thing Evan and Autumn spend most of their time doing, I don't document or really mention it on this blog. I think the reason is simple, I'm not involved.  I am purposefully not involved in their play.  They don't want me involved, and don't need me.  My role is that of facilitator.  I provide them with opportunities, mainly, rather than specific ideas or stimuli.

Our outdoor space grows by the day as the children spread into the woods behind our house, beyond the badger set. Our garden could easily be described as a complete mess, or unkempt or even a tip.  I beg to differ.  It is an open ended environment in which children can learn, explore, play, cooperate, create, destroy, test, imagine and just be.  I find it easier to let this space be and give it over to them as I don't have to be in it the whole time, and there is much more space.

Exploring Density

After spotting the experiment on Nina and the Neurons, Evan said that he would like to explore the liquids that float and sink.  So today was the day.  I started by doing a little research, and found this great video demonstrating density towers.

Good as the video was, I felt that simply replicating it would miss a lot of learning opportunities, so decided to get Evan to create his own density tower by exploring the comparative densities of different liquids he found.

He found:
Water
Milk
Apple Juice
Tomato Ketchup
Sunflower Oil
Vinegar
Washing up liquid
Hair Conditioner
Shower Gel
Aloe Vera Gel

I helped him to explore the comparative densities of the the liquids, all, initially compared to water.  So in glasses we poured out water and each of the liquids.  Before each time, I asked him to make a guess, or hypothesis of what would happen. He varied whether he put the water in first or the other liquid.

As I had watched the video, I had noted that it is important to be careful when pouring on some liquids to prevent inadvert displacement of lower liquids.

We decided to use a blue food colouring in the water to see the distinction between the liquids more clearly after a few liquids got mixed up.

We wrote a chart as we went which placed the different liquids on a scale according to their density compared to each other.  Once we had done this we found a few of the liquids were almost the same density as water and mixed up so that neither colour were distinct any longer.  Namely, vinegar, milk and apple juice.  So we decided to use plain water instead.  Next it was time to differentiate between the liquids which had a greater density than water to see which one we should put on top of each other. Evan guessed that tomato ketchup has the greatest density, so trialled this with putting what he thought was the next, which he thought would be the shower gel.  All his guesses were correct, as it goes, and we simply added them in turn on top of each other, even though we had planned on doing separate little experiments to find out which had the greater density out of two liquids at a time.  Here is the result.

We followed this by exploring the density of solid objects so started by exploring whether objects sunk or floated in water, and then moved on to adding oil on top to see if any of the objects had a smaller density than oil.  This was followed by exploring the greater density objects and liquids together with our findings as shown below.

We both loved looking at the different colours that sat together in this way, and Evan loved it so much he decided he wants a photo of the tower from all angles printed out and stuck onto a tube next for him to have near his bed.  We both noted how amazing the colour of the oil looks, particularly as there appears to be a very strong separation between the oil and water, a kind of film makes the oil base iridescent and very golden.  I think we might go on to have a go at home made lava lamps as an extension of this activity.

Woodland Camp with FoCAL

Cooperating fetching water from the river with a pulley system

Making Pewter trinkets

Evan helps make a stool

Using the Bill hook and a mallet to split the wood

Blob making

Tree adorning

Sparkly potion making in the mud kitchen

Forest bathing

Just the most idyllic way to spend 30-40 minutes I can imagine.  This wasn't my actual view, but it was a view from the camp as I looked up.  I was excited at the prospect when it was introduced to me... especially the fact that the woodland camp leaders wood take charge of the children, so I could have uninterupted time just me and the woods.  So I lay there without a book, phone or even my camera to distract me.  A beautiful little spot had been set up on a warm sunny afternoon next to a small stream out of earshot of the main camp.  My first thought was, what am I going to do to make the most of my time and really fill myself full of the forest as much as possible?  

I decided to start with looking, really looking at what I could see above me.  I looked at the branches, the twigs, the buds and the tiny little thread holding a small bit on. I meditated on these for some time.  then I focused on the shape of the branches;of the differences in the branches, and the Y sections that are created at each junction. I've seen them before of course, but I don't think I really saw them before this moment.  

I moved on to what I could hear at this point so to concentrate this sense I closed my eyes.  I noticed how comfortable I was at this point, that there was a beautiful stillness in the air meaning that I could fully relax my body onto the soft grass beneath the blankets.  Then I began to notice the birds around me.  I listened out for more, they came.  After a while I began to notice a conversation between two birds.  My questioning mind, now thinks how nice it would be to study the different birdsong so I could differentiate further.  At the time though, I was simply noting the sounds for what they were, without need for labels.  I think you can really truly say, I was in my element.  

After a while I decided to draw my attention to other sounds in the space, the first of which I noted was the stream.  It was small and close-by, so I heard a lovely gentle babble and glugging.  An immense feeling of joy welling up inside of me.  I really felt like I might cry.  During this period of having my eyes closed I was in deep relaxation and found it immensely peaceful and powerful at the same time.  

After a while I drew my attention back to my sight, and this time, when I opened my eyes I decided to look back to where I was looking previously, and noticed that the tiny thread holding something onto the tree that I saw before was still there.  I wonder what that thread was made of.  I turn to one side and looked from a bugs eye view at the luscious grass, my attention was taken by a flying creature which seemed like a dragonfly, though I was sure it was too early in the year for dragon flies.  Then I noticed little midges in a clump.  I watched their movement, to see if they moved off, and gradually they did.  Even with my concentrated attention I didn't notice the subtle shifting they must have done to move away from their first spot.

I began noticing outside things at this point I believe, a few shouts from the camp made me think of the children.  I thought how wonderful it would be for Evan to enjoy this space, but perhaps he is still a little young, to manage this activity.  Perhaps with support... My mind began to get back to the day to day of educational experiences and children, I drew it back to the environment again.  The sky gained my attention this time.   The subtlty of the wispy clouds, again I was filled with gratitude for this overwhelming and simply magical experience.  Not easy to capture when I have 24h responsibility for children, or am working.  I wonder how I could capture some of this magic in my life on a regular basis.  Better for relaxing than a massage most definitely, but I have to say I would have found forest bathing a little more tricky had the weather conditions been a little less perfect.

I emerged later,I must have been bathing for about 45 minutes to an hour, though I didn't time it.  I felt at peace and found it a bit weird dropping back into camp and interacting with it rather than passively experiencing it.  Thank you, thank you to Emma Conder and her team for introducing me to, and facilitating me in this amazing experience.

Exploring pipes in the river

Do you think the hen wood like to see my stone in a jar of river water?

My mini stool

"I'm under here!"

We've been on a bug hunt 

Autumn's bug

HUGE thank you to all the wonderful Woodland campers and leaders.  We had a wonderful homely time and felt very welcome.

National Coal Mining Museum

Its been a while since our last visit, but we went today with friends. It was loads of fun not least because of the wonderful nature trail, and an really thought provoking visit down the coal shaft, 140metres to travel the seam worked for many years by many brave men and families. /

Explorer bag day one

After the inspiration from a old Moor to have little explorer kits,  and the fact glass to we bought a pocket microscope,  I put together little bags for the kids to help them when we go out.  Contents currently include:

Science: pocket microscope, 

Magnifying 

Mini petri 

Bug 

Paint 

Species identification sheets, (trees,  plants, birds) 

Flower press 

Collection bag

Nature book from rspb. 

Art: sketch pad 

Drawing 

Water colours 

Paint brushes, 

Crayons pencil 

I want to add a few things too,  string,  scissors,  long tweezers,  collapsible inspection tray, fungi identification chart ,  mini net, minitthermometer,  compass,  ruler,  plus a large net for in the car. I often carry things like these,  and a rope swing,  bag of clay,  unspun wool,  penknife .  This habit began with when I received the stick book from my mum,  which has been well used.  Thank you so much mum. 

Mycelium Wonders

Oh how we love the cascades 

The girls had a reareallygood sniff of these lovely flowers