Play Theraphy with the Child (Activities)

Come to think of it, the full tme job of a child is play.
So as a parent, to build bond with your child, the best way is probably by becomng his/her "collegue"...

So lets find out more about "play theraphy", the benefits and what are some activities we as parents can do with our children.

Here are some benefits of playing:

1) Reduce Stress
2) Teaches child social awareness
3) Provides Physical Exercise for the child
4) Simulates Creativity and Problem Solving

Some activities

1) Motor Skills
Art and craft (using scissors, drawing, painting, puzzles etc.)

2)Building Activities
Wooden Blocks, legos, cars etc

3) Transportation
Riding, cycling, skating

4) Music
Songs, dance, instrument

5)Fantsay Play
Toys, figurines

6) Nurturing Play
Role Play, imitating

7) Gross Motor activities
Soccer, throwing bean bag, softball

8) Animals
Plat fetchm careful rough horsing

9)Hobbies
Science, collecting

10) Board Games

11) Solitary Play
Pencil and paper, ,mazes

12) Social Play
Play with other children

It will be my goal to spend 15min of quality time and i can use this list to give me inout when i run out of ideas.

Trading Rules

Below are my trading rules and plan which you can freely adopt, however, it is more of discretionary than mechanical (i will post some mechanical rules in my next few posts)

1)Check Upcoming News @ http://www.forexfactory.com/
- This is used more as defence, mainly to avoid unpredictable major annoucements which may cause big moves
- This can also be used to ride the reaction after the news. A possible break up trade.

2) Check Weekly, Daily and 4hr chart to decide on the main direction i will trade
Bullish when:
- Price Above Moving Average
- Moving Average moving up
- MACD Histogram turing positive

Bearish when:
- Price below MA
- MA moving down
- MACD Histogram turning negative

3) One direction is decided, look for opportunity to ride the wave using:

3a) Reversal Technique:
- Candle Sticks touches either (Support/ Resistance, Fibonacci lines, Pivot Points, Trendlines)
- Candle Sticks patterns
- Slow Stochastic overbought/ oversold
- MACD bullish/ Bearish

3b) Breakout Technique
- Breakout from support or resistance of last high/low
- Slow Stochastic overbought/ oversold
- MACD bullish/ Bearish

Initial Stop based on technicals (Risk to Reward must be more than 1)
Profit Exit based on either TP or Trailing Stop

Money Management rules: Risk no more than 2% of capital.
(Will take 2 positions of 1% risk each, one aiming for TP, one aiming to ride)

Advice from Greeksman on my trade

Sean,
Based on what I saw on your chart (a 30 min chart), for this type of BOT (Break-out trade), and imgaine if I were to take on this trade, I may use risk/reward of 1:1 to go in.
I roughly saw the SL be round 65 pips, and thus my first PT will be around 1.3550.
After this, I will exit half of my position, and move the rest to breakeven.

Another way is to set PT to be say 35 pips (65/2 rounded up), and if this is hit, I will exit half of my position, and guarantee a risk free trade no matter what by moving the rest to breakeven.

Either way, I believe is doable.

Now, here is my additional $0.02 as to why I trade not just based on technical but also fundamental.
We all know FOMC interest rate annoncement to be at 2:15am EST (just a few hours later). So, since there is an expection of at least 50BPS rate cut, USD by right will be sold off before annoucement.

If you are trading EUR/USD or even GBP/USD, you should expect both currency pair to go up. This is the time whereby I will rather pick EUR/USD and GBP/USD than EUR/JPY and GBP/JPY because USD is weaker than JPY and thus, trading currency pair is better than carry trade pair.

With this expectation, I may want to ride on the trend if it is going to be strong.

So, this is where the stop for the remaining position becomes tricky.

Since you are trading a 30 mins chart, you may wish to consider using 1 bar reversal or 3-bar reversal depending on your risk tolerance.

When you are getting more advanced, you may consider using not even lots but triple lots. The last run is the real "home run" and wow, once a while you can really laugh to the bank.

Well, I don't think I should go into that kind of details at this point.

However, these are the things as a professional forex trader I would consider when deciding:
1. Which pair to trade - normal pair or cross or carry trade pair (fundamental outlook)
2. When to get in and what kind of stops I am looking at (lot size and money management)
3. When to get out (in case the market gives me a home run and I will eat it).

Good luck!

Teaching My Son the Joy of Giving

Today, my wife and i had an idea.

It was the last session of shicida class for our son Tian Le and since it was near to Christmas, we decided to prepare some presents for him to give to his classmates and sensei.


When he gave the present out, we could see the amount of joy he received as the adults around smiled at him and praise him.
This will be one of our first attempts to link pleasure to giving and sharing for him.

Imagine him growing up to be a helpful and generous person. It will create a life that endears him to many and the amount of respect and love he develops for people around will also escalate.

Love Strategies

The Paradigm of love is such an essential idea that everyone of us should know, regardless if we are in a relationship wiht our spouse, children. parents, friends, neighbours or even enemy.

Well, the bible did not "suggest" that we love, but it commands us to love, so we do not really have a choice do we?

The question is, how do we love?

Love is a feeling that needs to be expressed effectively, otherwise it may be misunderstood. I mean, how often do we feel the lack of love from someone we love but later at a more resourceful state, we think back and realise that the things they did for us are done out of love. But why do we not appreciate them on the spot?

From my study into this subject i realise 2 things that may have affected this difference in paradigm:

1) Our learning styles - VAK (Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic)
2) Our rules for Love.

Our Learning style affects the way our mind learns or process the information. Each of us learn better either Visually, by Audio, by Kinesthetic (doing, physical) or a combination of all.

What has this got to do with love? It is relevant because we need to learn that the specific actions or word we are receiving is a sign of love.

Let me explain further: For example i am a kinesthetic person and my wife is a auditory person. So she feels love when she hears me say,"I Love You" but i, being a kinesthetic person prefers to show love by doing things for her. What will happen?

I will keep making things, or doing things for her, or kiss her and hold her hands, but she is not able to learn that this is love. She learns best by hearing me express my love for her.

Understanding this idea, it may be better for me to say the words, "i love you" or even sing her a love song. I do hope this example helps.

Ok, but there is another step to it. Even if i say,"I love You!" it still may not work fully. Why? It brings us to my second point: Our rules for love.

Each of us have different rules for what is an expression of love. I mean, why do we feel love when someone comes up, place his/her lips which is filled with germs and unknown food partical to our lips? This isn't very logical is it?

The truth is, it makes sense to us because of our personal rules. And of course this may be influenced and shaped by the media, or culture etc.

I mean, i heard that in some places, the sign of ulitmate love for your parents is to EAT them before they pass away. This is so that they can live on in our bodies. How can this be LOVE? Well, think about it, that is their rules. What are yours?

So the first step to be able to effectively shpw your love is to find out what are the rules of the person you want to show love to.
This is likely to be closely tied to their learning style which is our first point.

In Gary Chapman's book, he suggested the 5 love languages which are namely:
1) Word of Affirmation (Audiotory)
2) Physical Touch (kinethestic)
3) Gifts (Visual)
4) Quality Time (could be a combination of all)
5) Acts of Service (more of visual rather than kinesthetic, as it requires the person to see the service done -my personal feel)

Well, these love languages may be a very good guideline to start with. Well, we need each of this in different amount, in different times.
So, my personal stratgey is have a love language of the week, where i find opportunity to use this love language to express my love and review after the action on the response and outcome.

Do test it out yourself!

Quality Time with My Son

I have been revieiwng my 2008 times and realised that I would like to spend more quality time with my son.

of course, everyone has different rules on what consitute quality time and my personal definition is would be that times where we either:

1) Build bond through shared activities.
2) Learning and Developing Together.

As such, my goal this year is to spend at least 15min of quality time everyday.

15min? that sound so litlle. To me, it is a way of getting me to start. f i were to set a goal say, 1hour everyday and i know that i do not have a hour, chances are that i will even start. But if i were to spend 15min, chances are i will always have 15min and this 15min will likely strecth to hours.

Personally, i am rather against watching TOO MUCH TV. From "Family First", one of the pledge the author had taken as a father struck me and it was this," I will not ALLOW the TV to babysit my children".

That is one of the faults i felt i had commited as i keep rushing from events to events and spend insufficient time with my son, loving and learning with him.

In my next post, i will come up with a list of activities which i deem as quality time with my son.

2009 Focused Goals

Below are the set of Specific Goals i am commited to achieve for 2009.

I used my personal method of S.O.A.R (Specific Results, Obstacles, Action Plan and Reason) to set these goals.

Spiritual Goals 2009

Specific Result
Complete Bible Reading in a Year
Count my Blessings Everyday
Pray Everyday
Weekly Bible Verse Sharing with Wife (Sundays)

Obstacles
Field camps

Solution: Bring bible and journal along in a waterproof bag

Action Plan
Get a journal
Print Bible Reading Plan – chunk it down
Communicate with wife this goal

Reason for Goal
Grow closer to God, let God be a partner in running my life
Understand God’s word better so I can live purposefully and I can share God’s love with people.

Physical Goals 2009

Specific Result
<10>Obstacles
Food, snacks
Field Camps


Solution:
Choose Healthier snacks - fruits
Eat lesser during meals to compensate for snacks

Action Plan
Exercise
- Gym 2 times per week
- Cardio Exercise (Run/ Cycle/ Swim) 2 times a week
- Pilates (To stretch and grow taller and leaner)

Nutrition
- 1 Cheat day per week only
- Eat lesser carbo and fats
- Choose healthier snack (incantation: Nothing taste as good as FIT)

Get a weekly monitoring chart

Reason for Goal
Look good for confidence
Look good to inspire soldiers, friends.
Got to take care of temple of God
Feel good for more energy to work towards other Goals

Family (Wife) Goals 2009

Specific Result
Grow Spiritual by sharing bible verse once a week
Grow in Relationship by dating once every fortnight
Grow physically by getting wife in a sport or exercise (Pilates) after her confinement period

Obstacles
House work
Children
Fieldcamps /SAF stuff

Solution:
Come up with a routine for house work
- Saturday Morning Weekly Cleaning
- Childcare centre/ Parents and in laws
Finish up SAF Stuff within 3 days whenever task is issued.


Action Plan
Print bible reading plan for wife
Fortnightly dating
- Show appreciation using 5 love language strategy
o Acts of Service (Massage/ Housework)
o Gifts (Small cards, flowers etc)
o Quality Time (Dating)
o Physical Touch (Massage)
o Words of Affirmation (Cards, SMS)

Start looking out for exercise that will interest wife
- Pilates
- Yoga
- Volleyball

Organise beach out party in July and Dec so she (and me) will be motivated to work out.

Reason for Goal
She is the most important person to me and I need to help her grow and also grow our relationship to be a fun loving and romantic one.

Family (Son) Goals 2009

Specific Result
Spend 15 min of quality focused time with son everyday I am home.
Read at least 1 book a month on how to be a better parent/ father and use at least one lesson learn.

Obstacles
Tired
Field Camps

Solution:
Get myself in State (think of missing him in Australia)
Compensate using OIL and weekends.


Action Plan
Prepare a list of activities to do with him
- Reading
- Sports
- Shicida Methods
o ESP
o Linking Memory
o Flash Cards
o Story Telling (Speed reading)
o Singing
o Alphabets
- Games

Reason for Goal
So that we will have a really great relationship.
I want to be his friend, mentor, coach.

Personal Development Goals 2009

Specific Result
Become a Trainer by Dec 2009
– Achieve Certified Professional Trainer Certificate
– Start Training as a Trainer by Dec 2009

Master NLP by Dec 2009
– Be NLP Master Practitioner Certified by Dec 2009


Obstacles
Time
SAF
Cost

Solution:
On Job Training
Start Giving Seminars in Camp
Use NLP on soldiers

Action Plan
Take Course
- ACTA
- Mastery Asia
- NLP
o Vasnath
o POE by AKLTG

- Start sending resume to training companies

Reason for Goal
To become a great communicator to share ideas and knowledge to empower people to live a great passionate life

Financial Goals 2009

Specific Result
Development financial muscles to create passive/non SAF income of $10k/month by Dec 2009

Obstacles
Time
SAF
Lack of Focus

Solution:
Magnifying glass theory
Time management

Action Plan
Trading
- Journal and Post Every Trade
- Follow Trading Plan – Trade Beautifully
- Daily Trading and Practice using Past Data
- Journal (Print Charts and Comments)
- Post Trades on Blog and Forum
- Weekly Analysis (On Saturday Morning)


Options Sales Strategy
• Sell CALL/ PUT based on Buffet’s Stocks
• Do monthly updates and research
• No impulse actions during trades – wait for options to expire

Trading Tuition
• AIM: $3500 per month ($700 X 5)
• Find a Place
• CC?
• Home Tuition?
• Send Pamphlet
• Letterbox
• House to House
• Cars
• Lifts

Edu Biz
AIM: $3000 per month

Reason for Goal
I want the financial muscles to achieve Freedom and Abundance.
I want to achieve it at a young age (before 30 years old) so that I can have a lifestyle that is God and Family Center.
I want to achieve it fast so that I can give to my parents and in-laws so that they can enjoy life!