We have lift off

That's right, you guessed it we have embarked on a space exploration inspired by Space Week from Camp Google

The experiments so far in camp google have been a bit hit and miss requiring a lot of equipment, and often more complex than they need to be.  So we have started doing our own thing inspired by the camp.  We went to children's section of the Nasa website which has a plethora of information, experiments, videos and games to engage in the subject.

This inspired exploration of satellites, what they comprise of and how they get into and orbit the earth.  A few YouTube videos and a section with information later and we have a Minecraft space station and a cardboard satellite ready for orbit.  Though Autumn was extremely upset at finding out it would cost £10,000 to get it to orbit.

Space Station

Autumn's Satellite

Further adaptations to the satellite

Next we plan on going to the library and seeking out further things on this subject, and watching "How to build a planet"

 and "How to build a universe" 

by the BBC again.

Since this weekend (27th September 2015) there was an amazing event in our skies - The Super Lunar Eclipse, this seems like an excellent place to begin more work on our project.

Below are some links I'm going to be using to shape this project.

Photos of the latest Super Lunar Eclipse by the Telegraph

Understanding of what a Super lunar Eclipse is 

Next we used the basic structure of the phases of the moon to do a worksheet identifying the phases of the moon. 

Minecraft... Discovery continues

A few months ago I believe I wrote about my kids new found interest in minecraft... At the time my focus was mainly on how I could manage the emotions and limits of screen time. Now, things have moved on in our thinking, and the children's connection with it.  We have settled into a way of using it which allows them plenty of time without overly impacting on other activities.  The kids play on it before breakfast and after dinner each day when we are at home.

I have been back and forth in how I think about this... But one thing I have always seen and recognised is that Minecraft gets Evan talking. He will talk easily with fluency to anyone who will listen.  He loves the fact that he has a greater knowledge about this than most people he knows, and that Autumn and his friends defer to him for help.  Because he is so interested in it, his thirst for more is unquenchable, and he seeks to learn more all the time. He finds out new things by creatively interacting within his worlds, reading books and watching a famous minecraft player's videos on YouTube. (Stampycat)

They are both now interested in doing instructional videos which they hwbe both started blogs on... Links to follow.

I have noted his ability to support his friends using minecraft, in an increasingly sophisticated way, and has learned not to simply take over.

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.