Organization is very important. It makes it easier to keep any room clean and it is easier to find stuff (at least for the one who organized it in the first place). Today we are going to talk about how you and your kids can practice organization in Minecraft®.
When I first start a survival world, I usually have enough stuff to fill one chest. Once that chest is full, I take the time to make more and organize my growing collection of food, wood, stone, flowers, etc.
In our post Teaching Your Kids a Strategic Planning Process I talked about having one big house for everyone or separate houses in a village-like scenario. In our post about gardening, I suggested an additional storage room for your grown food supply. In my houses, I always have a room dedicated to the storage of my collections. With at least 4 chests (if not 6), my organizational system is specialized for how I play Minecraft.
What do I mean by that? In my post, What is Minecraft, I talk about the different ways you can play. I don’t have room in this post to go into the details, needless to say I am a farmer and an explorer. I tend to have a plenty of food and tons of cool things from “other lands” (see my post on biomes).
In the first chest (lower right), I have all my food. The cooked meat takes up two rows, the soup in the next, etc. This set-up fluctuates from world to world based on in what biome I am living and what I have found in my travels. In the second chest (top right), I have all my blocks (sponges, stone, wool, etc). The only block you won’t find (at least in this example world) is the wood, which has its own chest (see pin).
Another chest has things that don’t fall into the food category, but are not blocks. Things such as buckets, poisonous fish, dyes, fireworks, etc. can be found in this chest. The last chest has the coal and a few of my special blocks.
If your family is sharing a storage room, I suggest having a few agreed-on community chests that everyone shares. Each player should have their own chest(s) with a sign indicating whose it is. That way everyone can store their personal belongings in their own organization method.
The community chests should be organized as a family. When you organize them, ask for suggestions. Talk about why you are organizing it, and ask them what they think should be in their personal chests versus the community chest. Each child will most likely have different ideas.
With that in mind, I would suggest letting everyone choose whether or not they share certain agreed-on items with the family. This gives them the opportunity to act out 2 Corinthians 9:7 (NIV):
Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
Want more Minecraft ideas for your homeschool? Check out our 31 Day series!
Homeschooling with Minecraft
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