Minecraft Camp 2020

This summer, we've done a few "at home" summer camps where I did most of the camp counselor work. One day, I jokingly suggested that we should have a Minecraft camp where I was the camper and the kids were the camp counselors. They took me seriously and set about designing a camp with all the usual activities--snacks, crafts, videos, games, etc. They even made a sign for the garage door when I came back from an errand.

The door sign

As usual, the snacks were the most exciting and most photogenic part of the camp. The first day we made shortbread cookies since they use (mostly) ingredients found in Minecraft--sugar, flour, butter. We might have lost a few hearts taking the hot cookies off the cookie sheet but it was worth it.

Fresh from the oven

Finished product

Another popular food item in Minecraft is bread. We had one of the bread mix jars from an earlier Vacation Bible School. It was easy to bake as some small and delicious loaves.

Raw dough

We let these cool a bit before removing them

The crafting part of the camp involved creating and stocking a "hidey hole" in the basement. In Minecraft, it's important to have a shelter, especially at night when hostile mobs (that's mobile creatures, not large groups of pitchfork-wielding villagers) spawn and attack. We used the natural features of the landscape to make a small cave.

Putting a roof over our cave

One day we made a door for the entrance. Here's a view into the hidey hole from the door.

A comfy spot

We made a crafting table which enables players to make more complicated items. Items like a chest to store valuables or excess stuff without leaving clutter all over the hidey hole.

Crafting table and chest

We even made a bed, another important item in Minecraft. When your character dies, it respawns at its start location unless the character has slept in a bed. Then the bed is the respawn point. If you get killed in the middle of the night in the middle of who knows where, it's much better to respawn into a hidey hole than into a different outdoors area which probably has hostile mobs running around too.

The bed was not to scale for us but a stuffed animal lucked out.

A bed

We made pictures to brighten up the inside of the temporary home, though they both have hostile mobs, so how cheery can they be?

Creeper,  marker on paper (2020) by my daughter

Fighting a Creeper, colored pencil on paper (2020) by me

The hole was big enough for the kids to hang out in it, which they did.

A good spot to relax

Admiring the art

The camp was fun for children and adults alike. They managed to get me addicted to the game, which is a big win for them.