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YouTube has become an incredibly powerful tool for homeschooling families looking to supplement their curriculum with engaging, visual content. With thousands of educational channels available, homeschoolers can explore a wide range of subjects including science, math, history, and literature—all for free. Whether you’re teaching elementary students or high schoolers, YouTube offers a flexible way to enhance your homeschool education experience.

Yes, technology can have its downfalls, it also has its benefits. I like to think of it as a tool that can be wielded for good or evil but not inherently either. So, on the positive side, let me tell you all the ways we use YouTube to our educational benefit!

Incorporating YouTube into your homeschool curriculum adds variety and engagement to traditional lessons. It can serve as a great tool for reinforcing difficult topics, introducing new ideas, or providing a visual supplement to textbook material.

For example, watching a history documentary or a math tutorial can bring dry topics to life and spark meaningful discussions. Plus, many videos are aligned with common core or state standards, making it easier for parents to stay on track academically.

Visual Learning Through YouTube in Homeschooling

For visual learners, YouTube is a game-changer in the homeschool environment. With its dynamic combination of video, sound, and animation, YouTube helps children understand complex topics in a clear, engaging way.

Whether it’s a science experiment in action, a timeline of biblical events, or animated math lessons, YouTube supports visual learning in homeschooling by bringing abstract concepts to life. This makes it an ideal tool for homeschool parents teaching visual learners, especially when traditional textbooks aren’t enough.

By integrating YouTube into your homeschool curriculum, you can meet your child’s learning style and keep lessons fresh and interactive.

YouTube Playlist for Car Rides

I love this option! It’s easy to create a “playlist” on YouTube and then add videos to it.

Any time we’re taking a longer-than-30-minute trip I’ll quickly put together a history or science playlist for the kiddos to watch on the ride. If we’re going to Costco (45 minutes from our house) I literally might name it “Costco” or simply put the date. These playlists are easy to delete once you’re done with it, that way you don’t have a plethora of small YouTube playlists to sort through.

We have an iPad with a case that has a little kick-stand attached to the back. I will set the iPad on the middle console and press play before we get going. The playlists automatically brings up your next selected video after a clip ends, that way you don’t have to mess with it once you press play at the very beginning. Sometimes it will bring a commercial up inbetween videos. My older or middle bear will usually reach up and press the “skip” button and all is well.

There are various things I love about using YouTube in the car. Firstly, someone else is teaching for me. Secondly, I get to listen and then I can engage with the kiddos afterwards and ask what they learned.

YouTube Learning at Home

Before I give you the 22-channel-list, let me tell you how we use YouTube when we’re not in the car.

For science, we will read a few paragraphs from our curriculum then we will enter a few keywords in the YouTube search bar related to what we just read. For example, if we are discussing birds and migration patterns, we may type in the phrase, “birds migrate for kids.” I usually type in “for kids” after the main phrase because it tends to pull up videos that will be clean/appropriate/ and at a kid-level understanding.

For history, it’s more of the same thing. We will read in our chosen curriculum/book first. Let’s say we just read about the civil war. Because my bears are young I try to limit my reading time to 15 minutes, with a video break to follow to reinforce our reading. So again, I’ll type in a key phrase, followed by the phrase, “for kids.” E.G. “civil war for kids.” I may pick a few to watch and then jump back into another 15-minute reading break.

After you’ve done this routine enough times, you will become familiar with channels you really like. Thus, I tend to pick videos with channels I am familiar with once the search results pop up.

Lastly, the fun and educational way I use YouTube – especially in the morning. When I have a morning that I’m dragging, the kids are dragging, or both, I know I need to go to our favorite kid workout channels.

These videos are so fun! Honestly, I think many of them were created during the covid pandemic and have blossomed from there. Our favorites are ones that look like the kids are in a video game. The have to jump over obstacles, duck down, etc. So fun! Big Bear is starting to get “too old” for those and likes videos that are kid/teenager led, but straightforward, like some from GVO Kids.

And without further ado, here is your list!

Educational Science YouTube Channels:

Educational History YouTube Channels

Kids’ Workout YouTube Channels

Do you have any favorite YouTube channels I haven’t mentioned? Looking for more free educational resources? I’d love to hear in the comments below!