Saff July 29 2015

"I tried to build a nether room today but there's been an update to Minecraft overnight which means you can't close your Realm anymore when you go off line. I don't know how my brother manages 12 people on his Realm. I have 4. It took ages today to sort out some spawned in rabbits combined with mega fast potions as one of my friends isn't on Skype so there's the whole talking typing thing. Et has this idea to switch the realm to a mini game when I come off so there can be less misunderstandings when I'm not there."

July 28th Minecraft Saff age (10)

"I've been on my Realm today. I've had this Realm a few days. It's the second time I've had a Realm."

S (10) gave me a tour of what she'd done today whilst she sat at the screen and showed me whereas E and I sat down away from the PC to talk about what he had done. He plays more games so has less tangible builds to show!


S has just two friends on her Realm atm R and C although she has asked me to advertise for shoppers to come and test out the shops they are creating she generally prefers creative 1:1 or small group play

This is what S told me about what she has done today


"Using command blocks I have made this the world spawn, there is a house with a bed and nearby is a big field of reeds. I harvest those to be sugar cane. R has made a lighthouse. His is purple and mine is cyan. Cyan is my best Minecraft colour. We've made lots of signs. These houses have numbers as well. There are pressure plates outside my door for my house they set off lights in my bedroom. R made that for me it is like a burglar alarm. I also renamed all of my armour by putting Saff in front of it. Then I made this tearoom thing there is a button where milk and cookies come out. This is my private farm, I named the animals there and there is the emergency tent and the nether portal.

This is the market place. We have made a currency board so say 1 block of gold equals £50 and coal is 50p You can mine here and spent what you find in the shops

These are the shops so far. There is a Redstone shop like a plumber electricians, it's R shop called Redstone Dude. He could fit you a burglar alarm for eg

This is my shop. I sell melons, bread, wheat, eggs and cake. It is all local produce from my farm out the back.

C is setting up a weapons and armour shop

We've made bins and we've decided that if anyone griefs their penalty will be to empty the bins.

My shop is called "Saff's quality Nummies." It is going to be a chain selling cake, bread and pumpkin pie. This is the Staff Only area there is some really complicated redstone behind those doors.

This is the newspaper stand - we have called our area Glitter Village and the newspaper is the Glitter Village News. R writes it.

We made a washing machine. I named the detergents Hubble Bubble, Flowery Fresh and Fancy Pants - Fancy Pants is glostone. It works using a hopper and redstone. We also made a washing line. We take turns to work in the laundrette and can also add enchantments

This says GV for Glitter Village. It is redstone and it lights up. I can use Time set day and time set night to show you as it has a daylight sensor. R did that.

and there's a bonfire pit. The water buckets are called "Just in case."


I have some more work I need to do on here now."



Work? Play!

E (8) on Minecraft July 28th

This is a new evolved blog style for me. I've been blogging at The Gallivanters everyday for nearly 5 years but as the trio grow and things change this is my attempt to review their thoughts on their learning through Minecraft.


Et's been on Minecraft a long time today - Maybe 10 hours between 8am and 8pm This is unusually long but during August we tend to hibernate.


This is a summary in mostly his words of what he has done, I've chatted to him about it and sat with him for bunches of time when I can - such variety.


Played on his Realm. At one point he was coordinating friends A, A, C, R, A, T, P, L (8 people all boys between age 8 and 12!) in the building of a Sky Island Map (based on Sky Wars) apparently it also features someone naked. He coordinated and organised all of them.

As I asked him what he'd been doing today for the purposes of this blog his chest really swelled and smiling he said

"I think I am good at organizing people." (always nice to hear from someone with low self esteem)

"It's easy with some people and harder with others." "People with their own realm understand more sometimes." "We had a problem with swearing today and other people said they couldn't Skype with that."



"I also learnt that if I don't come off for supper I get really cross."



On Cosmic PVP I typed /leave and /join as A and I changed the name of our faction. We couldn't do much just /kit starter. I type that everyday.

My friend L showed me how to name a sheep Dinnerbone and how to make it rainbow colours. He went to Minecon and knows loads of stuff.

"I spent some of my Grandparent money on being a VIP on Hypixel. The prices are in dollars so my Mum showed me how to google exchange rates. She knows them without google. I played Cops and Crims to test it out. "

"My friend A showed me /Kill AE which kills all entities and players and is great if you need a clean slate"

Monday July 27 2015

We've had a THD so there has been much Minecraft



O (6) "Saff I'm making a smelting room  its already got 15 furnaces plus 3."

O then told me about all the things you can smelt and what happens when you do

He's on a single player vanilla world


E (8) "Mum, Mum, there's a spaltoon in Minecraft - It is a mini game on my realm. we're all playing!!"

Random question over lunch

"How many obsidian is it to make a portal again?"


S and her friend R have been on her Realm the past 24 - they have developed a currency system for the realm and explained it using signs. They have both made lighthouses and S has used redstone in a port area for the boats.

S was pleased to see the amendments to the Nottingham poster with an iron bucket!

S has also been playing Minecraft comes alive via the Technic Launcher platform and gave back some of her babies as she has too many!

Overheard on the loo

"I need notch apples"

E has been on H1Z1 a while and his realm and his friend J's server.

Minecraft Update July 2015

Minecraft continues to be the best value game ever purchased ever!


Hours played divided by cost - I can't imagine another game ever coming close.


O hasn't been playing so much. He logs on for the odd game of build battle on Hypixel or a build in single player vanilla when the mood takes him but his realm has expired and he's more into Moshi Monsters atm.

S is really into the Minecraft Comes Alive mod on the Technic Launcher platform. That's a single player game. Server wise she still really likes Hypixel and creativefun.eu and she has recently renewed her Realm but only has one friend on there (which is really how she prefers to play 1:1) Her best YouTubers atm are Aphmau, Stacy Says and LDS Shadow Lady - she still sometimes watches Stampy and Squid but less so.


E by contrast has more than 10 friends on his realm! He best of all likes to play CosmicPVP with his friend A and usually manages that for an hour or so most week days but otherwise he has two real life friends he plays with, either on his Realm where they like both the mini games and building or on Hypixel or the Zombie server H1Z1. He has also recently picked up with 3 or 4 new friends via the Unschooling Minecraft group and has had real fun playing with them. He's okay until group calls reach 5 then he struggles at bit. His slow reading also lets him down using the chat function but that said on any given home day 70% of it will probably be on Minecraft!

E's best YouTubers are Jack Septic Eye and Preston Playz and Ballistic Squid

He's keen to test out Steam games but love the democratic aspect of Minecraft in that almost all of his friends have access to it.

He's been though several pairs of headphones since my last post and is now running with a separate microphone but currently no webcam as he Skypes from our bedroom.