Minecraft

Part of the fault is OH's - he introduced little bear to minecraft.  Part of the fault is mine.  I let little bear play minecraft and watch videos of minecraft games on YouTube.  However, whoever is at fault, little bear now has a 'thing' about minecraft.

I suppose it had to happen sooner or later.  Little bear would find a topic and then rattle off about it to all that would listen.  I suppose I could manage okay with dinosaurs or creepy crawlies.  I haven't done so badly with Ben10 (shudder).  Minecraft is a bit of a challenge.

For those not blessed with knowledge about Minecraft, it is a computer game which lets the players develop resources in a logical way and also kill zombies.  So little bear has patiently explained that you start off with a wooden pickaxe and use that to get the materials to make a stone pickaxe, to get the materials to make an iron pickaxe, etc etc etc.  I sort of zone out after a while and miss vital chunks of information.  At least, chunks of information that are vital to little bear.  Information about a computer game I shall never play isn't that vital to me, although little bear would dispute this.

Last week at martial arts, right in the middle of a discussion about kicks, little bear launched into a long explanation of how to get roast chicken.  I was mortified.  Then the instructor (who is lovely really) turned and said, 'Well, we don't talk about it in class, but I know that your mum would really like you to tell her all about it on the way home.'  I was unimpressed.

Little bear is getting very immersed in the whole thing.  He started writing a list of instructions about how to play minecraft - on the wordprocessing programme.  My little bear using Windows 7!  It may have been a list of instructions on how to create a pickaxe, but it was a fair start on a document.  It had logical, numbered points and the spelling was pretty good.  I showed him how to save it and how to open it again, and where the automatic numbering button was.  I was just so proud.  I also showed him where the spell checker was and gave him ideas how to use it.  I am not sure how much sunk in, but I was just thrilled that he could spell 'wooden'.  Of course, it helps that at one point he dictated to me a list of materials in minecraft that while not exhaustive filled two columns on a narrow lined pad of A4 paper so that he could pretend to type them into his toy laptop, so some words have been practiced.  I have a son who can spell 'obsidian'.

Sunday marked a bit of a revelation to me.  I had taken little bear to Church, and he had gone to the group and had received his two sweets and made paper chains.  I thought all had gone according to plan.  I always ask if little bear has been good, but I am usually confident that he has.  Yesterday he had been good, as usual.  The Sunday School teacher then asked, 'What's minecraft?'  Mortified again.  I have no idea what little bear told them, but I have a reasonable idea.  

Still, little bear seems happy enough so I shall keep looking as if I am interested and carry on.