11 Great Science YouTube Channels

Need some independent options for learning science at home? YouTube science channels to the rescue! 

Here are 11 great YouTube channels for learning science at home.

(Helpful Hint: You can go to "Playlists" on any of these channels to see a more organized format for all of that channel's videos.)

(Disclaimer: I do not have experience with every single channel on this list. As far as I can tell, these channels are all appropriate for students, but if not please let me know and I will remove it from the list! The ones I have personal experience with are The Action Lab, Smarter Every Day, Physics Girl, The Sci Guys, and Mark Rober.)

• The Action Lab. "The Action Lab is a channel dedicated to performing exciting experiments and answering questions you never thought to ask! I'll put things in my hydraulic press, vacuum chamber and perform countless other experiments just to watch cool phenomenon." The creator of this channel has a PhD in Chemical Engineering. We love his videos!

• Smarter Every Day.  "I explore the world using science. That's pretty much all there is to it. Watch 2 videos. If you learn something AWESOME, please subscribe if you feel like I earned it." We have really enjoyed this channel's videos. 

• Physics Girl. "Physics Girl is a YouTube channel created by Dianna Cowern that adventures into the physical sciences with experiments, demonstrations, and cool new discoveries. Physics Girl has videos for every atom and eve." She has some really great videos.

• Crash Course Kids. "Welcome to Crash Course Kids! This bi-weekly show from the producers of Crash Course is all about gradeschool science. We'll look at Earth, Habitats, Space, Chemical Reactions, Engineering, and much much more with host Sabrina Cruz."

• The Sci Guys. "The goal of our YouTube channel is to explore, educate, and spread all the amazing wonders of science with everyone young and old. Our first series is Science at Home. Which will focus on experiments and demonstrations that can be completed from home either by yourself or with your family. We will explain the science behind each of the experiments, what supplies you need and how to do the experiments yourself."

• Applied Science. "Subscribe to see interesting applications of science and technology. You'll see how an electron microscope was built in a home shop, how an X-ray backscatter system works, how to make aerogel, and many other hi-tech projects. Topics usually include electromechanical systems, chemistry, and electronics." 

• Minute Physics. "Simply put: cool physics and other sweet science. "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." ~Rutherford via Einstein? (wikiquote)"

• The Backyard Scientist. "I like to make videos on all the crazy stuff I do. From exploding arrows, to making instruments, molten aluminum to science/chemistry experiments - I do it so you don't have to!" 

• Periodic Videos. "Your ultimate channel for all things chemistry. A video about each element on the periodic table. And we upload new videos every week about science news, interesting molecules and other stuff from the world of chemistry."

• Mark Rober. "Former NASA engineer. Current YouTuber and friend of science." Mark has some pretty cool (and crazy!) videos.

• Make Science Fun. "Science and Engineering based videos aimed to Excite, Engage and Educate."

FREE Online Math Resources for Temporary (and Not So Temporary!) Homeschoolers

Suddenly new to homeschooling due to social distancing? Don't panic. Hopefully I can help. Take a deep breath, and take it one step at a time. 

This is the first of a series of posts of online resources that will (hopefully) help you teach your kids at home for the remainder of the school year. Most (if not all) of the resources are free or almost free. Bonus! I also tried to choose resources that are flexible enough that they can easily be used at this point in the school year as opposed to a full year curriculum.

I suggest starting with the subject each child needs the most and find what works. Then, add in the next weakest subject. Then, one by one, subject by subject, your children will get a home education for the rest of the school year. 

Again, don't panic. Deep breath. You CAN do this! And remember, one of the best things about homeschooling is its flexibility. Is the math/language arts/history/xyz not working for your child? Toss it to the curb and try another one until you find what works. It takes most homeschooling families a while to find their groove, and that's ok. Also, what works for one child may not work for another.  And that's ok, too. You can pick and choose what works for your family and situation. 

I will start with the dreaded subject for most homeschooling moms: Math! (dun, dun, dun!)

ONLINE MATH RESOURCES:

• Xtra Math  - A Free Web Program for students, parents, and teachers

• Math with Khan Academy - We used Khan Academy math to fill in one spring a few years ago when the math we were using just wasn't working for us. Both my kiddos liked it. Kahn Academy has lots of courses (all subjects) through high school. (A heads up on Khan Academy: sometimes they like to sneak political ideology into their lessons, which can be annoying/frustrating, particularly if you think politics don't really belong in, say, a language arts lesson for a 5th grader. Just something to be aware of!)

• Education.com - This website has printable worksheets, online games, and guided lessons (all subjects) for Preschool through 5th grade. You can filter by grade, subject, or lesson type. (Note: you can only download/print/play? a very limited amount of resources per month with a free account. However, you can get 50% off a Premium subscription right now for a limited time. At 50% off, membership prices range from $5.00 to $8.50 for the first month.)

• Mammoth Math Online Practice - free online practice for various math concepts, including addition and subtraction, multiplication and division, telling time, angles, greatest common factor, and more. 

• HelpingWithMath.com is for anyone who needs help with math or who wants to help others with math at the K-8 level. It provides math resources that help students to practice what they are learning at home and at school. 

• FreeEducationalResources.com - Free math resources for preschool through 6th grade

If needed, you can find even more math resources on my Homeschool Math Pinterest board!

Free Printable Goal-Setting Worksheets and Progress Charts

These Goal-Setting Worksheets and Progress Charts are a follow-up to my previous post, A New Kind of Resolution--How to Make New Years Resolutions and Goals That Stick.

All of these printables are completely editable once you download them, so if you need to tweak them here and there for your own personal use, you can do so.

{Note: These worksheets and charts are for personal use only. You may link to this post, but please do not link to the worksheets/charts directly or upload them to your own site/blog. Thanks!}


The Goal-Setting Printables: (it may be helpful to read my previous post on successful goal-setting before printing and filling these out)

1. The Goal-Setting Worksheet. This worksheet will help you take your general goals and make them more concrete. This worksheet is not specific to 2014 and can be used at any time. If you would like to set goals for a different time-frame than a year, simply edit your worksheet to read "6 months" instead of "year" (or whatever time-frame you prefer). You can download the Goal-Setting Worksheet here. If you would like an example of what goal-setting looks like, you can view my personal completed goal-setting worksheet here.


2. The Monthly Breakdown Worksheet. This worksheet helps you take your concrete goals from The Goal-Setting Worksheet and break it down into each month. You can download the 2014 Goals Monthly Breakdown Worksheet here. If you would like an example, you can view my personal completed monthly breakdown here. These worksheets are specific to the year 2014. If you are not starting in January or it is no longer 2014, you can download a generic one here.


3. The Weekly Progress Chart. The weekly progress chart is designed to help you chart your progress from week to week. Simply print off the chart each week and fill in your goals for that week. (You can find your goals for each month on your Monthly Breakdown Worksheet above.) Then, simply check off each goal as you complete it for the week. If you would like to keep track of your total for the year, you can put numbers in each column instead of a checkmark. For example, if your goal is to declutter your house, you can put the number of minutes spent decluttering, which will allow you to calculate a grand total at the end of the week/month/year. You can download the Weekly Progress Chart here. This chart is not specific to 2014. (For some reason, Google Drive keeps putting this chart in landscape mode, and I have not been able to get it to go to portrait. To fix this, when you download the chart simply switch it to portrait mode before printing. Sorry for the inconvenience!)


4. The Weekly Progress Chart --Version 2. The second version of The Weekly Progress Chart is specific to 2014, and it will automatically calculate any numbers you put in. If it is no longer 2014 and you would still like the calculated version, you are welcome to edit this one for personal use to suit your needs. Things to note: This spreadsheet has 53 "tabs" along the bottom, one for each week. Week 1 is on the main page, while each succeeding week is on its respective tab. Because January 1st was on a Wednesday, Weeks 1 and 53 are half weeks. Keep this in mind when determining whether or not you met your goals for those weeks. Once a week is over, simply transfer your 2014 totals to the next week's "Total from the previous week" to get an accurate updated grand total. (Note: just like the 1st version, Google Drive keeps insisting on putting this file in landscape mode. To fix this, simply put it in portrait once downloaded and save it before printing or using. Sorry about that!) You can find The Weekly Progress Chart--Version 2 here.

If you have any trouble downloading any of the free printables, please let me know in the comments below and I will do what I can to fix the problem. Thanks!

I hope that these printables and my tips from the previous post help you to successfully make some positive changes in your life this year. What sort of goals and resolutions are you making this year? 

A New Kind of Resolution -- How to Make a New Years Resolution (or Any Time Resolution) & Goals That Stick

It's that time of year again. Resolution time. When we are suddenly motivated to make some positive changes in our lives. To improve ourselves in one way or another (or several). We buy those organizing bins, sign up for that gym membership, and resolve to pray for no less than an hour a day. "We can do this," is our chant. Before March comes, however, life has set in, and our organizing plans have been forgotten. Our gym membership goes unused (even though we continue to pay the monthly fee, just in case we should decide to feel motivated). Our prayer life, in our failure to pray for an entire hour every day, has been completely abandoned.

There has got to be a better way.

There is a better way, actually.

How to Make a New Years Resolution (or Any Time Resolution) That Sticks:

1. Start small. The key to success is to set yourself up for success. You can do this by starting small. Most resolutions are all or none. They are too extreme, too fast, and, once we realize we can't live up to our own unrealistic expectations, we abandon the plan altogether. Is your plan to lose weight? Start small. Maybe, starting in January, you can start exercising for 10 minutes 3 times a week and drink 16 oz. of water a day. That is setting yourself up for success. Or, say you currently eat chips 7 days a week. Starting in January, you can limit yourself to eating chips to 5 days a week. These are small lifestyle changes that set you up for success.
2. Gradually add to your goal, month by month. By the time January is finished, you should have established a fairly good routine of exercising for 10 minutes 3 times a week and drinking 16 oz. of water a day (or whatever your small goal was). In February you can increase your goal a bit. For example, bump up your exercise to 15 minutes 3 times a week and 24 oz. of water a day, along with at least one fruit or vegetable a day. Again, you want to set yourself up for success, so for each month, set your goals in attainable increments. (Download my Monthly Breakdown Worksheet to help you with this step.)
3. Bring your new habits alongside old ones. You have habits and routines already established into your day. Whenever possible, try to bring your new habits alongside your old ones to integrate them more naturally. For example, when I eat pizza, I crave pop. There is something about eating pizza delivery that makes me want to have a soda. So I started buying carbonated flavored water (with sucralose, not aspartame as a sweetener). Now when I eat pizza, I drink one of these instead of a pop, and my craving is satisfied. I am still drinking a flavored carbonated beverage, so switching out this habit was seamless. Another example: When I wake up in the morning, I like to hang out in my bed for a while. I do my Jesus Calling devotional, check my e-mail, etc. So, as part of my 2014 resolutions, I kept this tendency as part of my routine. I give myself time to lay in my bed. This will be the easiest place to incorporate my prayer and Bible goals, because it will become part of a habit I have already established.
4. Make your general goals concrete. General goals are difficult to achieve because they do not have a built-in plan. "Organize my house" is vague and much less likely to succeed than "Spend 10 minutes 4 times a week decluttering/organizing." For every general goal you have, turn it into a concrete plan. (My Goal-Setting Worksheet can you help you with this step.)
5. Plan for busy months. If there are times of the year that you know are busier than others, you should reflect that in your monthly goal planning. For example, I work full-time in the summer, and full-time at this job sometimes means 100+ hours a week. Because of this, my goals for June and July are tiny. I have coined these "grace months." Again, I want to set myself up for success. In August I will be a stay-at-home mom again. So my August goals will revert back to what they were in May. I have not added or increased any goals for that month because I want to re-establish my routine first. 
6. Track your progress. I have downloadable Weekly Progress Charts that can help you track your progress. This step is important because it provides both a visual reminder and helps you track your success. Success motivates us to continue on. 
7. Consider having an accountability partner. You may consider asking a friend if they are willing to discuss your progress and keep you accountable. If your accountability partner is also doing a chart, even better. A friend and I will both be doing these charts, and we have agreed to be accountable to each other. Knowing that someone is going to ask you how you're doing can be good motivation to stay on track. 
8. Give yourself grace. These resolutions are not "all or none" like typical resolutions are. So remember to give yourself grace. One of my goals is to start waking up earlier. Today, I slept in, so technically, according to traditional resolution thinking, I have already failed. Should I abandon my plan to create a habit of getting up earlier? Of course not. Remember that the direction you are going, and the progress you are making, however small, is more important than completing your chart to perfection. We are imperfect beings. Perfection is not possible. But, by setting ourselves up for success, we can achieve our goals and make positive changes in our life. (With it being the day after New Years Eve, I was never planning on getting up early today, but it still works nicely as an example.)

You can access all the free printable goal-setting worksheets and progress charts in my next post.

What has been your experience with New Years resolutions? 

8 Confessions of a Blogging, Homeschooling Mom - A Look Behind the Curtain

It's confession time. Time to peel back the curtain and show the not-so-picture perfect side of the life of this blogging/homeschooling mama. Because for some reason there are a lot of women out there who are convinced that women who blog automatically somehow have it more together than they do. This is simply not true. And here's proof.

Confession #1: I am a terrible housekeeper.  I am pretty good at doing the dishes every day, and I vacuum regularly. And I try to clean the main bathroom on a regular basis. My kids keep their stuff picked up thanks to these cleaning charts. But my house is still a mess most of the time. Why? One word. Clutter. A lot of it. I have piles (and boxes) of "stuff" everywhere. When people come over, I "clean" up clutter by throwing it all into a box, lost forever. The irony? Most of my cabinets and closets are organized to the letter. When it comes to cleaning, I am all or none. And when it comes to all these piles, sometimes I don't even know where to start. I hope that someday I am able to conquer my clutter problem because, frankly, sometimes it's embarrassing. And I really would like to know where certain things are that currently can't be found. And it is a lot easier to relax in a clean room. And maybe I could invite people over more often. So I hope that someday I can say I finally have a clean house. That day, however, is not today, and, as of right now, clutter is still a major problem for me.

(So thankful for my patient and understanding husband, who very rarely complains about this problem of mine!)

Confession #2: I sleep in later than I should.  I am very blessed in that my kids are very self-sufficient in the mornings. They can get their own cereal and/or yogurt and entertain themselves until I get up. I am very lucky, I know. The flip side of this? Getting up early is difficult. Because it's just a little too easy to turn off the alarm, roll over, and sleep for just a little bit longer. Or a lot longer. But I don't get nearly as much done and am not nearly as effective when I choose to stay in bed instead of get up on time.

Confession #3: I stay up later than I should.  When I don't go to bed at a decent time, I sabotage myself to repeat #2. Or if I do get up early the next morning, I am cranky because I am sleep-deprived. My crankiness does not set a good example for my children. Or make for a joyful, productive homeschooling day. (I was tempted to schedule this post to automatically publish in the morning sometime so you wouldn't know how late I am staying up tonight. While it doesn't look like I will be finishing this post tonight after all, for the sake of transparency I will tell you it is currently almost 2 am. Case in point...)

Confession #4: I spend too much time online. This includes e-mail and social media such as facebook and pinterest. Again, I am all or none, so periodically I can go through periods where I rarely check social media at all. But, when I get the "itch" again, I spend way more time online than I should. There is definitely an addictive component to the internet in general and especially social media that can be hard to resist. And sometimes I don't do a very good job of resisting.

Confession #5: I am a chronic procrastinator. It is December 12, and we still haven't put up our tree. This is partly related to Confession #1. The area where the Christmas stuff is is cluttered, and getting to the tree and the ornaments/decorations will require some work. Really, if I'm being truthful, procrastination is probably the cause of my clutter problem! I was once told by a friend in high school: "Most people wait until the last minute. You wait until the last second!" Not good. And it does not produce good or satisfying results. 

Notice the partially painted wall in the photo below (aside from all the "stuff" covering the kitchen table)? It has been like that for a good 2 years. 

Confession #6: I don't spend enough time in the Word. I have been following a one-year Bible plan for over three and a half years now. And I am not even halfway done. At best, I spend time in the Word occasionally. I am better at reading my Jesus Calling devotional. Which is great. But it's not the Word of God. I need God's Word to renew my mind and feed my spirit. And, yet, so many times, I just don't read it like I should. Because I don't feel like it. Because I just don't make it a priority. This one hurts worse than the others. But there it is. The truth. 

Confession #7: A lot of times, I don't spend enough time in prayer. Just like #6, I don't consistently and intentionally spend time in prayer on a regular basis. Sometimes I do, but I am more consistent in allowing my love and my fire to grow cold than I am at soaking Him in. And sometimes, when I tell someone I will pray for them, I don't. Not on purpose. I just somehow forget to. Or I just say a quick prayer and then move on to the next thing on my agenda... or the next status on facebook. This is not how spiritual battles are won. I know this. And yet, so many times, I just don't do it. I understand Paul when he said, "For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing" (Romans 7: 19 - NIV). I understand what he is saying in this verse, because he's describing me. 

So there you have it. 8 confessions of a real-life, blogging, homeschooling, pile-making, sleeping-in mama. Now the truth is out: this blogger ain't perfect. There was a part of me that really wanted to clean up those areas of my house just a little before taking those photos. Make it look a little neater. A little more put together. But I didn't. This is it, in the raw. There's no going back after this, and I wouldn't want to. I'd rather be real than perfect. Because only He can make us perfect. On my own, I am anything but. 

And you know what? It's ok. Because His mercies are new every morning. Will I ever paint my kitchen wall? Maybe. Will I ever get my clutter under control? Perhaps. But perhaps not. If nothing else about my confession list changes, I pray for consistency in my walk with Him. Because I can't live this life without Him. Because I can't lead my children to Him if I'm not being led myself. Because I can't do ministry with a painted wall. Am I going to work on my weaknesses? Of course. But in His strength. Because anything else is doomed to fail. Any goals I set for myself apart from Him, will carry a weight that will eventually crush me. Am I perfect? Not even close. And, yet, He loves me. He is for me. He died for me. In all my imperfections. In all my weaknesses. And having a love like that is worth giving Him all. Because He gave all for me. 

So if you find yourself thinking that other moms have it more together than you, don't. Remember that you have something that those other moms might not have: hope. While you are looking at them wondering what they have that you don't, they are looking at you wondering the same thing. 

For when I am weak, then I am strong. 

--2 Corinthians 12:10

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." 

--2 Corinthians 12:9a

Do you have any confessions you'd like to share? I'd love to hear from you in the comments below. Remember, you are not alone in your weaknesses and struggles.

As a follow-up, I will be posting soon about "Living in the Measure of Your Own Grace." I pray that it blesses you.