Try Microsoft Office 2013 Free for 6 Months!

Get Microsoft Office Free for 180 days!


For the past year, we've been using Google Docs a lot in our homeschool. The kids use it to type up a lot of their school work and I can easily check it online  without having to print it out, so we have less paper waste.

But Google Docs can be somewhat limited when you need extra bells and whistles (more advanced formatting options), so we like to use Microsoft Word and PowerPoint when we need extra.  In addition, I typically use Office for making my homeschool printables and some graphics and Google Docs is not robust enough for those uses.

At Microsoft's TechNetEvaluation Center, you can download a full working copy of Microsoft Office 2013 which is good for 30 days. Before the 30 day expiration, you can legally rearm your Office Copy using the Office Trial Extender. Each time you rearm Office, you get 30 additional days and you can rearm up to 5 times giving you 180 days total usage of Microsoft Office. 

I first learned of this through BetaNews.com



Arabic Alphabet Coloring Book and Handwriting Pages

Arabic Alphabet Coloring Book and Handwriting Pages - originally offered from Calgary Islam

Arabic Alphabet Coloring and Tracing Pages


Ten Reasons to Learn Arabic

From Troid.ca,  here are Ten reason you want to learn Arabic:

1. Arabic is the language of the Qur'aan
2. The Qur'aan will increase you in intellect
3. The Qur'aan leads to righteous actions
4. The Qur'aan leads to the preceding messages in the previously revealed texts
5. The elaboration upon the Qur'aan is only known in Arabic
6. The great reward for reciting the Qur'aan—each letter
7. Many obligations in Islam cannot be completed except through utilising Arabic (ex. ash-Shahaadah)
8. The Sunnah is recorded in Arabic likewise
9. Without Arabic, a person remains a blind follower of translated interpretations
10. Deviation and innovation often comes from those who do not understand Arabic properly 

Troubles with Regrouping? Try Partial Sums Addition

If your students have trouble understanding carrying or regrouping when adding, you might consider what they call a "new math" method called Partial Sum Addition.

I've have tried partial products for multiplication with one of my kids who struggles with multiplication and that worked well, so I think I will go back and try this method of addition with her as well as sometimes addition with regrouping is problematic.






It's so crazy to me because I see people blasting new math methods because they take more steps, but if you have a struggling student, sometimes the old school shortcut ways are not so intuitive or easy to understand what is going on. To me, the partial methods are easier to understand what is going on.  I don't think it matters how you get the answer, just that you get it and understand what you are doing.



On a related note, I came across a PDF that shows Five Ways to Add Multi-Digit Whole Numbers.

Algebraic Expressions Millionaire Game

Verbal and Algebraic Expressions Games & Hands On Activities

Order of Operations Games, Activities, & Foldables