Rabu, 25 Oktober 2017

Fun and Creative Summer Projects For Fathers and Sons

Summertime is the time for getting outside and having some fun. And there are lots of traditional ways to do this but this article looks at some unusual and different ways to enjoy the summer. The focus here is on projects that adults and children or teens can do together and with an eye toward learning and or making things.  And although the title of this article says for fathers and sons all the projects and ideas would be great for fathers and daughters too!

Become a Siege Engineer

Building a catapult or a trebuchet is a fun project that has strong tie-ins to engineering. You can easily build a small siege engine in a single day and then you can take it outside to launch any number of things from tennis balls to watermelons.  There are lots of online resources for finding plans on how to make siege engines around three feet in size.  And this type of project lends itself very well to design improvements. It is very common for young siege engineers to be constantly improving their new catapult. You can build a mid-sized catapult with just a few basic woodworking tools and a few pieces of two by four lumber.

Rocketing into the sky

Model rockets have been a steadfast hobby for many decades. It is very inexpensive to get started and you get a double dose of fun with them because you can spend an hour or two making the rockets then you can take them out and launch them. There is a duality here that is hard to resist. If you don't know anything about model rockets there are many beginner kits that are readily available. You can get everything you need to start this hobby including the launching pad and rocket engines around thirty or thirty five dollars.

Remote Controlled Fun

Remote controlled vehicles such as helicopters, airplanes, cars, and even boats can be a very rewarding pursuit in summer although the initial expense can be a bit high. There is also the added benefit of being able to make the projects before you take them out to fly or drive them. One of the best examples of this is remote controlled airplanes. Half the fun of the airplane comes in the making of it. And you can tailor the type of airplane to the age and skill level of your son or daughter. There are great beginner kits that can be assembled in a couple of hours and there are more advanced kits that take dozens of hours or more to make.

Make a Go Kart

This is a great project for teens because it is a bit more in-depth in both the making stage and the outdoor fun stage. You can spend several days making the go kart then it can be used all summer long. You also have the option of making a simple go kart that will roll down hills or getting elaborate and adding a motor to it. You can even start with the simple kart and later in the summer upgrade it by adding the motor.  There are many clubs that still engage in soapbox derby racing which adds a competitive dimension to this summer hobby.

Exploring the Sciences Outdoors

The Natural Sciences - All it takes is a field manual (that you can check out of the library) and a little time outdoors and you can do some discovering of how nature works. A few suggestions would be to study rock formations and geology, or to study botany and plant life. In both of these activities you can build a collection of plants, leaves, or rocks and minerals.  Half the fun is in collecting then identifying the specimens you collected. It is an easy task to find one of the sciences that might interest you and other family members. A good example is entomology where you can collect insects and display them in a case.

The sciences offer many opportunities in many different fields but my favorite is astronomy. This is a pursuit that can be started without spending any money. All you have to do is download and print a few star maps and you are ready to begin finding and identifying constellations and other heavenly bodies like planets. If you have a pair of binoculars it will add a whole new level of enjoyment to your star gazing.

 If you are looking for something spectacular in astronomy you can consult with charts of meteor showers. There are several different meteor showers that occur during the summer months and some of them have a frequency of up to as many as sixty falling stars per hour. And if you are bitten by the astronomy bug the sky is virtually the limit in this hobby because you can upgrade and improve your viewing by buying a telescope or even making your own.

When it comes to the summer months there are lots of fun and traditional activities you can do like going to the beach or an amusement park but with a little thought and creativity you can take on some hobbies and projects that add whole new dimensions such as making things and learning about the world around us.


Rabu, 11 Oktober 2017

Natural Cure For Anxiety - Hobbies and Leisure Time

Your resume and CV would have one sub-point reserved for 'Hobbies'. Have you wondered why? Hobbies would often tell the employer what type of a person you are - happy, creative, intense, extrovert, introvert and so on; it would also indicate whether you allow creativity a free hand - a thing that is extremely important in personal and professional growth no matter what field you choose for yourself.

The founder of modern psychiatry, Sigmund Freud had pointed that mental disorders are more often than not the result of unrealized and un-integrated (with life) creativity. People who are normally forced into "successful" and demanding professions often choose to give up their hobbies or leisure time in order to further their career. The demands on their time being such, they rather take rest than indulge in their hobbies whenever a window of free time emerges. When there is no more time for fun, in walks anxiety uninvited and unwanted; and that is always bad news.

Leading psychiatrists are of the opinion that hobbies and leisure time occupations such as watching TV, gossiping with neighbors, walking in a park, learning a new language and so on, actually help your mind and body to de-stress. The process is simple - when you do something you love, your mind would shut off the problems that worry you and revel in the pleasure generated by the activity you enjoy. When your mind is off problems, your body relaxes and your mind is able to think with more clarity. This means you short-circuit an impending anxiety attack and are very likely to find a solution to your problems. Isn't that called a win-win situation?

Some people know what gives them pleasure to do - and cultivate this activity as a hobby or leisure time occupation. What about people who are undecided about what they would really like to do? If you are surprised at this, don't. There are many people out there who have never thought about it hard enough to identify what they would like to do for pleasure. Well, finding out is easy. Ask yourself this question, 'If I had all the money in the world and did not have to work for a living, what work would give me the most pleasure?' Do not look for one answer - because there would be many swimming in your mind and if you are looking for one answer you would be disappointed enough to stop searching.

Make a list of all the possibilities that pop up in your mind. Stop when you reach at reach at 20. Keep the list where you can see it every day. Give yourself a month to identify what you love to do. In the meantime, take out the list everyday and add or delete suggestions from it, aiming to narrow it down to 10 favorite activities - if you can reduce to less it would be even better. Once you have a list of 10 items prioritize these in order of your preference, the best one first. Now, the list would be do-able. Establish a time at least once a week where you would take up one or more of the activities on your list. Keep doing this until you identify what gives you the most pleasure among them all. Please keep in mind that you could choose more than one hobby.

Here are some examples of creative and fun-filled hobbies:
1. Photography
2. Creative writing - poems, snippets, how-to books, short stories, chicken-soup stuff, memoirs
3. Painting/ learning to paint
4. Drawing cartoons/ animation/ sketching
5. Model building - ships, airplanes, cars, buildings, and the like
6. Traveling to see the world
7. Traveling to learn about different customs and people
8. Historical traveling
9. Traveling to discover the taste of the world - for food lovers
10. Cooking/ baking
11. Stitching/ embroidering/ tailoring
12. Swimming/ skiing/ ice-skating/ any outdoor sport you love
13. Indoor sports - chess, carom, bowling, table tennis, billiards
14. Chatting on the Net
15. Surfing the Net
16. Singing/ playing an instrument/ learning to sing or play an instrument
17. Woodworking/ carpentry
18. Mechanic work/ working on cars, motorcycles
19. Horse riding
20. Training animals

These are only a handful of things you could do. The list is endless. You need to allow yourself enough time to identify the one or two activities that give you the most pleasure. Once you found it out, pour in all efforts to make it a full-time hobby. Ensure that every weekend you have a couple of hours reserved for your 'battery re-charging time' when you indulge in your pleasure.

You will find that as you channel your creativity into the chosen hobby(ies) you would feel more relaxed, tolerant of your mistakes and those of others, slower to anger and worry, and more productive. This is because when you are happy, your brain actually works more effectively. As you cannot cry and laugh at the same time, so you would not be able to feel anxious and relaxed at the same time. As your hobby would take root and you discover yourself through it, you would find that your anxiety or panic attacks become lesser and lesser both in intensity and number.