Morning yoga with kiddos :)

I was volunteering for Desa YUM Cipanas Kids Day last week. And one of the activities was the morning yoga with the kids. I did it together with Vanessa, one of the Australian volunteer.  The kids were all excited to start the yoga.

Okay so we did it in a library...not that big of a space...but it has carpet on the floor....so it's safer for the kids. It was full house! I know...for a real yoga class it's not that appropriate if it's too crowded....but hey, it's for fun this time :)

Since we're talking about saving the animals (the first day)...Vanessa and I were thinking that we might as well talk about it too. So we asked the kids to join us...to used their imagination that they're going to the jungle...to protect the animals...

First we did the half lotus pose....we asked the kids to do some breathing. And then, we did the seated and twist pose. We told them that we have to do some warming up first before we go to the jungle :)

After that...we started with animals poses. We told the kids to used their imagination that they're in the jungle....and what animals can they find there. First they said, "lioonnn!!!!"....Okay so we did the lion pose with the sound of  "rawwrrrrrrrrr" while we sticked out our tounge. The kids were cute! Next, they saw some elephants...so we did the elephant pose. Then, we made baloon breathe for about 3 times. After that, they said...we made tree poses too. Then they found a cat....so we made cat pose with the sound "meeoow". And they found a dog...so we did the downward dog pose. And they wanted to see some cobra too.....so we did the cobra pose with the sound "sssssssssssssss..."..

After walking around the jungle...we asked the kids to do some breathing again. Then we made warrior pose...a warrior who's going to protect the animals in the jungle. After that....we did some lotus flower pose too and butterfly pose too...

Then we sat with our half lotus pose again...and placed our hands on the knees to do some breathing. This was probably one of the best feeling I've ever had...yes, you can call me cheesy hahaha. But it's true that "little things do count". I turned on the music "Di sini senang di sana senang" by Adithia Sofyan. I asked the kids to close their eyes...and just breathe in...breathe out. It turned out to be a very peaceful moment...one of the nicest feeling I've ever had...and I was very happy and glad to share that with Vanessa and the kids! 

It's cute that some of the kids were saying "ssshhhh we have to pray now..." :) I told them that we just have to breathe in...breathe out...listened to the nice words from the song...and relax :)

You can hear the song here..

After that...we placed our hands in front of the chest and said Namaste :) Yes...that was one of the nicest experience I've ever had...with kids too :)

PS: more pics here.