It’s that time again, y’all.
The aisles are filled with the sound of music back-to-school shoppers.
I confess: when I see the kiosk with all the shopping lists of required supplies for various local schools, I have to suppress a little snicker– because we, as homeschoolers, get to make our own back-to-school shopping lists! Bwahaha!
I get excited about the displays of school supplies. I think there is some unwritten rule that homeschoolers have an extraordinary fondness for school supplies. My girls and I share the same addiction to pens, pencils, and notebooks. Although we don’t follow public school calendars, back-to-school time is a fun opportunity to treat ourselves to a few new pretty notebooks or binders and a delightful pen or two. I often buy school supplies throughout the year, whenever I see a good deal on something I know we use often– such as notebook paper, or printer paper. That helps reduce our yearly expenses a bit.
Our homeschool is a pretty high-tech operation. Ken is an IT whiz, and we put that to good use here. The girls each use a laptop for schoolwork. They both use a computer-based math program (Teaching Textbooks) and use the laptops for other schoolwork as well. Because I’ll be expecting more from them in the way of composition and even a few research papers this year, they need a good office program of some sort. Microsoft Office 2010, which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, looks like a good option to meet their needs. I haven’t used this version of Microsoft Office, but it has a lot more than I remember on older versions. You can read more about it for yourself here: Microsoft Office 2010 Home and Student.
A few features of this program:
- Word– so students can write papers and express themselves.
- Easy-to-use photo-editing tools with new photo effects.
- Students can automatically create a bibliography from in-paper citations.
- Excel allows students to compile and analyze data.
- New features in PowerPoint even allow students to embed video in their presentations!
- OneNote helps kids get organized, and it captures notes, images, video, and more in a digital notebook.
And after a rough day of trying to explain geometry proofs to my high-schooler, this feature sounds wonderful: students can create and display math equations with a rich set of equation-editing tools. That’s seriously cool!
If you’re in the market for a new office program, you can buy Office 2010 and save 15%; this promotion ends on 9/14.
Be sure to visit Microsoft Office 2010′s brand page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ posts!
