Learning at Home: How to be a YouTuber

My son is 8, and he wants to be a famous YouTuber like DanTDM. Although I realize this aspiration may be short-lived, I’m open to the possibility. I also know that he probably won’t find this learning in the Ontario Curriculum.

So I decided I’d better figure out how this stuff works so that I can help him understand (and possibly realize) his dream.

I have a YouTube channel already. I post math and computer science videos, mostly, and a few more personal things. I don’t monetize the teaching videos since I direct my students to view them and that would be inappropriate. It was time to start a new channel.

I wanted a channel with a focus, but that was broad enough to allow for lots of content. The kids and I enjoy watching videos of booster box openings (Magic: The Gathering and Pokemon), and I watch more MTG videos. This is something I know a fair bit about, and I can produce content easily (if not always cheaply).

So Grasley Games was born. These aren’t games I’ve designed (that’s coming, though). Instead, “games” is a verb here.

I started by opening a box of Aether Revolt, the newest set of Magic: The Gathering available at the time. I practised for a while first, figuring out camera setup, microphone, lighting, and how to hold the cards effectively. I’ve done some video production work before, but I was still surprised at how challenging this initial planning was.

I also wanted to try some “actual plays”, recordings of playing games. I’ve recorded about 10 games, but only a few have been worth posting. Lots of camera problems with this stuff.

The channel is monetized, which means that some ad revenue accumulates over time. So far there’s $1.86 waiting for me. Another couple of lifetimes and I’ll pay for that box…

Now for the kids

This wasn’t just for me, remember? Both my kids want to participate too. Now that I’ve learned the basics of setting everything up, they’re starting to make videos for me to post. There are three so far on the channel:

What’s next

They keep asking to make more videos (I got enough stuff for them to make 6 videos each on these topics without any additional investment), so that’s pretty cool. I do want them to see how difficult it is to get eyes on your content when you’re in a fairly niche area, and that consistency is really important (they’re counting on me for this).

I’ve also made other spaces on the web for Grasley Games – we’ll see how these platforms pan out:

Grasley Games on WordPress

Grasley Games on Facebook

Grasley Games on Patreon

Grasley Games on Twitter

Photo instructions to build a Lego X-Wing Fighter from Brickmaster book’s pieces

I like the Brickmaster Lego books that DK produces. You can sometimes get them for $15-20 Canadian (Winners, for example), and they have about 150 pieces that work nicely for a variety of models. That’s how the books work: you get instructions for building about four pairs of models (eight total) with the same 150 bricks.

I wanted to build a Star Wars X-Wing Fighter from the pieces in one of these books (ISBN 978-0756663117). I realize that it would be better with some other bricks, probably with other bricks that I already have, but I like the challenge of producing an alternative model from a single set. Here is a sequence of photos clumped together showing how the one I made is put together.

(If you’re interested, I took these photos with my iPad while I disassembled the model.)

Building a Lego igloo

My daughter and I worked together to build a Lego igloo today. She thought of the idea, and I decided to document our build as we went along. Here are some pictures. At the end she added a little more and asked me to take another one. And she asked me to put it on Twitter. :)

Lego Alternative Model 6910

I was playing Lego with the kids today and I thought I’d make and alternative model for the Lego Creator 3-in-1 set #6910. Alternative models only use pieces from a particular set. Here’s what I came up with:

I didn’t use the wheel pieces either; they’re in the box.

Here’s a front view:

And a view from behind:

Have you made any alternative models?