Kids Yoga and What To Expect

~A Guest Post~

Anita is mom to one beautiful girl, life partner to a wonderful man and currently living in Canada. She is an enthusiastic kids yoga teacher in Ontario and also blogs at Organic Yoga Mom. We are excited to have a piece of Anita’s time so we can learn more about Kids Yoga and whatever else comes to her mind. You can read more about her here.

I will be writing about my thoughts, views and experiences as a teacher of kids & baby yoga in the coming weeks on Healthy Green Moms. I’ll be sharing ideas, moves to try, games, products, and other topics that I hope will inform and inspire you. Whether you decide to teach and inspire kids yourself, work specifically with your child at home, or just think about yoga and children in a different way, I hope you’ll discover how much fun kids yoga can be!

Yoga has so many benefits. You can start doing yoga with your child as early as three weeks after birth.  It’s such a beautiful bonding experience for a new mom and baby and learning about your baby in a different light.  As your child grows into a toddler it is play time without any toys.  As they get into preschool it’s all about fun with animals and learning all the amazing things their body can do as well as a lot of singing.  Once they become school age it is about story telling and then about building the strength and core for a solid lifetime foundation of fitness.  As a teen, yoga can help to relieve stress and develop a solid sense of self.

Kid’s yoga is very different from adult yoga.  The moves are based on those that are found in adult yoga but they may not translate the same way.  The postures may not happen when you ask for them, they may not take place in the space you thought they would, and they may not hold the moves as long as you want.  But that’s okay.

Kids may perform the moves when you ask for it, or ten minutes, a day or a week later.  This is the way it goes when you teach kids yoga. Sometimes each and every child is with you and sometimes not, but they are always listening and observing.

All children can do yoga – regardless of age, or athletic ability, and as long as they are not moving in a way that is unsafe to themselves or others around them, whatever they are doing is good.  Around the age of eight or so children start asking their instructors about correct placement of hands and feet.  So if it doesn’t look quite right to you at the moment, that’s okay.  As long as the children are smiling – this is really what you want to see.  Being a little bit silly is how they stay engaged – they are after all, children.

Yoga can happen in a park, on the street, in your basement, or on a yoga mat. My goals in class are to always encourage children to get to know their bodies, to become aware of the ways they can move, of the different feelings within them and to associate yoga with fitness and fun (most importantly!)

I hope you will join me on this adventure.

Have you done yoga with your children before? What was your experience?

Tagged as: Kids health, Yoga