My (small) Kids Yoga Class

I'm very happy to say that now i'm officially a Kids Yoga Instructor (one of my happiness list). I got the certificate yesterday morning! It was a great way to start the new month :)

So this is my yoga class:

My Yoga Kids Class with my nieces, the theme was "We're Going to the Zoo" :) I think it is necessary to encourage children to care for animals.

I compiled some songs that would make us feel the joy and fun of the exercise. Started with one of the song from "Where the Wild Things Are“ called “Igloo”. We began by sitting on our mat, rubbing our hands together, and breathing. It's funny to see them how they breathe through their nose. Not all kids can do that around the age of 5 (and I remember Fezia told me about it). So we tried to follow the "u u u u u" sound to practice our breathing too. So funny when one of the girls said "there's too much u u u u here in this song." But she did it anyway :) One of my nieces couldn’t do it, so I’ll practice with her more next session . And then we rolled our shoulder to the front and back, we put our head to the righ and left, up and down...we repeated it for a few times.

For stretching we did sun salutation, downward dog and cobra, we did this 3 times while the music followed us through “Here Comes the Sun” by the Beatles. Next, we did the warming up, imagining we are already in the zoo. We did the butterfly pose with the song "Fly like a Butterfly" ...they loved it as they sang along. Then we did the tree pose. After that, we did the elephant pose, then had big balloons breathe 3 times. And then the lion pose and the seal pose...all with sounds...their favorite was the elephant pose because they liked to swing it and said it was nice because they can make wind. The also enjoyed the lion pose because they can
stick their tongue out while saying "wwwaaaaaaawwwrrrrrrrrr" :p Then we stopped and had big balloons breathe again for 3 times.

After that we did the "Row boat" and the "Lotus flower" poses. The lotus flower pose was enjoyable, they kept on trying to do it....and finally they did it!

After that we did some breathing with the dolls on their tummy, and with the dolls...we made games on who can make the tallest and lowest mountain for the animals with their tummy.

Then, we lay down on our back while listening to some songs and had a quite time for a while. Then we sat, did a meditation and ending it all together by saying Sat Nam. I explained to them the meaning was to be truthful to yourself, parents and teacher and to other people too.

Here are some of the pics... 

tree pose

lotus flower

I think Yoga with children offers many possibilities to exchange wisdom and share good times. The greatest challenge with children is to hold their attention long enough to teach them to do yoga or the poses. Because actually the breathing exercise, balance control, self affirmation, relaxation and meditation are great for them. Mediation can be challenging for adults and children, but it really is needed in today's fast paced life. We need quiet time to look within ourselves and children do too.

I think with animal adaptations and behavior, adaptation from our surroundings, music and playing instruments, storytelling…together we’ll do it with our bodies and minds in a flow that could only happen in child's world or child’s play….we’ll make it fun!

I am very grateful to to join Fezia's Radiant Child Yoga workshop & training. I will definitely want to learn more (for myself too)....and going to use and pass this knowledge to help kids, to help them have a better quality of life…for their own good and others too. And let them  appreciate more about their body…and little things in life…like smile and breathe :)

SatNam :)