Kid's Yoga

By Heather SullivanCo-Foundar and Program Director of Balanced Rock

My yoga highlight this fall and perhaps overall highlight was teaching a 6 week Kid’s and Parent’s Yoga Series for our local community in El Portal. Classes were open to all ages and were donation based. The age range turned out to be from 1.5 years to 6 or 7 years.

For this class, we set up in a circle. The students formed an inner circle and the supportive parents circled up in an outer circle. Occasionally a parent or guardian would move in between two excited friends.Classes were 30 minutes long which seemed just right for this age and attention span. The time of day was slightly challenging for focus as students were tired and hungry (5:15pm-5:45pm). We averaged 22-27 people (kid’s and adults)/class.One parent shared a great quote with me. She asked her daughter her highlight of the week. “Yoga.” She smiled. When asked what her low-point of the week was she said, “All the other days there was not yoga.”Classes begin with guided meditation, focusing on a special rock, candle, or watching our own breath rise and fall in our chest. We then sit quietly and set meditation for the session. The students all love to join in the chant of the universal sound “OM”. Usually I will tell a story or read a story to set the tone for the class theme.From here we move into simple sun salutations.The theme that works best for this group is:Silly-Serious-SilentWe do each pose three times, first time, silly, second serious, third silent. This was a really nice way to have fun and build up to focused practice.Some poses we worked on during the course are:• Mountain Pose• Warrior 1• Warrior 2• Warrior 3• Triangle• Downward Dog• Child’s Pose• Tree PoseSome of our more fun/creative/non-traditional poses that we worked on during some of the classes are:• Newt pose• Newt-ball pose (group)• Motorcycle pose• Motorcycle through Yosemite Valley pose• Peeing Dog poseEvery class ends with a guided Savasana rest time. The students really respond to chanting and silence during this time.When we are ready to sit up, we close class with a breath together and a lovely salute to one another, “Namaste.”Due to the popularity and pure fun of this course, Balanced Rock will offer it again in 2016 and is exploring offering a Kid’s Yoga training in the area. I have also been offering one-on-one private classes for students where we can focus on the individual’s needs.Research shows that yoga for students of this age is beneficial in these ways:• Develop body awareness• Learn how to use their bodies in a healthy way• Manage stress through breathing, awareness, meditation and healthy movement• Build concentration• Increase their confidence and positive self-image• Feel part of a healthy, non-competitive group• Have an alternative to tuning out through constant attachment to electronic devicesIn a school setting, yoga can also benefit teachers by:• Giving them an alternate way to handle challenges in the classroom• Giving them a healthy activity to integrate with lesson plansGive them a way to blend exercise into their classesI have loved the new connection Kid’s and Parent’s Yoga has given me to some of my youngest friends and community members. We talk about big life principles such as the first Yama: Ahimsa or non-hurting. This course we really focused on ways we could be kind and compassionate to one another. We talk about the change of seasons, the phase of the moon, the weather patterns, natural occurrences like rain events, drought, the state of the river. One day a parent brought in a tarantula to class, another day we all found special rocks outside to meditate on.This connection to one another, our natural world, natural cycles, our breath, and our mind, body, spirit are what draw me to yoga and to want to share with our next generation.