These aren’t strictly “hacks”—they’re just a few things I learned with my son to help our everyday fun. Commands are tested in 1.21.5 unless otherwise noted. It’s aimed at parents who don’t know much about Minecraft and/or computers in general. For me, it all feels obvious and straightforward now—it’s hard to remember a time when I knew nothing about it.

Your child will likely see something on YouTube that only works with a mod. A mod is another program—or set of programs—that runs alongside Minecraft, allowing things you couldn’t normally do in the base game. There are two versions of Minecraft: Bedrock, which is cross-platform (PlayStation, Switch, Windows), and Java, which is PC-only (and the only version available on Mac). Mods for Bedrock are built into the marketplace system, while for Java, they’re freely installable via CurseForge.

[Side Note (Added 2025-April-14):

Your child may also ask for Minecraft Education. It takes a bit of setup, but it’s fun and worth it—and yes, you’ll need to pay for an additional licence. We’ve paid for six so far—might be time to buy Microsoft stock. Minecraft Education is based on Bedrock Edition with extra functionality on top. If you buy Java Edition, it comes with Bedrock for free, but on a Mac, you can’t run Bedrock natively. Minecraft Education allows you to play everything you would on a console-based Bedrock version—with even more features! It might be the best, and cheapest, version out there. You do need to run this command though for your child if they can't type it themselves:

/worldbuilder

https://edusupport.minecraft.net/hc/en-us/articles/4415061129236-Purchasing-Minecraft-Education-for-Homeschooling-Family-use]

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We’re using an older MacBook Pro—the one with the Touch Bar—and I use an M2 MacBook Air when we play together. We also have a PS4 and a Nintendo Switch. The Switch has the least processing power, so it gets laggy if you do too many strange things—like using spawn eggs to create hundreds of mobs to battle. My son discovered that the hard way, lol.

If you already have Minecraft Java installed, just download CurseForge and start browsing mods. Some of the bigger, well-known ones we’ve used include:

We’ve also used smaller mods and Marketplace content, like OneBlock and SkyBlock, weapon mods, a portal mod with 70+ dimensions, and others I can’t immediately recall.

Minecraft is Turing Complete—it’s a universal computer inside your universal computer. As you might already know from STEM education, it allows you to build scientific simulations, learn maths, physics, and—thanks to multiplayer—collaborate socially. Parents love it because it’s a safe, immersive place to explore all that.

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Entering Commands

Your child may soon start asking you to use commands. You might feel like they’re asking you to code—and in a way, they are. But don’t be scared! It’s really not that bad.

Let’s say your child saw a video about “invisible item frames.” They want to replicate it. Great! But how? There’s documentation—but a lot of it is reverse-engineered and version-specific. So, yes, you’ll need to tinker a bit.

There’s no official class for this kind of open-ended learning. Most education tools are rigid and lecture-driven. But what kids want is to replicate and iterate on something they saw online. If you help them, they’ll not only do the thing—they’ll learn how to figure things out for themselves.

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Don’t Force It

Every child has different passions. You don’t need to force Minecraft—it’s meant to be fun! But I’ve seen plenty of kids eager to play, while their parents block them out of fear of “devices.” Our son went from playing on Switch to writing English commands in Java in under a year. Not only did he do it alone—he wanted to. That level of intrinsic motivation still blows my mind. [Update: He's now teaching himself Chemistry with Education edition!]

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Your First Command Block

Make sure your world is in Creative Mode with commands enabled (a setting at world creation). Then open the command interface:

Now enter:

/give @p command_block

/give means give. @p means “nearest player.” @s = self, @a = all players.

Place the command block, then paste the command inside it again. You’ll need to add a lever or button to activate it. Tip: crouch when placing it, or you’ll just open the block. (Your kid probably knows this already—ours learned it from Maizen’s Mikey and JJ.)

// The invisible item frame (Java)
/give @s item_frame[entity_data={id:"item_frame",Invisible:1b}]

// Knockback stick (Java)
/give @p stick[enchantments={knockback:255}]

// Lightning strike at current location
/summon lightning_bolt ~ ~ ~

The ~ ~ ~ indicates the current block position in 3D space.

Always include your version and platform when searching for help online. For example:

“How do I get a trident with channeling in 1.21 Bedrock?”

// Step 1
/give @s trident

// Step 2
/enchant @s minecraft:channeling

Some incredible builds online require old Minecraft versions. Our son once saw a hologram video, and I found a matching world download—but it only worked in 1.16.4. So I:

You can repeat this for many freely shared maps.

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Redstone Basics

Eventually, your kid might get into redstone—Minecraft’s electrical system. The key block here is the sticky piston, which lets you push or pull blocks. But we’ll save that for another post.

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Final Thought

I hope this helps someone or something out there. I certainly wish I’d had this six months ago.

Have fun!