The first game we played used the basic farm layout and shared money. I realized that sharing all the money wasn't working out so well for me about two game weeks in because I was always reminding A+ to buy seeds before she splurged on gifts, so we started a new playthrough with separate money. A+ decided to pick the meadowlands farm layout, which meant starting with some chickens.

We now have a mayonnaise maker and four chickens. It's summer and I have a variety of crops growing. W- sometimes drops in to do some fishing or help out around the farm. We probably won't make it to the greenhouse bundle this year, but maybe next year. She'd been looking forward to getting a kitchen and trying out some of the recipes, so we saved up for it and worked together to chop down lots of trees.

Stardew Valley feels like a good rainy day activity with A+. It's a cozy place to practise making decisions and working together.

A+ can get competitive and envious, which can get in the way of her having fun. Sometimes she gets envious because I've been leveling up in farming and she hasn't yet. When that happens, she becomes more motivated to help out around the farm. Sometimes it's harder for her to channel that frustration into growth. At the trout derby, she got grumpier and grumpier. First it was because W- had caught a rainbow trout and she was only catching trash. Then, when she caught a rainbow trout, she was grumpy that W- had caught a rainbow trout with a golden tag and she hadn't gotten one with a tag. "I'm never going to catch anything," she grumbled, eventually spiraling into a lump on the couch. To her credit, she kept trying for a while instead of rage-quitting, so that's progress.

I chatted with her about it the next day, when she was well-regulated. "It doesn't have to be a competition, you know," I said.

"Of course it was a competition," she said matter-of-factly. "It was the trout derby."

Apparently this competitiveness and sensitivity is pretty common and totally not out of place for a 9-year-old, especially since she's an only child. Common approaches include:

• Stopping the game when whining starts, in the hopes that eventually the kid will learn to avoid whining: I'm not sure about this approach with A+ because I think she might benefit from some more help and support learning these skills.
• Team sports and a structured environment: This doesn't quite feel like a good fit for us, but I'm glad it works for other people.

• Switching to more cooperative activities: I couldn't redirect her from the trout derby because the time-limited event was too fascinating. We had to take the loss and try again another time. This, too, is a fish on the line; sometimes it escapes and there's nothing to do but to accept it and fish again.

  There's a lot we can learn together in the process of working on day-to-day things. I can put A+ in charge of most of the harvests, and she's getting better at minding the mayonnaise. I think A+ likes mining with me (I'm in charge of fighting monsters), and we can probably also chop some wood together. Maybe she'll enjoy collecting the eggs and petting the chickens now that there are more of them, especially since one of them is called Hei-hei. Then we can fish when we're in the mood for fishing, farm when we're in the mood for farming, and so on.

• Getting used to losses by playing lots of games: Fishing is good for this. It's easy to start trying again, and there are plenty of little rewards along the way. Once we can cook, we can use meals like chowder to boost her skill.

I love it when games gently help me notice ways I can grow as a person. I want to get better at focusing on processes, not outcomes.² It's neat to see this in contrast. At the moment, A+'s attention focuses a lot on outcomes. She thinks about things like upgrading to kitchen or getting to a certain level, but it's harder for her to focus on the steps that will get her there. I notice there's stuff for me to work on, too. I struggle a little with trying to make sure I have seed money if I let A+ take care of harvesting and selling (somewhat alleviated now that I've got chickens and corn), that I can get everything watered before bedtime, that I've kept some of the produce back for bundles or quests, or that I'm making progress towards a silo before winter. I can also practice focusing on processes, not outcomes.

I know my job isn't to maximize the farm's profit. Maybe my job for now is to water the farm so that A+ can enjoy the harvest. Doesn't that sound like some kind of parenting thing I can work on learning in my bones… I know grown-ups are better at delayed gratification than kids are. I'm better at the grind. If she can enjoy a bit of the harvest and figure out if she likes it, then we can back up a little. Maybe she can water a small part of the field, and then grow from there. Maybe I can make her a little 1x1 patch with the season's fastest-growing crop, and then expand every time she gets it all the way to harvest. Tiny habits, right?

Also thinking as a grown-up, I can stagger the planting of 4-day crops like wheat so that there's always something for her to harvest.

There are other little ways we can use game mechanics to practise life skills. We can occasionally check the traveling cart for quality sprinklers, which will give us a reason to keep track of the days and save some money for opportunities. It would be great to practice this with virtual money before she needs to deal with real money.

I can also invite A+ to go mining and then use the copper to upgrade the watering cans. It's a multi-step process (copper ore, wood, coal, copper bar, upgrade), so it makes sense that I can handle that better than she can. She can focus on one step at a time and slowly get the hang of how everything comes together, just like when she was learning how to solve the Rubik's cube. It's also like the incremental independence she's growing into in other parts of her life. My job is to support her so that she can learn at the right level: not too hard, not too easy.³ Someday, after many many runs through this kind of process, she might even get the hang of creating those sequences for herself or finding people who can help her. Small steps to lifelong learning.

And when I start to get fidgety about how we play, like when she doesn't accept any of my invitations to do something (chop wood? carry water?), I can repeat: process, not outcome. It's okay for her to stand around waiting for the shop to open while I water the farm. She's excited, she's focused on the very next step towards her goal, and that's good for where she is. It's okay for things to take a while. I want to keep the process fun. The fun is the important part.

Also, there's this whole thing about taking time to talk to people, remember what they like and dislike (… or look that up in the notes), give them gifts, celebrate their birthdays, and so on. Right. There are even clear benefits for doing so. Plenty of things to get better at. =)

Stardew Valley seems like it would be great for practising these things. The general advice from the community seems to be to take it easy and not rush. Don't worry about making it to certain milestones by certain times, just have fun together. We've been playing for only a few days, but I have a feeling there's much to learn over the next few years.

You can comment on Mastodon or e-mail me at sacha@sachachua.com.

One of A+'s friends is a 4-year-old. She was playing the copying game with her, the one where a kid repeats everything the other person says. Whenever A+ wants to wind the game down, she confidently rattles off "antidisestablishmentarianism" and that's the end of that.

I didn't want A+ to rest on her laurels, of course. I introduced another word: paradichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane. That piqued A+'s curiosity, so I told her about DDT and I shared the limerick I learned it from.

A mosquito was heard to complain,
"A chemist has poisoned my brain!"
The source of his sorrow
was paradichloro-
diphenyltrichloroethane.

A+ got the hang of the limerick within a few days. Apparently, she's already shared it with her teacher and her nature club counselors. I think she's even been coaching the 4-year-old through saying it syllable by syllable, so perhaps there will be two of these word geeks someday.

Since A+ liked the rhythm of the limerick and she also likes math, I looked up this other fun limerick, which is attributed to Leigh Mercer:

A dozen, a gross, and a score
Plus three times the square root of four
Divided by seven
Plus five times eleven
Is nine squared and not a bit more.

Small words, but fun to play with too.

For our next steps, I want to get the hang of saying "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis" and "hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia" (although sesquipedalophobia is the more common term).

We also pun about whatever she's interested in. At the moment, it's all red panda all the time, thanks to her enjoyment of Turning Red. ("Which animal loves books?" "A well-read panda!") We love alliteration and rhyme. We change the lyrics to her favourite songs. I had a hard time sitting down and playing with A+ when she was smaller, but now we've got so many words to play with. This is fun!

What's the use of these things? Mostly to tickle our brains and make each other smile, but also maybe the tiny chance of bumping into someone else who happens to overhear it and who chuckles out of recognition. There are people out there who like to play the kind of way we like to play, and she'll find her tribe someday.

You can e-mail me at sacha@sachachua.com.

Assumed audience: I'm writing this for:

• me: I want to remember what this is like, celebrate my progress so far, and look ahead
• maybe other parents who also find themselves still figuring out playfulness

Figuring out our types of play

Thanks to all these different resources, I found lots of ideas to try. Experimenting helped me gradually figure out the things that resonated with both A+ and me. I liked the music classes that A+ and I went to when she was younger. We also read and read and read. I couldn't quite do the cheerful patter I sometimes heard from other parents, but songs and books helped me fill in the times when I didn't have much to say to A+. I found another little form of play to share with her, changing the words in a book or a song so that she'd laughingly correct me. She started talking at 18 months, a little on the late side of normal, but quickly expanded her vocabulary. (Also totally fine now.)

It wasn't all cerebral, of course. A+ liked the vestibular stimulation of swinging, so we spent a lot of time at the playground. She also likes climbing and hugs, so I boost her up to monkey bars and I snuggle her for as long as she likes.

A+ likes to dive deeply into her interests, and I like to go along with her. Over the years, I've learned a lot about sharks, Rubik's cubes, Star Wars, and Minecraft. That's our kind of play, too. We have some running jokes now. For example, on learning that nurse sharks might possibly trick fish into a false shelter and then ambush them,² we had fun imagining a nurse shark holding a "Definitely not a trap" sign. This sketch doesn't quite have the shark pointing upwards, but it was fun anyhow.

I'm learning a lot about play from life with A+. I'm learning that it can look different from person to person. I tend to have a quieter type of play, and that's okay. Also, if I don't feel like playing a particular way, it's good to say so. We can usually figure out something else, or I can figure out what I need and then check in again when I'm ready.

I'm upfront about still figuring all of this out. I think it's good for her to see that. Sure, it would make more sense for fun to be natural and effortless, but this is the kind of person I am, so I've got to work with what I've got–and that's enjoyable too, in its own way.

One of the things that's been helping me is seeing A+ also learn about and accept her own play preferences. At the playground, A+ often takes a break when her friends play a shrieky sort of game like tag. She knows she doesn't like those kinds of games, and she can find other things to do until her friends move on. She usually comes and hangs out with me instead. Sometimes we go play one of our own games. Then she heads back to check in with her friends, and they all go off to play something else.

It's fun watching A+ figure things out. When she had a hard time settling down at bedtime the other night, she suggested taking turns reading a book. I agreed, of course. I'll always say yes when she offers to read out loud, and reading out loud lets me play our old game of changing things up. "I knew you'd say yes to that," she crowed. She's learning to offer games we both like.

We're both learning about ourselves through play. Reading about play personalities, I think: ah, my dad was a joker, even towards the end of his life; one time he stashed an ice cube under his tongue to prank the nurse who came in to check his temperature. My sister's a bit of one too with her witty rejoinders. A+ might be a storyteller considering her fascination with story variations. I might be a creator, considering my list of crafty hobbies and the fun I have tweaking Emacs. Play is fun, and fun is great for self-knowledge.

You can comment on Mastodon or e-mail me at sacha@sachachua.com.

Creating my own datapack was pretty straightforward once I figured out the directory structure. I needed to put functions in <world-name>/datapacks/sachac/data/sachac/functions. Inside <world-name>/datapacks/sachac, I created pack.mcmeta with the following contents:

{
    "pack": {
        "pack_format": 10,
        "description": "sachac's tweaks"
    }
}

Inside <world-name>/datapacks/sachac/data/sachac/functions, I created a command_book.mcfunction file with the command to give me the book. I updated my command book function to remove the / from the beginning.

I used /reload to reload my Minecraft configuration and /datapack list to confirm that my datapack was loaded. Then /function sachac:command_book ran the function to give me the command book, so that all worked out. I replaced the command in the command block with the function call.

The next step was to update it directly from Emacs, including reloading. First, I needed a function to give me the filename of a function file.

(defun my-minecraft-datapack-function-file-name (world datapack-name function-name)
  "Return the filename for a mcfunction file given WORLD, DATAPACK-NAME, and FUNCTION-NAME."
  (seq-reduce
   (lambda (path subdir) (expand-file-name subdir path))
   (list "datapacks"
         datapack-name
         "data"
         datapack-name
         "functions"
         (concat function-name ".mcfunction"))
   world))

I used C-c C-x p (org-set-property) to add a WORLD property to my Org subtree. For example, my snapshot world is at /ssh:desktop:~/.minecraft/saves/Snapshot. Then I can get the correct value within the subtree by using org-entry-get-with-inheritance. This is how I wrote the command book function for my snapshot world:

#+begin_src emacs-lisp :var body=mc-snapshot :var team=mc-team :var quick=mc-quick :var effects=mc-effects :var items=mc-items :results silent
(with-temp-file
    (my-minecraft-datapack-function-file-name
     (org-entry-get-with-inheritance "WORLD")
     "sachac"
     "command_book")
  (insert (my-minecraft-book "Commands 8.5" "Mom" (append team quick body effects items))))
(mcf-eval "reload")
#+end_src

So now I can use C-c C-c to execute the Emacs Lisp block and have my Minecraft world updated. Then I just need to right-click on my command block's button or run the function in order to get the new version.

I'm looking forward to learning more about mcfunctions so that I can write a function that automatically replaces the book in everyone's inventories. Could be fun.

You can e-mail me at sacha@sachachua.com.

• [2023-04-12 Wed]: Remove / from the beginning so that I can use this in a function. Split book function into JSON and command. Updated effects to hide particles.
• [2023-04-10 Mon]: Separated trident into channeling and riptide.

A+ likes playing recent Minecraft snapshots because of the new features. The modding systems haven't been updated for the snaphots yet, so we couldn't use mods like JourneyMap to teleport around. I didn't want to be the keeper of coordinates and be in charge of teleporting people to various places.

It turns out that you can make clickable books using JSON. I used the Minecraft book editor to make a prototype book and figure out the syntax. Then I used a command block to give it to myself in order to work around the length limits on commands in chat. A+ loved being able to carry around a book that could teleport her to either of us or to specified places, change the time of day, clear the weather, and change game mode. That also meant that I no longer had to type all the commands to give her water breathing, night vision, or slow falling, or give her whatever tools she forgot to pack before she headed out. It was so handy, W- and I got our own copies too.

Manually creating the clickable targets was annoying, especially since we wanted the book to have slightly different content depending on the instance we were in. I wanted to be able to specify the contents using Org Mode tables and generate the JSON for the book using Emacs.

Here's a screenshot:

This is the code to make it:

(defun my-minecraft-remove-markup (s)
  (if (string-match "^[=~]\\(.+?\\)[=~]$" s)
      (match-string 1 s)
    s))

(defun my-minecraft-book-json (title author book)
  "Generate the JSON for TITLE AUTHOR BOOK.
BOOK should be a list of lists of the form (text click-command color)."
  (json-encode
   `((pages . 
            ,(apply 'vector
                    (mapcar
                     (lambda (page)
                       (json-encode
                        (apply 'vector 
                               (seq-mapcat
                                (lambda (command)
                                  (let ((text (my-minecraft-remove-markup (or (elt command 0) "")))
                                        (click (my-minecraft-remove-markup (or (elt command 1) "")))
                                        (color (or (elt command 2) "")))
                                    (unless (or (string-match "^<.*>$" text)
                                                (string-match "^<.*>$" click)
                                                (string-match "^<.*>$" color))
                                      (list
                                       (append
                                        (list (cons 'text text))
                                        (unless (string= click "")
                                          `((clickEvent 
                                             (action . "run_command")
                                             (value . ,(concat "/" click)))))                                    
                                        (unless (string= color "")
                                          (list (cons 'color
                                                      color))))
                                       (if (string= color "")
                                           '((text . "\n"))
                                         '((text . "\n")
                                           (color . "reset")))))))
                                page))))
                     (seq-partition book 14)
                     )))
     (author . ,author)
     (title . ,title))))

(defun my-minecraft-book (title author book)
  "Generate a command to put into a command block in order to get a book.
Label it with TITLE and AUTHOR.
BOOK should be a list of lists of the form (text click-command color).
Copy the command text to the kill ring for pasting into a command block."
  (let ((s (concat "item replace entity @p weapon.mainhand with written_book"
                   (my-minecraft-book-json title author book))))
    (kill-new s)
    s))

With this code, I can generate a simple book like this:

(my-minecraft-book "Simple book" "sachac"
                   '(("Daytime" "set time 0800")
                     ("Creative" "gamemode creative" "#0000cd")))

item replace entity @p weapon.mainhand with written_book{"pages":["[{\"text\":\"Daytime\",\"clickEvent\":{\"action\":\"run_command\",\"value\":\"/set time 0800\"}},{\"text\":\"\\n\"},{\"text\":\"Creative\",\"clickEvent\":{\"action\":\"run_command\",\"value\":\"/gamemode creative\"},\"color\":\"#0000cd\"},{\"text\":\"\\n\",\"color\":\"reset\"}]"],"author":"sachac","title":"Simple book"}

To place it in the world:

1. I changed my server.properties to set enable-command-block=true.
2. In the game, I used /gamemode creative to switch to creative mode.
3. I used /give @p minecraft:command_block to give myself a command block.
4. I right-clicked an empty place to set the block there.
5. I right-clicked on the command block and pasted in the command.
6. I added a button.

Then I clicked on the button and it replaced whatever I was holding with the book. I used item replace instead of give so that it's easy to replace old versions.

On the Org Mode side, it's much nicer to specify commands in a named table. For example, if I name the following table with #+name: mc-quick, I can refer to it with :var quick=mc-quick in the Emacs Lisp source block. (You can check the Org source for this post if that makes it easier to understand.)

(my-minecraft-book "Book from table" "sachac" quick)

item replace entity @p weapon.mainhand with written_book{"pages":["[{\"text\":\"Daytime\",\"clickEvent\":{\"action\":\"run_command\",\"value\":\"/time set 0800\"}},{\"text\":\"\\n\"},{\"text\":\"Clear weather\",\"clickEvent\":{\"action\":\"run_command\",\"value\":\"/weather clear\"}},{\"text\":\"\\n\"},{\"text\":\"Creative\",\"clickEvent\":{\"action\":\"run_command\",\"value\":\"/gamemode creative\"},\"color\":\"#0000cd\"},{\"text\":\"\\n\",\"color\":\"reset\"},{\"text\":\"Survival\",\"clickEvent\":{\"action\":\"run_command\",\"value\":\"/gamemode survival\"},\"color\":\"#ff4500\"},{\"text\":\"\\n\",\"color\":\"reset\"},{\"text\":\"Spectator\",\"clickEvent\":{\"action\":\"run_command\",\"value\":\"/gamemode spectator\"},\"color\":\"#228b22\"},{\"text\":\"\\n\",\"color\":\"reset\"}]"],"author":"sachac","title":"Book from table"}

Then I can define several named tables and append them together. Here's one for different effects:

Some commands are pretty long. Specifying a width like <20> in the first row lets me use C-c TAB to toggle width.

Here's what that table looks like in Org Mode:

Here's how to combine multiple tables:

#+begin_src emacs-lisp :results silent :var quick=mc-quick :var effects=mc-effects :var items=mc-items :exports code
(my-minecraft-book "Book from multiple tables" "sachac" (append quick effects items))
#+end_src

Now producing instance-specific books is just a matter of including the sections I want, like a table that has coordinates for different bases in that particular instance.

I thought about making an Org link type for click commands and some way of exporting that will convert to JSON and keep the whitespace. That way, I might be able to write longer notes and export them to Minecraft book JSON for in-game references, such as notes on villager blocks or potion ingredients. The table + Emacs Lisp approach is already quite useful for quick shortcuts, though, and it was easy to write. We'll see if we need more fanciness!

You can e-mail me at sacha@sachachua.com.

I installed MineTest, then used the Content tab to install MineClone 2 and the tutorial. I updated the other X220 so that I could run it there too, and we eventually turned it into a server. I went through the tutorial and then I showed it to her. We drew up an agreement to treat it the same as video time (20-minute timers for eye breaks, daily limits, need to be in the green zone). W- connected the other X220 to the TV with a VGA cable, and I used a USB hub to connect two keyboards and two mice to the laptop. A+ completed part of the tutorial. She found it hard to work the keyboard and the mouse while looking at the screen. She liked giving me directions to follow, taking over clicking or crafting whenever she felt comfortable.

We've been playing MineClone for almost a week, and it's starting to feel comfortable. We have a little base with a wheat/carrot farm, a well, and a fishing pond, and we're exploring the world. We might try creative mode in a while.

It looks like A+'s mostly curious about mobs, farming, ores, and flying around. She loves noticing things to explore and new recipes to craft. W- sometimes joins us, which is extra fun and helpful.

Minetest gives me opportunities to learn useful things, too. I'm getting better at saying yes to A+ when she wants to craft something, even if I wanted to save the materials for something else. (I should make a MineClone version of the reminder in our kitchen that says "Groceries are tuition for raising a cook.")

I'm still too impatient for the regular process of navigating around and bumping into resources, especially since we're working within 20-minute segments. I flew around with noclip/fast and set up some Travelnet boxes near interesting things, which A+ has liked a lot because now she can teleport independently.

I'm way too chicken to deal with damage, hostile mobs, or even night time at the moment. Since A+ would really like me to go fight the mobs she loves to read about, I'm thinking about how to gradually build up my courage with some kind of exposure therapy. =) I started learning how to modify armor so that I can keep myself mostly protected while leaving damage enabled for anyone who's braver (like W-). Maybe as I get the hang of it, I'll be able to dial down the protection or just let it keep a minimum HP level.

Lots of learning ahead!

You can e-mail me at sacha@sachachua.com.

A multiple-choice question is easier than a fill-in-the-blank one, especially when it comes to "What do we do now?" A- seems less grumpy throughout the day when she can go from one activity to another of her choosing. I like letting her take the lead. I also like not having to come up with stuff. During bedtime, I sketched this menu:

You can view 2 comments or e-mail me at sacha@sachachua.com.