Book Review: The Mermaid's Mirror

Today I'm doing a book review on The Mermaid's Mirror by L.K. Madigan.  Hope you enjoy!

The Mermaid's Mirror kinda has two parts, so I'll cover the first part first.  Selena Whittaker (Lena) is just your average high schooler, with a best friend, a boyfriend, and a little brother.  Her dad and stepmom are the normal, really supportive parents which is nice because in lots of books the parents are almost never there :)  Lena's dream is to become a surfer, but since her dad had a really bad surfing accident he doesn't want her to.  So of course, she takes surfing lessons behind his back...and then ends up trying to surf the most dangerous surf spot near her: Magic Crescent Cove.

And this is all because of the fact that she saw a mermaid there.

So when she almost drowns but the mermaid rescues her and gives her a key, she must find what the key unlocks!  And what fun would the story be without her finding the chest that the key fits, right?

So this transitions into part two, where her dad explains that he fell in love with the mermaid sixteen years ago, but she got charmed into forgetting everything and had to go back to the sea!  And when Lena finds out that her real mother, the mermaid, is waiting for her at Magic's, she leaves to live beneath the sea...

This is where the real fun begins!

But I have a bad habit of spoiling things for people by giving away too much, so you'll have to read it for yourself to find out the end.

It was a really good book, even on the fourth time around (I think I read it three times back in October/November) and since it involves awesomeness and fantasy (surfing, the beach, cute little brothers, mermaids) it gets a GREAT overall rating!!  Please read it--admittedly not a "guy" book, but really really good!!

Bottom Line: YES, I would recommend this to a friend!  ☺


Happy Homeschooling!

Random Rambling

Hey guys :)  I haven't posted in awhile, so since it was raining outside today I figured I'd do a Rainy Day Ramble.  I've never officially done a "rambling" post, where I acknowledge that "this post is going to be a total not-related-to-anything ramble"...since we did stream-of-conciousness writing last month or something it kind of does relate to school...haha!  Let the ramble begin:

Some of you guys (I figure most) have Science Fair coming up, right?  Exciting!!  I don't actually do Science Fair, but we do a lot of science experiments anyway.  I do have STAR testing, in April :(  I've already had my writing test, which I think I did OK on...it wasn't terribly hard, but writing comes naturally to me.

You might know that.

Heck, just last year a guy in my class reminded me that I had a poem published in a magazine or something when I was in 2nd grade.  I didn't even remember that.  Until he reminded me.

Thanks, man :)

Do you guys do One Direction?  They're a band...of the most talented boys on the planet!!  I mean, they can actually sing!  Without auto-tuning!  What can I say, I'm obsessed, haha!  Their new album, Up All Night, came out yesterday, and of course I got it as soon as I could get ahold of the computer, which happened to be around 8am.

I love them.

Here's a picture:

And if you want to hear them sing, here's the music video for one of my personal favorite songs, One Thing:

See what I mean here?!  Amazing singers ;)  I'm even listening to them right now...Up All Night, in fact.  It's a great dancing song!

If you girls (and guys...but my audience seems to be mostly girls, except my dad and grandpa, and I can't always say guys) have any suggestions for posts or any questions you want me to answer--about homeschooling, you can leave a comment.  I feel like there used to be lots of people who commented, but since Christmas my comments section has been empty :(  

That's OK, though.  I know people are busy and I'm not offended or anything! :D

Also, if any of you have a blog or want to start one, comment!  I want to check out your site!!  Actually, just noticing that most of the blogs I follow are fashion-related.  Haha!  Help me expand my blog followings!

What else has been going on in the homeschooling world...lots of ALEKS, 30-40 min a day, finishing Renaissance Europe in History, doing Pilates for PE because it's been cold/rainy outside (talk about a workout!  Especially for someone as non-flexible as me).

I'm getting stream-of-conciousnessed out, haha, but will be back with more posts and possibly a giveaway if I can find something to...give away...but I really like the idea of giveaways!  Homeschooling Misadventures will probably get a new look soon too, to go with spring, so watch for that too :)

Happy Homeschooling!

ALEKS

For those of you who may or may not know, ALEKS is an online math program that gives you a entrance test to find out what you know in some areas of the type of math you purchased and what you don't.  Then it fills out your pie chart like so:

And you work more on the areas you need work on, less on the areas you don't.  So as you can see, I'm pretty good at Arithmetic Readiness and not so good at Polynomials and Quadratic Equations or Square Roots.  I know exponents though, a little...fifth grade math exponents :)  Actually I've never done Polynomials or Quadratic Equations so it would make sense that I got 0 out of 29 haha!  Of course if you did ALEKS your pie chart would be different than mine, because you probably have different strengths in math.

Hey, I just realized that I don't remember many probability questions...hmm.  Oh well ;)

That's all for today, I have a little icon on my desktop called "To Do Today" which is full of things I should do every day, and I saw "Post on blog" which reminded me that it really isn't that hard to sign out of email and into my blog after all, and I should post.  A few other items on my list are:

Smile
Find the fun
Make time
Be creative
Play with siblings
Be patient

I love lists.  I get so happy when I cross another thing off one!  Which reminds me, I need to do some PE to finish off my school day...

Happy Homeschooling!

PS- We ran errands this morning, so I started my day at around 1:30pm, not early, which is why I'm finishing school at 5pm!  My day is not that long!!