Lexi's Back-to-School Routine Habits!

For students of all ages in my hometown, school is starting very soon. For some readers, it may have already started! For this blog post in 'back to school' week, I'm going to help you all out with some healthy habits, because everyone can get off track once in a while. I'm not saying that you have to follow these rules or else you'll fail school miserably... I just think that many people could benefit with these habits!

AT HOME HABITS:

1. Get a decent amount of sleep. Lets face it- most middle/high school kids are going to stay up late watching videos, texting their crush or stalking people on FaceBook (don't worry, I'm not judging!) but sleep is extremely important. Without it, you won't be able to function properly. Most health enthusiasts say that we need at least 10 hours of sleep, but to be fair, I'm going to suggest at least 7. That means if you have to wake up at 6:00am for school, you go to sleep at 11pm. Pretty reasonable, am I right?

2. Eat breakfast and lunch EVERY day. That doesn't mean grabbing a granola bar and a juice box and leaving the house for the day. Trust me, that was my life style for a bit, and I felt like crap! If you don't seem to have enough time in the morning, pack a lunch the night before. Throw it in your backpack the next morning and you're ready to go! As for breakfast, throwing some yogurt and fruit into a blender gives you enough energy to last until lunch!

3. Balance your homework and extracurriculars. Try to get your homework done as soon as you get home from school to eliminate the stress of getting it done later. If you find that you're too stressed, give yourself 30 minutes of electronic time before going back to your homework. If homework doesn't get finished and piles up, you will be much more stressed than you first anticipated!

AT SCHOOL HABITS:

1. Be nice to all students and teachers. Everyone is bound to get at least one teacher in their school life that they hate. You're not going to like everyone, and not everyone is going to like you. Its a fact of life! But you need to try your best to be friendly to all of your peers. I know I probably sound like a teacher right now, but if you have a good reputation, then the good grades and good connections will follow.

2. Concentrate in class. So you sit beside the class clown who is always cracking jokes, or teasing the teacher. They're always poking and pinching you and trying to get the teacher pissed off. Whatever you do, don't encourage them! Tell them that you're trying to concentrate on the work or move to somewhere else in the room. Don't be rude about it and swear at them like crazy until they go away, but intimidate them. Show them that you're the better person, and you know how to handle any situation. Your teacher will also see you responding to the situation well!

3. Stay organized. Paisley's post for this week is about organization, so if you want a more detailed explanation, then go check that out. All I can say is to keep your binders, locker and homework very organized to keep yourself stress free!

ATTITUDE HABITS:

1. Stay positive. If you walk into school with a frown on your face every morning dreading class, then nobody will want to be around you. If you keep a positive attitude, other people will be happy too and school will be a little bit less painful! Mind over matter :)

2. Don't freak out. If you get a bad mark on a test or assignment, don't beat yourself up over it. Calmly ask the teacher what went wrong and how you could improve for next time. They will definitely help you, because they want to see you succeed! Believe it or not, teachers are there to help you, not to drag you through boring lessons every day.

3. Be social! When you have the opportunity to talk to friends, then do it! Meet as many people as possible and make new friends. Of course at our age, social lives are very important. They can get you jobs, study groups, invitations to fun parties, and even best friends for life!

So I hope that those of you who struggle with good habits will benefit from this post! And of course, changing your habits and attitude will take a while but it's definitely worth it.

-Lexi

Paisley's Back to School organization tips!

School is soon approaching and for some of you has already begun. I am going to be sharing some of my back to school organizational tips so you can enjoy school and not think of it as a totally bad thing.

Here are my top three organization tips for school! Although they are short, there is a lot of information in these paragraphs to remember.  

1. Get an agenda. I know everyone says to get an agenda, but it is soo true. Without one you could forget assignments, not accomplish everything you wanted for that night and be stuck doing homework until midnight catching up. The perks of an agenda is so you can plan ahead. If you plan your nights ahead there isn't anything to worry about and can take a lot of stress off of you. Also, if you plan ahead, you can complete other assignments that might not be due for a while on a night that you don't have much homework so you don't leave it to the last minute, therefore having extra time when it is close to the due date to do fun things.  

2. Binders. I know many people don't like binders because they are big and bulky (which i agree with) i find that my notes aren't as organized as i would like them to be. When i do projects i want somewhere else to work them out other than in my notebook. Another downside to notebooks are that you cant take papers out. (you can, but there is nowhere else to put them afterwards.) In my school you have to type up most of our notes, so folders don't work because we have WAY too many papers that any folder could hold.

How to organize a binder:

• use dividers to separate between types of notes (ex. Homework, handouts, notes, projects, assignments and tests, extra paper, etc.)
• use plastic folders because they will last all year, while the paper folders will rip in the whole part and make you unorganized halfway through the year. (They are worth the money and are re-usable!)
• Purchase binders with the plastic slipcovers in the front to indicate which class the binder is for, or choose a colour for each class to colour-coordinate your binders to your classes, this way it is easy to differentiate which binder is for which class. (Meaning more time to talk to your friends rather than finding your binder, and also lowering the risk of taking the wrong binder.)

3. Accordion files. These I find to be very important because they eliminate the problem of bringing home all four binders and all four textbooks if you have homework in all four subjects. All you would need to bring home is your textbooks and the accordion file. Just put all the notes needed for homework from that subject and put them in that class's designated folder and voila! No need for a binder. 

I hope these three rules made your school year less stressful and a little easier.

-Paisley 

Lexi's 'Get To Know Me' Tag

So now that you all know a little bit about Paisley, then I guess I'll answer the same questions as her, so you can get to know me a bit better too!

1. Are you named after anyone? Yes, my full name is Alexandra which is my grandma's name
2. When was the last time you cried? Watching the Degrassi summer finale!
3. Do you have kids? Nope, but I hope to when I get a bit older
4. If you were another person, would you be a friend of yourself? I think so :)
5. Do you use sarcasm a lot? Probably a bit too much...
6. Will you ever bungee-jump? Yes! I think it would be so much fun- and I want to get over my fear of heights
7. What’s your favorite cereal? Froot Loops!!
8. What’s the first thing you notice about people? Their eyes
9. What is your eye colour? Blue
10. Scary movie or happy endings? Happy endings for sure!
11. Favorite smells? Vanilla, brown sugar, floral scents
12. Summer or winter? Definitely summer, because I love warm weather
13. Computer or television? Computer, because I live on social networks
14. Do you have any special talents? None that are really special, but I love film editing
15. Where were you born? In Canada

Well that's it for the 15 questions, I hope you enjoyed getting to know a bit about me. I hope to hear from you all sometime :)

-Lexi

Paisley's "Get to know me tag"

To start off our blog posts, we wanted you to know a little more about us. So i am going to be answering 15 questions that i hope will let you do that.

1. Are you named after anyone? - My great grandmother's middle name was Paisley
2. When was the last time you cried? - When i watched the summer finale of Pretty Little Liars :(
3. Do you have kids? - No, but hope to when i am older
4. If you were another person, would you be a friend of yourself? - I am very social and i would like to think that i would like myself from someone else's point of view.
5. Do you use sarcasm a lot? - I use it when i feel it is necessary
6. Will you ever bungee-jump? - No because i would be too scared that the cord would break.
7. What’s your favorite cereal? - Frosted Flakes
8. What’s the first thing you notice about people? - Their teeth
9. What is your eye colour? - Hazel
10. Scary movie or happy endings? - Scary movies with happy endings
11. Favorite smells? - Vanilla, cupcakes, gasoline, sharpies, white out...
12. Summer or winter? - Summer
13. Computer or television? - Computer
14. Do you have any special talents? - No :(
15. Where were you born? - Canada

I hope you learned lots, and i look forward to writing weekly/daily blogs posts for all my readers!

-Paisley

Welcome to Paisley and Lexi's Blog!

Hi everyone! We're Lexi (17) and Paisley (16) and this is the beginning of our very own blog :)

We're super excited to be interacting with people over the internet, because we feel like we have many things that you would like to hear. Every week, we will have a different topic of interest (ex. beauty, life experiences, advice) and we will both be writing 2 separate posts each that involve the certain topic!

Due to personal issues, we won't be posting any photos of ourselves to keep this blog strictly informational and fun, rather than posts about what we wear or what we look like. However, if the weekly topic pertains to outfits/beauty/etc, we may post pictures of our bodies. We would like to keep our face off of the screen!

Both of us will try very hard to stay on top of blogging but sometimes it may be hard, especially during the school year because of exams and social events. We're both very passionate about starting a blog and letting you all know bits of our lives, because we love to read about other people's lives as well!

We will end this blog post here to keep you all interested and not bored out of your minds (sorry!) and we truly hope that whoever is reading our posts will get the most out of them. Love and best wishes,

Lexi and Paisley :)