Learning Arabic

تعلم اللغة العربية

A friend and I decided to make learning Arabic our summer project. I speak more languages than he does, but he knows biblical Hebrew, so particularly with the grammar and alphabet he has a much better start than I do. I would summarize my goals (which do not include learning Arabic fluently in a summer due to time) as two-fold: 1) to be able to read Arabic fluidly and 2) to have a beginner's vocabulary. These rather modest goals are due to the fact that we meet only once a week and the rest of the time have our own methods for learning more vocabulary.

My own sources include a variety of websites and other teaching aids. Our primary source, what we study together in our weekly one-hour sessions, was actually the catalyst to the summer Arabic project. A few years ago a friend gave me an Arabic course developed by the U.S. Army, given to her by a former Arabic instructor.

Here are some other websites and resources I am using:
Madinah Arabic's Reading Course (helpful)
Search Truth (for learning the alphabet)
Pimsleur's Quick & Simple Eastern Arabic (fun)
Arabic blog (for general information as opposed to learning Arabic) 

Do you recommend any sources if you are learning Arabic or if you are an Arabic teacher? I'm hoping that, if nothing else, learning Arabic will improve my brain. But maybe it's too late for that.