If you’re kids love Minecraft, you should check it out too. Here are 10 reasons why you should play Minecraft with your kids.
Does your child love playing Minecraft? I’m not surprised. Minecraft has been a popular game for over 10 years and it’s popularity doesn’t seem to be dying out any time soon.
Minecraft is a great video game for your kids to play because it’s not only fun but it’s also educational. Yes, that strange blocky game that has stolen your child’s attention can help to enhance their creativity, problem solving skills and strategic thinking.
Several years ago Wonder Boy and I were sitting around on a lazy summer morning and he asked me to play Minecraft with him. Although, I am a gamer at heart, I didn’t have any interest in playing Minecraft. BUT I did what parents do, I bought the game so I could play with him.
Since then, we’ve spent hours upon hours playing Minecraft together. It’s been a blast.
So, now, I’m here to talk to YOU about playing Minecraft with your kids. Seriously, if you are the parent of a child who like Minecraft, you should. Why? Just for starters here’s 10 reasons you should play Minecraft with your kids.
It’s quality time spent with your child
This is my number one reason as to why parents should play Minecraft with your kids. It’s time spent doing something THEY want to do. As a parent, sometimes it’s hard to find ways to spend quality time with your kids.
Since you already know that they want to play Minecraft, it’s an easy stretch to just do it with them. All it takes is a second computer in the house and a few bucks to buy the game. Those few dollars will turn into hours of fun game play.
Wonder Boy and I have spent many summer mornings playing Minecraft. We’ve made our own village, we’ve played Factions, we’ve spawned creepers, we’ve explored the wilderness, and we’ve done so much more. The whole time we’ve had so much fun.
Your child gets the opportunity to teach you
Although Minecraft seems to be a simple game, there are a lot of controls, rules, recipes, and general game guidelines that I’m going to assume you don’t know. Even if you took a crash course on Minecraft, you still won’t remember it all.
That’s ok. Your child can help you. I guarantee that they know everything you need to know. I would also venture to guess that they will be willing to share that knowledge with their really cool parent who wants to play Minecraft with them. Really, they will teach you.
What an amazing opportunity for them! Normally the parent is the teacher. I’m sure it’s not very often that your child is the keeper of the knowledge in your house. By playing Minecraft with them, they will know everything you need to know. It’s a great way to help their self confidence.
Your child gets to be a leader
When you play Minecraft with your kids, not only will they get to be a teacher, but they will get to be a leader. There are so many different things to do in the world of Minecraft and as your child is teaching you how to play, they are already orchestrating the action.
Maybe they want to play in creative mode and build a village. They have to be a leader to show you how to get that done.
Perhaps a trip to the Nether is on their agenda. Would you even know what it takes? Only a leader could show you how.
Your child might even want to play in survival mode. Could you survive the first night without a leader? I think not.
No matter what you play in Minecraft your child will not only be the teacher, but also, the leader. As leader they get the chance to work on skills like decision making, communication and project planning. As a parent myself, I know that these are skill we really want our children to have for their future.
You get to make sure what they are playing is safe
Now, you don’t have to play Minecraft online at all. As a parent, you can restrict your child to only playing in their own worlds, but many kids really want to play with their friends in other servers.
As parents, we are always concerned when our kids are playing online games. It’s natural to worry about cyber bullies, foul language, or even predators. It can be a scary world out there on the internet. Although, many of the Minecraft servers are heavily moderated, no Minecraft server is 100% kid friendly.
That’s where you come in. If you’re playing Minecraft with your child, you get the chance to see the different servers they are playing on with their friends. You get to check out the interactions between players and you get to see if there are any inappropriate behaviors happening around them. This will give you the chance to restrict certain servers. It’s also a great chance to mediate their own online behavior and to teach them good online habits. That leads us to my next reason to play Minecraft with your kids.
To teach your child socially responsible game play
Let’s face it, the world of online video games is not going away. As parents, it’s our responsibility to teach our kids how to be upstanding online citizens when playing online.
When you are playing Minecraft with your kids you have the perfect opportunity to teach them to walk away from an online bully. You can show them how great things can happen with online collaboration. It’s also a chance to teach them to be respectful to other players or lay down any rules that you have for them when playing games online.
Plus, since you are in the game with them, you get to model responsible game play. If anything sketchy happens you get to show them exactly how you hope they would handle it if they were playing alone.
You get to see all the amazing creations they’ve been making
It’s one thing when your kids asks you to look at something they’ve created in Minecraft and you walk over to their computer, give their creation a glance, and say something like, “Oh, very cool.” It’s a completely different experience when you hop in to the game with them to run around their expansive village or check out the dispenser they made from Redstone blocks.
Through in game play, you might find that they want you to help them continue what they have been working on which in turn will lead to more quality time spent with them. Or you might find that they have a creative flair for building objects out of video game blocks. Either way, you’ll see things differently when you are at the level for which they were intended.
You can explore with your child
In Minecraft, you can not only explore the harsh world that is survival mode, but you can explore different Minecraft servers. There’s the Pokemon themed server of Pixelmoncraft where you can explore locations from Kanto and Johto while playing a great Pokemon MMO. Or head on over to the Arkham Minecraft server where you feel like you’ve just come straight from a comic book. There’s even a Harry Potter themed server, named Potterworld MC that not only has a Minecraft version of Hogwarts, but also Platform 9 ¾ AND you can become a wizard while you play.
There’s so much to explore with your child in Minecraft, you just have to look. I bet if you did some research you’ll find fun things to explore that your child didn’t even know existed in Minecraft. That would make you one cool parent. Here’s a great list at the link of family friendly Minecraft servers to help you find places to start exploring.
You can create a world together
How often do you get to collaborate with your child on a project? I’m guessing not often. In Minecraft you can plan out a whole world together.
It’s really fun to make an epic world in creative mode because you are only limited by your imagination. Or, if you and your child are up for a challenge, create a world in survival mode. Wonder Boy and I have done both.
It shows you care about what they care about
Anytime that you show interest in the things that your kids care about you’re sending a message to them that they are valued.
As a parent, your kids need to know that they are important to you. They need to know that you will listen to what they have to say. These are just basic building blocks to your relationship with your child. Of course, there are many ways to let your child know that they are important, playing Minecraft is just one of them. BUT, it can be an important one if you are the parent of the child who spends a lot of their time playing Minecraft.
It’s fun to play Minecraft with your kids
Minecraft has a big learning curve, it looks boorishly simple, and to you it might sound competley stupid. BUT I promise you it’s fun. It’s even more fun because you are getting to play with your kids. You’ll make memories that will last throughout their life. So give it a shot, play Minecraft with your kids.
Once you’ve played some Minecraft with them, you might want to check out these fun Minecraft crafts for your real life adventures.