[Wildflower]

<p>One of my kids loves minecraft and has had chances to play it at a friends house where there is an extra laptop...The mom thought she had heard of "servers" where other homeschoolers or maybe educators have created worlds with architecture that goes along with ancient history or some such? Or just with groups of other kids that could basically be counted on to be nice? Anyways, if anyone has any info on how to join homeschool-related servers, that would be awesome! You could post or pm me if you want, thanks!</p>

 

[Emaye]

<p>Not sure about free homeschool servers although I am sure there are some.  You could contact Minecraft Homeschool <a href="http://minecrafthomeschool.com/" target="_blank">http://minecrafthomeschool.com</a> I am sure they'd know a lot about different things available.  These guys also offer paid classes if you and your kid are interested.</p>

 

[heatherdeg]

<div class="quote-container" data-huddler-embed="/community/t/1394491/educational-minecraft-servers-to-join#post_17528565" data-huddler-embed-placeholder="false">Quote:
<div class="quote-block">Originally Posted by <strong>Emaye</strong> <a href="/community/t/1394491/educational-minecraft-servers-to-join#post_17528565"><img alt="View Post" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style=""></a><br>
 
<p>Not sure about free homeschool servers although I am sure there are some.  You could contact Minecraft Homeschool <a href="http://minecrafthomeschool.com/" target="_blank">http://minecrafthomeschool.com</a> I am sure they'd know a lot about different things available.  These guys also offer paid classes if you and your kid are interested.</p>
</div>
</div>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>We're doing the holiday server of the one linked above.  It SHOULD have been good in theory but it's not really working out that way and I'm not sure if that's because it's not one of their regular classes and/or because we didn't pay the extra $5 for it to be a "graded" thing.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>I find my son gets on there and plays with other kids, but I didn't get any communication about what he's supposed to be doing each week and so he's not been doing any research to contribute meaningfully to the environment.  For example: one week they should've been working on "The Forbidden City" and adding things related to ancient China.  That would mean they need to find out what BELONGS in a city in ancient China... right?  But so far as I can see, nothing holds my kid accountable for doing that.  Does that make sense?  And *I* cannot hold him accountable because I don't know what the goal is for the week.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>I do intend to e-mail them about this before signing him up again, though.</p>

 

[farmermomma]

Could someone give me a quick description of minecraft? My DS was exposed to it over the holidays.

 

[Maitribb]

<div class="quote-container" data-huddler-embed="/community/t/1394491/educational-minecraft-servers-to-join#post_17533893" data-huddler-embed-placeholder="false"><span>Quote:</span>
<div class="quote-block">Originally Posted by <strong>FarmerMomma</strong> <a href="/community/t/1394491/educational-minecraft-servers-to-join#post_17533893"><img alt="View Post" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style=""></a><br><br>
Could someone give me a quick description of minecraft? My DS was exposed to it over the holidays.</div>
</div>
<p> </p>
<p>It's a video game where the person playing mines and harvests various items like iron ore, wood, wool (shears sheep for it), etc.  Then they use the items that they harvested to create other things (i.e. iron ore = shears for the wool).  My 6 year old hasn't quite gotten the hang of it yet, but my 45-year-old husband loves it <img alt="duh.gif" src="http://files.mothering.com/images/smilies/duh.gif" style="width:21px;"></p>

 

[farmermomma]

Cool. Sounds better than the games my boyfriend plays. ;-)

 

[heatherdeg]

<p>There's also a TON of building and creating things.  So a kid who likes architecture or Legos could be in their glory.</p>

 

[CMiko12]

<p>Hello,</p>
<p> </p>
<p>I am a k-12 teacher who has been running a Minecraft in the classroom pilot for the last two years. Here is the blog accounting our work: <span style="line-height:1.5em;"><a href="http://www.craft-academy.com" target="_blank">www.craft-academy.com</a></span></p>
<p> </p>
<p>I recently launched an educational server custom made for the classroom setting that can be subscribed to on a month-to-month basis.</p>
<p>- No violence</p>
<p>- No foul language</p>
<p>- Private plots for making projects</p>
<p>- Fun mini games</p>
<p>- Safe and Secure private server</p>
<p> </p>
<p><a href="http://educrafting.enjin.com" target="_blank">http://educrafting.enjin.com</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Come take a look!</p>

 

[She2dancer]

<p>Another great homeschool server is Skrafty - they have homeschool classes as well as an open server for the kids to play.  </p>

 

[jrobertson1984]

With all this technology it would be a pity not to use it for something good too.

 

[BernatMay]

If treated correctly, Minecraft is an amazing tool for child development. I have found a very interesting server at http://wombatservers.com/ for my son. There are a lot of interesting things he has learned there. For example they have such an amazing modification where one can learn the main parts of the floes of the earth. It's a lot better to learn that after the soil come a lair of stones and lava by literally digging into it by yourself than reading about it in a book and examining a primitive picture.

 

[LauraLi]

It's useful if you don't overuse it.

 

[DanielHarrison]

It is true, Minecraft is considered a great educational tool. As it teaches and develops children`s new skills. I found out this for myself from https://au.edubirdie.com/assignment-help when I was writing about gaming. This issue is controversial as even researchers can`t say if gaming is a big threat for children`s psycho or instead if it can be one more thing to develop more creativity, strong reaction, etc. From that assignment help, I also found out about children learn faster and more effectively from that gaming format (like at kindergarten they learn about the world through different activities they are able to understand).