My Favorite Online Homeschool Resources

I build a lot of our homeschool curriculum myself based on my kids current interests and needs. I do this using a wide variety of resources, including library books, science and STEM kits, activity books, and lots of internet sites. The internet is full of really great learning resources, in this post I share some of our favorites.

YouTube
You can find videos on just about any topic you can imagine on YouTube. I like to try to find short videos to go along with whatever we are studying. Recently we spent a few days studying seeds so I found a short video about the different parts of a seed and how they grow, and a time lapse video of a seed beginning to sprout. A few of our favorite educational YouTube channels are:
-SciShow Kids

-SciShow
-National Geographic Kids
-The Dr. Binocs Show from
Peekaboo Kidz
-FreeSchool

-Brave Wilderness

For more educational YouTube channels, check out my Ultimate List of YouTube Learning Channels for Kids !

Netflix
Netflix might not immediately seem like a good learning resource, but if you look, it has a lot of educational shows. A few of our favorites are:
-The Magic School Bus
-The Magic School Bus Rides Again
-Who Was series
-Bill Nye The Science Guy

There are always a lot of good documentaries on YouTube, though they are subject to change. Some of our recent favorites are:
-One Strange Rock
-Bears: Spy In The Woods
-Dolphins: Spy In The Pod
-Koko: The Gorilla Who Talks To People
-Ghost of the Mountains from Disney Nature
-Born in China from Disney Nature
-Expedition China from Disney Nature
-Growing Up Wild
-Wings of Life from Disney Nature
-National Parks Adventure
-Plastic Ocean

Pinterest
Pinterest is probably my favorite online homeschool resource. There are so many awesome ideas. It's where I find most of the hands on learning activities and crafts that we do.

Websites
There are more learning websites out there than I could ever fit in a single post, but here are a few of the sites we use the most:
-Ducksters: Ducksters is an educational site with information geared towards kids on a variety of subjects.
-National Geographic Kids: The National Geographic Kids site has lots of games, stories, and information, mostly about animals.
-Starfall: Starfall is an awesome site with lots of math and reading activities for preschool and early elementary students.

-Kahn Academy : The Kahn Academy site offers free online classes in a variety of subjects for elementary through high school students.

Homeschool and Educational Blogs
Whatever you are studying, someone else has probably already done it, and blogged about it. Homeschool blogs can be a great source of ideas and inspiration. Here are some of my favorites that share learning ideas and resources:

-Left Brain Craft Brain has lots of fun hands on STEM activity ideas.

-Little Bins for Little Hands has lots of STEM activity and sensory play ideas.

-Peanut Butter Fish Lessons has tons of printable homeschool materials for a wide range of subjects and topics.

-Kristin Moon Science has tons of fun science lesson ideas and offers online courses and tutoring for older students.

-Teaching Without Chairs has lots of fun unit ideas and materials for kids who like to move.

-Homeschool on the Range has lots of unit study ideas and resources, especially for history topics.

-Little Pine Learners has tons of fun nature based learning ideas and lots of printable materials for preschool and early elementary aged students.

-The Stay at Home Teacher has printable materials for preschool and early elementary students.

-How Wee Learn has activity ideas for preschool and kindergarten students.

Instagram
Instagram is one of my favorite sources of inspiration for our homeschool. I follow a lot of other homeschooling families and absolutely love seeing pictures of all the cool things they do. You can also try searching or following common homeschooling hashtags on Instagram like #homeeducation, #homeschooling, #stemeducation, #unschooling, etc...

And if your interested in seeing what we do on a day to day basis in our homeschool, be sure to check out my Instagram page.

What are some of your favorite online homeschool resources?

If you enjoyed this post, check out:

-Homeschool Curriculum and Resources: My Top Picks

-How To Teach Science Without a Curriculum

Follow me on:
Facebook
Pinterest
Instagram

Comments

Water Relay Races For Kids

I don't know about your kids, but mine absolutely love games involving water and getting wet in the summer time. In this post I share 5 of our favorite water relay races to play with friends. These are perfect for birthday parties, homeschool get togethers, and other group events. Sponge Relay: For this relay you will need: - 2 teams of several kids each -2 large sponges -4 small buckets or containers of some sort Divide your participants into 2 teams and have each team line up single file at a predetermined starting place. Hand out a sponge to the first participant in each line. Set a bucket of water by each team. Set an empty bucket about 20 ft away from each team. The two empty buckets should be the same size and should have a "fill line" marked half way up. On a count of 3 (or ready set go) the first participant in each line should dip their sponge in the bucket of water, run to the empty bucket, squeeze the water from their spo

Make Your Own Mineral Identification Kit

One of my family's favorite hobbies is rock hounding. We love collecting and trying to identify neat rock and mineral specimens that we come across. You can put together your own simple kit for identifying rocks and minerals with materials you likely already have around your home. In this post I will explain how to put together your own mineral identification kit and how to use it to identify rocks and minerals you find on your adventures. Making a Rock and Mineral ID Kit Grab yourself a printable Rock and Mineral Journal for recording your observations here: Printable Rock and Mineral Journal , and then gather the following supplies: -A pencil -A coin -An iron nail -A piece of glass (an old pocket mirror works well) -A ceramic tile -A small watertight bottle or container -Some vinegar -A magnet -A magnifying glass -A dropper (optional) -Rock and mineral guide (optional) -A small container or bag to keep it all in Fill the small watertight

STEM Art: 21 STEAM Project Ideas

My kids love STEM projects and we're always looking for ways to add more art to our homeschool days, so I decided I am going to try to dedicate one morning a week this year to STEM art activities. In this post I share some of the ideas we're planning to try, plus a few favorites we've done in the past. What is STEM Education? STEM education is a blended and often hands on approach to teaching science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, which are some of today's fastest growing industries. STEM education offers students the opportunity to problem solve and work on real world problems and questions. Sometimes the acronym STEAM is used, to include the arts. Adding art to STEM education encourages creative thinking and problem solving skills. It can also help make the other included subjects more appealing to some students. STEM Art Projects Penny Spinners- Learn about centrifugal force and make your own spinning tops with this fun post from Teach Beside Me. Explo

40 Things To Look At Under A Microscope

Microscopes are a scientific instrument that all kids should get a chance to learn how to use. There are so many everyday things that look really amazing up-close. Under a microscope you can see that objects and even plants and animals are made of tiny intricate parts. The microscopic world is amazing! In this post I share 40 things to try looking at up-close under a microscope. 40 Things To Look At Under A Microscope: 1. A feather 2. Soil 3. An insect wing 4. A human hair 5. An animal hair 6. Pond water 7. Diatomacious earth- diatomacious earth looks SO cool magnified! 8. Cheek swab 9. An insect leg 10. A drop of blood 11. Mold 12. Sand 13. A shaving from a chicken bone- try both a piece of hard bone from the outside and some spongy bone from inside a bone. 14. Kombucha 15. Snake or lizard skin after they shed 16. A flower petal 17. A sliver of wood 18. Sugar 19. Salt- try different types 20. Thread 21. Saliva 22. A s

Learning About The Human Body Part 1: The Skeletal And Muscular Systems

At the end of each school year, I sit down with my daughter to discuss what topics she wants to learn about the next year. One of her science topics she picked to study this year was the human body. Instead of ordering a boxed curriculum set, I decided to put together my own human body unit. In this post I share some of the resources we used for learning about the human skeletal and muscular systems, plus instructions for a couple hands on learning activities. You can find my post about the human respiratory and circulatory systems here , and my post about the human digestive and nervous systems here . The Human Skeletal System Our skeletons are the frame of our body. They give us structure, without them our bodies would be limp like noodles. They also provide places for muscles to attach so our bodies can move. Why Does Your Body Need Calcium? Experiment: This is a simple experiment you can do to explore why calcium is important for our bones. You will need: -several clean

Search This Blog