KB Teachers

As part of my journey with the TOS Homeschool Crew I received a free subscription to KB Teachers so I could review their website.  I was unfamiliar with KB Teachers, so let me share with you what I have learned about the website.

KB Teachers is a worksheet filled website that is for a variety of ages, from preschool through high school.  There are varying amounts of items available for each age range.  They offer a selection of clip art to members as well, in color and black and white.  KB Teachers features worksheet generators for math and alphabet pages that make it easy to create themed pages for your children.  A 1 year membership is $29.00. 

KB Teachers is always changing.  New content is added each week for members, so I found that subscribing to the weekly newsletter was important.  The holiday content is also always rotating.  For example, when I began my subscription the Halloween section was linked under the “For This Season” sidebar.  However, now that it is November Halloween links have disappeared, being replaced by Thanksgiving.  Unfortunately, KB Teachers does not keep holiday content available year-round.  That meant when I wanted to plan ahead activities related to Thanksgiving and Christmas for my children in October, before I had baby #6, none were available on the site.    

The regular categories in the sidebar seem to be:

• English Language – Alphabet Factory and a Cursive worksheet generator are here, and grammar and writing pages for grades 3-10.
• Math Activities – includes time, money, and pages for the four basic math operations, as well as the worksheet generator.  These include answer keys generally, which is a time saver for mom.
• Science Workbooks – Right now there are three themes, astronomy, geology, and weather.  These contain evolutionary content.
• Biology Worksheets – human anatomy, nutrition, marine biology, and plants/microbiology are the available sections here.  Most seem to be for grades 3-7.
• Social Studies – The worksheets and maps in this section are exclusively for grades 7-12.
• More Activities - Clip art dinosaur worksheets, seasonal sections, and a small selection of arts and crafts activities.

One unusual thing on this website is the lack of a search feature.  They address this in their FAQ, stating that “on a well designed website you should easily find your way around and find what you need in 3 clicks or less”.  Unfortunately, I disagree.  I would rather do a single search and have items immediately relevant pulled up instead of trying to figure out just where I would look to find something.  I often use websites similar to KB Teachers when my children make a request for something to do.  They are not willing to wait around while I click my way through a website trying to find a printable in the theme they are interested in at that moment.   

The final con for me was the lack of a save feature.  Again, I’m a planner.  I like to work ahead, getting things ready weeks and even months in advance.  I create a folder on my computer with all the saved pages to print later, when we’re ready for a unit.  This takes zero shelf space, I’ve already been able to sort through and find the right activities for each child’s age and abilities, and all I need to do is print everything the weekend before the unit study begins.  KB Teacher does not allow you to save the materials from their website, your only option is to print.  They did say it was possible to bookmark the pages for later, and that you would still be able to access them even when they are not posted as available on the website.  However, that means I must wait through a full year to bookmark each holiday’s page, which means no planning ahead for at least a year.   

How we’ve used KB Teachers -  I have been able to print pages for my children to use both for fun and as a supplemental practice for my younger children’s math and alphabet skills.  I plan to print the anatomy worksheets to go along with our study of the human body beginning in January.  I’m learning how to use the worksheet generators too.

If you are interested in checking out KB Teachers for yourself you can preview the free materials from their homepage, but they are watermarked.  They offer a 10-day free trial from the front page as well.  You can read my Crewmates’ thoughts on this website HERE.

{Disclaimer: I received a free subscription to KB Teachers to enable me to review the site.  I received no other compensation and all opinions presented herein are my own.}