Minecraft. It's everywhere. You've seen it advertised. You've heard of people playing it. But what exactly is Minecraft and how can it be used in your homeschool? Is there violence? What age is it appropriate for? In what way is it educational? At its most basic Minecraft is an open world of unlimited building blocks, essentially an unlimited supply of digital LEGO. You play the game as Steve in a world consisting entirely of blocks: block trees, block mountains, block clouds, even a brilliant block sun. You interact with your world by breaking (mining) blocks and placing them in any way you wish. If you mine a tree, you get wood. If you mine the ground, you get different dirt or sand or stone, etc. If you keep going you may find some more desirable items such as coal, iron, or even diamonds and emeralds. These raw materials can be used to build or combined and crafted into new items such as iron ore being smelted into iron ingots ...