A Minecraft Guide for First-Timers, Part I

By Jeremiah, age 7

These are the top priorities for your first day playing Minecraft:

1. Mine wood
2. Craft wood planks
3. Make a crafting table
4. Craft sticks
5. Craft wooden tools
6. Mine cobblestone with pickaxe
7. Craft furnace
8. Craft stone tools 
9. Look for coal underground or put wood in furnace (wood planks don't work)
10. Craft torches
11. Make house
12. (Optional #12-13) Kill 3+ sheep
13. Craft a bed
14. Sleep or work on house

A detour to skip steps 1-3, 7, and 10-11 is to find a village.

The Roosters

By: Joshua, the 6th grader

Well that's the end of waking up at 6:00 in the morning! Why do I say that? It's because we just got rid of our roosters (yes, I meant the plural of rooster). We had 2 roosters so here they are:
Easter Egger (Cream Color): GUILTY (And I was looking foward to multi-colored eggs!)
Light Orpington: Safe
Dark Orpington (Guy who we bought it from said it was actually a Swedish Cross but I'm not so sure about that!):GUILTY
Rhodebar (Red+Stripe): Safe
Cream Legbar (Red+Stripe): Safe

The hens!

Note: Nathaniel likes holding chickens now!

Poll results

Sorry about it being so long but here are the results!
What is your favorite primary color?
WW\

Red	4 (18%)
Yellow	3 (13%)
Blue	15 (68%)

I have just set up a new poll so please vote in it!

Geocaching

by Joshua, Grade 6

Yes, I know. I'm talking about another website but this one is nothing like any of the websites I've talked about yet (except a little bit like Project Noah) and It's called Geocaching! It's free to sign up (though not free if you buy a premium membership which I will talk about later) and then you can start your geocaching! Here is a step-by-step guide of how to do geocaching.

I really enjoy doing it and I bet you will like it too no matter who you are!
Here's our profile!

     

Welcome Back to School!

by Mom

We're back into another school year here in the Pickle household. We now have a 4th grader, a 6th grader, and a pre-preschooler. We're giving the bigger boys more independence this year in controlling their own studies. We've provided the curriculum and given them an indication of the pace they should be taking their studies at to finish them by the end of the school year. The rest is up to them! Each year we handle school in a slightly different manor, figuring out what seems to work best for our boys that particular year. They're excited to experience a little more freedom while still having help whenever they need it.

As far as this blog goes, the big boys will be using it for their writing practice. Please comment if you are interested in what they've been doing or if you have suggestions to offer. They love getting feedback on their blog. Thanks!

Here's to an exciting new school year, lots of new things to learn and a new way of doing things!