TOS Crew Review: KBTeachers (worksheets, printable pages)

This should come as no surprise to my regular blog visitors, but I am not a big fan of using worksheets to teach.  But alas, even I realize there are moment when they come in quite handy.  I especially like the challenge of taking a worksheet and turning it into a learning tool for my children.  So actually, I do find that I can tweak one to get something useful for memory work, or to cement a particular lesson into my kids' noodles.  There are times too-when I want to avoid having an "idle hands and mind" moment with one student, whilst I work with another, and  I much prefer it to be in the educational spectrum. So again, this may mean I need to dip into the worksheet world to prevent this.

The ability to find quality material is a bit of challenge, not to mention a time swallower. Having a membership with a company that already has that done for me, is a fabulous thing.  Enter KBTeachers,  an online smörgåsbord of such things like: a worksheet generator, clip art [original artwork here] that can be used in my own personal projects or on my blogs; as well as a good variety of math, science, and fun activities I can access, and print as needed.

This is a free worksheet on the Rainforest layers. 

  It serves as a great example of how 

I could "tweak" this by having my student complete it, 

to place it in a lapbook on climates, or in a science notebook, etc.  

I was particularly happy to see the sign language section, as we will have that course in our next co-op session. I know that will come in quite handy!  I love how I can type in a message that they will need to decipher, and it is not limited because I can create new ones every time.  They also have a section dedicated to the current month's goings on-and it is prominently displayed in the upper most left-hand corner, so you are sure to see it. Best yet-they have a monthly webquest section, with live links to sites regarding the gem of the day (such as Veteran's Day, Popcorn Day, Gettysburg day and so forth) designed to provide additional resources for our studies.

My example here of this sign language activity.  

Can you read it? 

Look at the bottom of the review for the answer.

I am also impressed to see they have material designed for children in the older grades (Jr/Sr high) which is not an easy thing to find.  Best yet, they still offer up some goodies for the younger set-so this is a nice option for families with all age levels to address, like us.  And although I do not usually budget for, nor purposely seek out such sites to purchase a membership [because we try to avoid having too much paper busywork in our daily studies]-I am very glad I was chosen to be a part of this review.  I can see great potential for supplementing our lapbooks/notebooks for our current and future studies; and look forward to their additions and new material. My best suggestion is for you to sign up for the trial period, to see if the site addresses your family's needs.

An FYI moment: thankfully, the team at KBTeachers is open to many suggestions from their clients, especially one I addressed which was the need for more Christian materials.  I saw a positive response, and hopefully down the road they will have more in their collection to offer us.  Be forewarned here, the majority of the science section is evolution based-so simply avoid those if you are uncomfy with it. There are plenty enough other subject materials to use that are benign. Personally, I would like to see the sciences/geology worksheets become less date oriented-meaning they note the information about the subject, without pinpointing a date in time it was to have occurred.  That way it suits both group's needs, allowing for the teacher to decide what time frame they want to place it in.  Also, it would be uncharacteristic of me if I didn't note that many of the worksheets are typical of what you'd expect to find PS/PS teachers using.  Like I mentioned in the beginning though, these can be used in part, or cut up to create a more "hands on" type of activity for projects and such. Creativity is one of the homeschooler's best weapons to teaching "outside the box" and this is an example of just such a moment.





I didn't put a kid icon on here b/cuz you use this to create material or download it for your students-all ages are addressed though.
Need help with icons? Click Here

KBTeachers Homepage (currently undergoing major web design changes, so look for that soon)
$29 with trial/then 1 year membership,  $49 for 2 year membership
Try their 10 day free trial  before you buy.
They also have free pages to download without signing up for the trial-just look for those under the specific subjects.

Don't forget to see what my TOS mates had to say about this and many other fine homeschool products over on our TOS Review Crew Homepage. To read the posts specifically for this review, head to KBteachers TOS postings for that info.

**KBTeachers provided me with a 2 year membership so that I could access and use their worksheets to assist in educating my children, and so that I could write this review.  I did not receive any financial compensation for my honest opinion of their product/service.

Answer to the sign language worksheet: This is a fun part of the KBteachers site.