Posts Tagged ‘yoga for kids’

Yoga Poses for Kids

Monday, March 7th, 2011

Kids Yoga PracticeBy Kimaya Singh

There is a growing need for Yoga teachers who work with children. Most kids who are learning Yoga enjoy it because it allows them to move around and to use their imagination. There are several Yoga poses for kids; which teaches them to be imaginative and to have fun.

One pose that kids enjoy is the tree pose. This pose requires the child to start out standing. They would then press the bottom of one foot on the inside of their other leg or thigh making sure not to press against the knee joint.

They would then find a motionless focal point once they’ve managed to get their balance. They would try to keep the knee on the lifted leg pointed outward. Once they feel balanced, they would be instructed to raise their arms to the sky. They enjoy letting their arms sway back and forth as if they are a tree in a forest being swayed by a breeze. This pose should be practiced on each side for 20 to 30 seconds.

Many Yoga pose names are based on idea of making the body resemble objects or animals. Another pose that does this and that kids enjoy is the cat pose. The children would start out on the hands and knees. They would then raise their spine upward forming an arch like that of an angry cat. This pose can be reversed into the cow pose by letting the belly move toward the floor with the chin and tailbone lifting toward the ceiling.

Kids can also do the wheel pose. This pose requires the child to hold a backbend which builds confidence in kids as well as adults. However, kids are less hesitant than adults to do a backbend although they are much more flexible.

To begin this pose, the child must start with their back on the floor with palms on the floor and fingertips pointed towards their feet. Hands are next to the head and knees are hip-width apart and feet are flat on the floor. They support their weight with the hands and feet while lifting with the crown of the head. They will then come up off the head into a wheel shape with the belly lifting upward and the body arched forming a wheel shape. To get out of this pose, the child should reverse the directions.

Children love pretending that they are different animals or other objects. Yoga will teach them to use their imagination while having fun at the same time. Compassionate Yoga teachers are in demand at schools, kids clubs, and day care centers around the world.

© Copyright 2011 – Aura Wellness Center – Publications Division

To see our of Online Kids Yoga teacher training course, please visit the following link.

http://www.aurawellnesscenter.com/store/

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FREE CONTENT: If you are a Yoga Teacher, Yoga studio, blogger, e-zine, or website publisher, and are in need of quality content, please feel free to use my blog entries (articles). Please be sure to reprint each article, as is, including the resource box above. Namaste!

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Yoga and its Relation to Children’s Health

Thursday, December 9th, 2010

By Denise Sheridan

We live in a very fast paced world today and the working environment has a lot of pressure on adults, which also spills down on to our kids. We are also faced with the highest levels of obesity in our school age children.

Kids are scheduled into Schools; day care; preschools, as well as extra curricular classes. In fact when we look at the life of a child today sometimes their schedule is more hectic then our own. My focus on Yoga for children is the age group of 3-6 yr olds.

It is my firm belief that the techniques of yoga are easily learnt in early age and will remain with children as they grow, just as with learning languages. Learning yoga techniques early prepare the child to lead a more balanced existence and a more gentle presence. I started teaching my daughter yoga from the age of 3 , she can now complete many asanas and currently now at 3 3/4 her favourites are little Buddha; Butterfly; Tree; Warrior, Cat and Dog.

Having opened a preschool in September of this year I wanted to focus on how to expand the experience of yoga which I shared with my daughter and bring this experience to other children. I have children now in my preschool whose parents remark on how much they love yoga; how they will now sit down and read a book ; how they can focus longer on activities.

For me not only from my own experience, but from learning from Yogis such as Wai Lana, Marsha Wenig and others the benefits to children’s health are many fold and here is my summary of these.

Through children learn techniques for self-health, relaxation, and inner fulfillment, they can navigate life’s challenges with a little more ease.

•Yoga Encourages self-esteem and body awareness at an early age;

• Kids take part in a physical activity without feeling competition from the other children.

• Children‘s yoga is linked to music; every day animals and fun – all very relevant to the 3-6 yr old group.

• Children are encouraged to move from a Tree individual position to creating a forest amongst their friends in the group.

• Flexibility is enhanced

• Co-ordination is improved

• They become more aware of their bodies through practicing the asanas.

• They learn how to relax and gain an understanding of meditation.

• They learn techniques which they can take and develop through their continued practice.

• Early practice begins a lifelong journey for children.

• Yoga for children is very different from yoga for adults in many ways you become a mix of teacher, facilitator and fellow child. Animal characters become the traditional asanas. For example when teaching a dog or cat position you find it very hard not to go around barking and wagging your tail with the children!

• For many children yoga is a fun way to move on into music and playing instruments which also develops a coordination and concentration in children allowing them to live less stressful and hyper lives

• Dr. Howard Gardner’s an author and professor of education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, in his theory of multiple intelligences describes eight intelligences innate in all of us—linguistic, logical, visual, musical, kinesthetic, naturalistic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal—and emphasizes that children should be given the opportunity to develop and embody as many of these as possible. Yoga for kids is the perfect medium to allow children develop all of these intelligences through the creativity of imagination; role play; music; story telling visual and inter and intra personal intelligences. I find Wai Lana‘s Yoga for fun book and Song books very good for this as you flow from yoga asanas manifested for the children in the form of animals, then flowing into music and song and games.

• Early Education talks constantly about the importance and role of the preschool teacher in ensuring that the curriculum engages the whole child and for me as a preschool teacher Yoga is a great medium to do this, engaging all senses, physical activity and imagination.

• Yoga is a great springboard for allowing the child to become independent and confident in their ability and lives.

• As Yoga practice is something children learn they can take it home with them, so they can practice at home as well as in

• Sound – sound is a great release for us all and especially for children. Through meditation children can release their voices while sitting in the Lotus/ Baby Buddha pose. It adds an auditory element to the asanas and I was surprised the first time that I introduced the Lotus and Ohm meditation to the children how firstly interested they were, secondly how they concentrated and thirdly how good they were at Ohming!

• A lot of writings on Yoga talk about the importance of air and breathing as babies and young children breathing still comes from their belly and they can really fill their lungs. Learning the importance of belly breathing for kids is one of the greatest gifts yoga can bring. Learning about this at an early age allows the child‘s understanding to develop and grow as their practice intensifies along the way.

• Think of yourself as a facilitator—the term we use in the YogaKids program—rather than a teacher. Guide your children while simultaneously opening your heart and letting them guide you. They’ll no doubt invite you into a boundless world of wonder and exploration. If you choose to join them, the teaching/learning process will be continually reciprocal and provide an opportunity for everyone to create, express themselves, and grow together.

• The practice can be game like for younger children and more challenging for older children,

• Relaxation can be as simple as watching a clock; looking at a candle in the middle of the room, chanting Ohm in a baby Buddha position. Making noise is very good for young children and they get real enjoyment from hearing their own voice amongst the other kids voices – and the control they have over it by getting louder or softer.

• I have also found with younger kids it helps their concentration if they ?teach? their baby dolls, how to do the yoga positions. It allows them to really concentrate on getting the position correct and then improves their own understanding of the position/ asana and how to move into it.

There are many, many benefits as I have outlined in yoga for children. In summary the reason I feel it has huge significance for a child is that it is an exercise / practice which can transition with the child by developing more challenging asana practices as the child moves through their own developmental stages. Each practice can be made more challenging or adapted to be less challenging for other students. It is a life long gift for the child which allows them to develop abilities of control; relaxation; meditation; concentration; agility and flexibility while having fun.

As a teacher it is wonderful to hear the children‘s parents telling me how much they love yoga in the preschool or the children asking me when will we be doing yoga next.

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Why Yoga for Kids?

Friday, June 4th, 2010

By Thelma Natasuwarna Wuisan

Human bodies need to move and exercise in order to stay fit and healthy. Exercise is important for our bones and muscle to work properly; for our joints to function properly; for our circulation to work effectively; and for our metabolism to function efficiently. Adults and children, all need to be active in order to keep in their best shape.

In this modern society, our children have been drawn in to television programs and computer games that made them less and less active every day. Too much of these things may cause our children to develop poor posture and balance, lack of focus and discipline, lack of social interface, less energetic and easily gain sluggishness and may also develop obesity. Due to the intense competition in the society, some children may take up sports or any physical activity to achieve a winning performance. Rigorous training in competitive activities may also create long-term damage to children’s vulner-able bones. Too much competition could drive the children to reject themselves if they do not work hard enough, win enough, looking good enough, or not having enough. Ba-sically, too much pressure of competitive activities may cause children not to like them-selves, not to accept themselves if they are not up to the “standards”. Then, in a very young age, they would be exposed to stress and depression.

That is a sad reality. We need to understand that our children need to be physically active within their limits and having fun with themselves by exploring possibilities. Yoga offers our children a holistic activity that includes physical postures, breathe exercise, mind focus and emotional management. Yoga is a non-competitive activity where the children are enjoying themselves within their own capabilities.

By having fun in their activities, children grow to accept and love themselves and others. Their positive outlook toward themselves and the world around them become an important foundation to face future’s challenge in life.

The Benefits of Yoga and Have Fun Doing It, Too!

Part of yoga is physical exercise, although, yoga actually offers more than just physical exercise. Children who learn yoga usually have a healthy self-confident, they also grow the ability to focus and concentrate. Yoga allows children to express themselves and fosters their imagination by mimicking animals, objects and nature.

As a physical exercise, yoga increases muscles and bones strength and flexibility. Through yoga postures, children learn to balance their bodies and using breaths as the source of energy and balance.

Breathing exercise is taught in yoga to help children to integrate themselves and become attuned with their bodies. Simple breathing technique such as “Balloon Breath” (from Wai Lana’s Little Yogi) when conducted with concentration and focus on the inhalation and exhalation could help managing children emotional and mental state as it pro-vides some sense of calmness and steadiness.

At first, we could find some children are reluctant to do yoga poses. Some of them could be shy and could limit their physical movement, some others may feel silly to make some strange poses and having questions of why they should do that at all. But in after few sessions, children will immediately get hooked up to yoga because they enjoy them. Children are usually excited with the challenge, and later enjoy themselves when they are able to perform they poses.

Yoga is for all boys and girls in all sizes. It can also be taught for children with physical disabilities (hearing impair, in a wheel chair, etc) and mental problems (ADHD, ADD, Autism) with some special skills from the teacher and may or may not require a spe-cial class setting e.g. private class with no toys or distraction in the classroom. For normal children or for other regular/normal yoga classroom setting, we basically only need to have proper mats, some blocks and straps when necessary. In addition to that, it would be in-teresting to stick on some simple yet colorful sketches of yoga poses on the wall to inspire the children. They tend to be more excited if the teachers are sticking new poses on the wall.

The short-term and long-term benefits of yoga for children are good posture devel-opment, better physical coordination, good connection between physical and mental, somewhat have a better understanding that their physical state will influence their mental state, and vice versa. Yoga builds healthy confident for the children, the children will not be judged while practicing this confident in yoga sessions. Basically, yoga helps building physical strength as well as mental stability.

Yoga induces children’s curiosity and creativity. When children are encouraged to modify the poses within teacher’s guidance, they would feel some sense of acceptance in yoga practice. That will foster their curiosity and creativity, knowing that they have freedom to be who they are. Responsibility is practiced through their effort in performing a pose. They are encouraged to give themselves some challenge as they progress in yoga, but they must be responsible by not forcing too far, causing injuries for themselves and others. Focus, sensitivity and compassion are practiced simultaneously when children are guided to listen to their inner-selves and to behave with respect.

All the benefits that yoga provides to its practitioner are to be experienced inside and outside yoga classroom. In school, in music and art, in other physical activities, and even in relationship with other human beings, yoga has given contentment and confidence for someone to carry him/herself as who he/she is. In my personal experience, there was a young student who used to have problem at school with her friends and teachers, she got into troubles with boys and girls at school. She is athletic and strong, but did not recognize her physical energy when she interacted with others. From time to time, she admitted that she had difficult time avoiding fights. After a few months of yoga practice, there was a rec-ognizable changes emerged in her. She got more centered and had not been into a fight for quite some time. Her yoga asana also changed dramatically and she could maintain a better focus for the whole yoga session. Other students mentioned that they could manage their emotion better and stay calm.

These stories are very encouraging, opening our eyes that yoga could really work for children – not merely for their physical health, but also for them to present themselves while interacting and connecting with others in the society. Eventually, it is for our children to cope with challenge in life and enjoy living, loving themselves and others in respect.

Kids Yoga Teacher – What Does It Take?

- Have sufficient experience in yoga and practice regularly, also have the spirit to continue learning about yoga and its aspects.

- It is important (and required) to have a YT Certificate and also to have understand-ing in basic anatomy.

- Must have love, compassion and patience for the children. Seeing and understand-ing that each child is unique, even the most difficult child has a glowing light in him/herself – awaiting to be radiated.

- Have good teaching ethics and behave accordingly, never harm the children in any way.

- Creative, dynamic, humorous and flexible (not in physical sense, instead having flexibility in facing ever changing situation with children, teachers may not be able to stick to the teaching program of the day).

Challenges in Kids Yoga Classes

- Maintaining their interest: children usually have short-term attention and mostly are only interested to the things that are easy and make them feel comfortable. This is human nature – but in children particularly, they can quickly coming out of the pose and start to ignore teacher’s instruction, they would only do what they like or what they want to do. That could distract other children or sometimes it is “contagious” as other children may follow this behavior. Therefore, engaging with the children should help maintain their interest throughout the practice. The following tips may help:

o Always prepare self with program syllabus. Sometimes children are not in the mood for practice or some of them are tired because of the previous activity, the teacher needs to be flexible and make improvisation here and there to re-late with children’s condition yet keeping the practice going. Ask children to do poses that are more “playful” and restorative if mood and stamina are the issues. Partner yoga such as “Rooftop” (Tara Guber and Leah Khalis) or “Partner Dog” (Yael Calhoun and Matthew Calhoun) or group yoga such as “Group Butterflies” or “Group Flowers” (Thia Luby) usually bring back the fun element and capture children attention. If children have lots of energy and cannot be in order, we should ask them to do challenging poses “Double Dog” (Tara Guber and Leah Khalis), “Knapsack” (Tara Guber and Leah Khalis), or Wheelbarrow (Thia Luby).

- Being discipline and keeping the routine: some children could easily get bored and wanting to do new things every time. Although it is recommended to include some new activities in the sequence every now and then, children must practice all the “old poses” so that they trained to ‘perfect’ them and discovered the benefits. So the challenge for the teacher would be to continuously remind the children the purpose of practice and at the same time to be creative by changing the sequence of the practice to keep it exciting.

- Having tolerant and compassion, being non competitive and non-judgment: children are unique individuals with different characters. It is important for the teacher to fo-cus on yoga practice and not pushing, punishing, or judging the children from where they come from. As much as possible, not to directly call out their names when some pose’s adjustments were required. It it better to ask them all to pay attention to what the teacher said and try to adjust themselves. Otherwise, approach them and discuss it quietly. Putting a child under focus of attention may caused uncom-fortable feeling for him/her.

- Parents support: parents are suggested to continuously encouraging children to yoga (or any practice, for that matter), encourage them to attend yoga class on-time (this includes the arrangement of dropping-off and picking-up routine) and support them during the days they don’t feel like to practice.

The Role of Music, Graphic and Short Story Telling

It is suggested to play music in Kids Yoga classes. A mixed of instrumental New Age music, common children songs and some nature sounds (rain drops, waterfall, bird cirping, etc) could be useful to guide children into different stages i.e. active poses, games in group and relaxation time.

Simple graphic or sketch of yoga poses could guide children to do their own poses. Or, interestingly, graphic could be a teaser for children’s imagination and creativity. In partner yoga, for instance, children may afterward come up with their own interesting ges-ture, sound, interaction etc.

I found short story telling very helpful to engage with children in yoga classes. The story could be about yoga practice, about living and eating healthy, about managing emo-tions such as anger and anxiety. This session, however, needs not to be longer than 10 minutes to capture children’s enthusiasm. They would listen and respond according to the subject. Some of them may tell their own stories about the related subjects. It is good to listen to them and be responsive, that way children are encourage to be confident with themselves, and also developing trust among all yoga students and the teacher. **tnw**

REFERENCES

Luby, Thia. “Children’s Book of Yoga”. New Mexico: Clear Light Publisher, 1998.

Guber, Tara & Kalish, Leah. “Yoga Pretzels”. Cambridge: Barefoot Books, 2008.

Guber, Tara & Kalish, Leah. “Yoga Planet”. Cambridge: Barefoot Books, 2005.

Pupperhart, Helen. “Yoga Exercise for Teens”. Alameda: Hunter House, 2009.

Stewart, Mary & Phillips, Kathy. “Yoga for Children”. London: Webster International, 1992.

Singleton, Mark. “Yoga for You and Your Child”. London: Duncan Baird, 2004.

Calhoun, Yael & Calhoun, Matthew. R. “Creating a Yoga Practice for Kids”. Sunstone Press, 2006.

Lana, Wai. “Wai Lana’s Little Yogi Fun Exercise”. Wai Lana Productions, 2005.

Thelma Natasuwarna Wuisan is a certified Yoga teacher. She teaches Yoga classes in Jakarta, Indonesia.

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Your Path – After You Become a Yoga Teacher

Sunday, May 30th, 2010

By Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500

Many Yoga teacher interns have different reasons why they seek out an initial 200 hour Level 1 training course. After teaching classes for a while, some experienced teachers are looking to teach students who have much in common with them. For example: The teacher who is very fit is often looking to teach students who are athletes.

In some cases, a doula, mid-wife, nurse, or a mother may be drawn to pre-natal Yoga. Teachers with young families, and children of their own, may be seeking to teach Yoga for Kids. A Yoga teacher, who is past the point of middle age, may be looking to teach students who have something in common with him or her.

Regardless of our personal reasons, each of us chooses a different path, and sometimes, that path may be one of specialization. In our first Yoga instructor training, we may have reflected upon the fact that there is a divine plan for each of us.

There are instances when our Yogic path is based upon finding a purpose, realization of a skill set, or our personal code of ethics. In order for us to choose the correct path, we have to look within ourselves, on a personal quest, to find a more fulfilling and focused direction.

At the same time, any direction we choose should not be an obsession of self-love or self-hate. Some of us whole-heartedly value the opinions of others. This can be a good thing, if the advice we receive is based on reality. The point being – in our lifetime, we will receive advice that is not in our best interest.

With that said – some opinions you hear may be in the best interest of the person giving you the information. For one reason, or another, some people give opinions, which tend to hold others back from making progress. While this is not always the case, we should always logically measure any advice.

This is why training the mind is such an important part of Yoga. Very often, training the mind is skimmed over during a Yoga teacher training. It seems the centerpiece of many teacher intensives is asana practice. However, to have a healthy body, and not be in control of one’s mind, is self-defeating.

Once the mind is trained, we must be able to look within ourselves to determine logical courses and to find our personal path in life. Very often, we hear the words, “What is Yoga?” – Yet, many people simply answer that, “Yoga is Union.”

While this is partially true, Yoga is the application of Yogic principles for a better way of life and to practice the art of living.

© Copyright 2010 – Paul Jerard / Aura Publications

http://www.yoga-teacher-training.org

FREE Yoga Report. FREE Yoga Newsletter. FREE Yoga Videos. Free Podcasts. Bonus: Free Yoga e-Book, “Yoga in Practice.”

FREE CONTENT: If you are a Yoga Teacher, Yoga studio, blogger, e-zine, or website publisher, and are in need of quality content, please feel free to use my blog entries (articles). Please be sure to reprint each article, as is, including the resource box above. Namaste, Paul

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Yoga’s Relationship to Children’s Health

Friday, April 2nd, 2010

By Bobbi-O

Yoga and it’s relation to children’s health is as follows: with all kinds of computer games, and many other electronic games in the market, kids these days don’t exercise that much anymore, and have very poor diets. Add this to the stress they get from school and how they go home after school and become couch potatoes. We have kids who slowly lose their flexibility, with no desire to leave their comfort zones; their homes. Kids slowly have lost flexibility because of all the sitting and no physical activities or exercise. Having stiff muscles can lead to injuries and other muscle pains.

Yoga for kids is an excellent alternative since it will help them increase their flexibilities. Yoga for kids is different from yoga for adults. Instructors would create a story based on the animals or a situation and incorporate yoga into it. Let’s say you pose like a frog, a snake, a cat or even like a tree. The kids don’t only get to do those poses but they’re also asked to imagine what it feels like to be like those great animals. They connect more to nature and divert their attention away from all the stress that they deal with everyday. As well as using their imaginations and creativity. In addition, they can easily adapt and cope with stressors. Let’s take having an exam as an example or even being harassed by other kids. The child may use meditation or breathing techniques to help him/her calm down and focus.

In yoga, the child is given different postures and told to breathe in a certain way. The child learns how to control him/herself to be able to achieve these techniques. They are their own masters and they learn more about themselves at a very young age. In addition, if they have that “I can do it” attitude then they will realize that when they learn them, they can control themselves, they can reach their dreams. Their self esteem improves and their mind set is in a positive mode making them feel good about themselves.

Yoga is proven to improve self-esteem, physical and mental health and grade point averages among children. In a Gaiam-funded study of kindergarten through 8th-grade students in an inner-city school, researchers from CSU examined the correlation between yoga and academic performance, discipline, attendance and self-esteem. The 2003 study showed a 20 percent increase in students who felt good about themselves — and a 6 percent increase in classroom discipline scores, indicating that students who had high participation in yoga class also had fewer referrals or discipline problems. In addition, while the increase in average GPA was not provided, the study showed a “statistically significant” link between yoga participation and better grades.

Yoga for kids is about having fun and not about competing with others, unlike soccer or football. It’s not about whether you are right or wrong in doing a pose. It’s about learning about yourself and how far you can take yourself.

Yoga develops physical fitness; it develops strength, flexibility and concentration, confidence, and movements that develop eye-hand coordination and motor skills.

Age appropriate yoga poses are vital, as well as breathing techniques, meditation, and relaxation will offer a child insight and knowledge to the physical and philosophical traditions of yoga. Kids learn that Yoga leads to creativity, self-acceptance, how to follow directions, interpersonal skills, and intrapersonal, positive thinking, personal & environmental awareness and a pocket full of fun.

Yoga offers many possibilities to exchange wisdom, share good times, and lay the foundation for a lifelong practice that will continue to deepen.

A study conducted by Dr. Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences. Gardner, an author and professor of education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, describes eight intelligences innate in all of us—linguistic, logical, visual, musical, kinesthetic, naturalistic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal—and emphasizes that children should be given the opportunity to develop and embody a Yoga can help counter all pressures. When children learn techniques for self-health, relaxation, and inner fulfillment, they can cope with life’s challenges with a little more strength. Yoga at an early age encourages self-esteem and body awareness with a physical activity that’s noncompetitive.

University of Michigan pediatrician Dolores Mendelow says yoga, if done properly, is a suitable alternative to tumbling and team sports for getting stressed-out, sedentary children socializing, exercising and building discipline.

“It requires practice, patience and accepting of self-limitations,” she said.

A preliminary study of pediatric health benefits of yoga, published in 2008, finds motor skills and concentration improvements, on top of better posture and breathing.

At Providence Hospital, yoga is integrated into strength-building exercises for children with Down syndrome and cerebral palsy, who often lack muscle tone and breathe weakly.

“The younger kids, with most yoga poses, we try to find a name that relates to the pose to make it fun,” she said.

Yoga stretching and body alignment can create a better athlete, said Michigan State University strength coach Mike Vorkapich. Players use back and arm movements to improve strokes and pitches, he said.

Listening improves too, said Jennifer Hayes, an MSU yoga teacher. She sometimes teaches without demonstrating postures. She hears this all the time: “Wow, this is harder than I thought.”

Inconclusion,Yoga incorporates storytelling, games, music, language, and other arts that engage the “whole child.” Yoga embraces ecology, anatomy, nutrition, and life lessons that echo yogic principles of interdependence, oneness, and lots of fun. Most of all, engages the entire mind, body, and spirit in a way that honors the child’s way of learning.

Yogis have always lived close to the natural world and used animals and plants for inspiration. When children imitate the movements and sounds of nature, they have a chance to get inside another being and imagine taking on its qualities. The physical movements introduce kids to yoga’s true meaning: union, expression, and honor for oneself and one’s part in the world. When they stretch like a dog, or balance like a tree, roar like a lion, or stand strong like a mountain, they are making a connection between the macrocosm of their environment and the microcosm of their bodies. The importance of reverence for all life and the principle of interdependence will become transparent.

Doing yoga, children exercise, play, and use their imagination; they connect more deeply with the inner self, and develop an intimate relationship with the nature and the world that surrounds them. Yoga brings that marvelous inner light that all children have out to a visible surface. Children need to discover the world on their own. There is no doubt that Yoga and it’s relation to health is boundless world of wonder and exploration. Yoga balances, harmonizes, purifies and strengthens the body, mind and soul of the practitioner. It shows the way to perfect health, perfect mind control and perfect peace of one’s self. If you start at an early age, you are far beyond years for a perfect blue print of a lifetime of good health.

What better gift to give a child, the greatest gift, is the one that I can give to a child, YOGA.

Bobbi-O has created a quiz on line for kids to take as well as adults.

http://www.quizmoz.com/quiz.asp?quizid=28056

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Kids Yoga and its Relationship to Health

Thursday, September 17th, 2009

UstrasanaBy Anuradha Sundaram

Yoga is a form of exercise, meditation, and breathing practices with Indian roots designed to bring unity to the mind, body, and spirit. Adults have vouched for yoga for years, saying it makes them feel better physically, enhances their ability to concentrate, and brings tranquility to their lives. Now parents and yoga instructors are looking at the possible benefits of yoga for kids.

The main focus of a child yoga program is on fun. Often the children will pretend to be the animal for which the pose is named. For instance, when they are doing Cat Pose, they become the cat and may even meow. If they are doing Downward Facing Dog with their butts high in the air, they will often bark, as they become the dog.

The children are encouraged to fully participate in and enjoy the ‘game of yoga.’ Sometimes the instructor will create an entire story about the poses that the children are in so as to make the class interesting and to fully engage them. The children don’t realize how much they are benefiting from the practice; the only thing they know is that they are having a good time.

Some Common Benefits of Yoga for Kids

  • Yoga enhances the stamina, ability and mental balance.
  • It enables you teach the kids alphabets and numbers in a singing mode and they can learn about their body in a fun manner.
  • The songs and the chants that they practice in yoga classes improve their speaking skills.
  • Yoga strengthens the digestive system and helps get rid of various internal complexities like, gas and constipation.
  • Children experience many of the same physical benefits adults do from practicing yoga. Yoga strengthens them and helps them become more flexible and coordinated.
  • Yoga for kids also enhances self-awareness. Children who practice yoga learn early on to tune into their bodies. Self esteem is bolstered as the children gain control over their bodies and minds.
  • Yoga for kids enhances imagination and empathy. Children are asked to strike poses from nature. They might assume the pose of a snake, or a tree, or a dog. Then they are asked to imagine what it would be like to be those life forms. In this way, children learn early on to connect with all the life on the planet and realize that similarities far outweigh differences.
  • Yoga teaches children to have fun and move their bodies in a con-competitive environment. Yoga isn’t about being right or wrong, or being best or worst. It is about bringing unity to one’s own life. Children can work together to help each other reach this goal.
  • Yoga for kids teaches self-discipline. As part of the practice of yoga, kids need to slow down, hold certain postures, breathe or think in a certain way. Yoga encourages children to master themselves rather than wait for an adult to control them.
  • Yoga for kids can also be a way to strengthen families. Yoga is an exercise that parents and children and even grandparents can practice and talk about together. As children participate in yoga with their families, they feel closer to their loved ones.
  • Through practicing yoga, children can learn ways to relax and get control of stress in their lives. A child worried about a test, for instance, might use the meditation or breathing techniques of yoga to help her calm down and focus.

Yoga for Special Needs Kids

By teaching self awareness, self control, and concentration, yoga can also help to manage children who have been diagnosed with ADHD – attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder. Yoga has also been used with some success to help children with Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, and autism. Yoga for kids has also been used to help kids with cancer cope with their diagnosis and with scary medical procedures.

  • For Example, In A preliminary study of pediatric health benefits of yoga, published in 2008, finds motor skills and concentration improvements, on top of better posture and breathing.
  • In a Research at Providence Hospital, yoga is integrated into strength-building exercises for children with Down syndrome and cerebral palsy, who often lack muscle tone and breathe weakly.
  • Yoga stretching and body alignment can create a better athlete, said Michigan State University strength coach Mike Vorkapich. Players use back and arm movements to improve strokes and pitches, he said.

The following are some of the Kids yoga poses:

Balloon Breathing (Pranayama)

Downward facing dog

Cat pose

Elephant pose

Fish and Frog pose,

Bow and Arrow pose

Warrior pose

Rocking horse

Bridge pose

These poses have a lot of benefits for kids like activating the various glands in the body like Thyroid, Pituitary, and parathyroid and pineal body glands.

Children today are under a lot of stress. Homework, pressure to compete with other children, endless after-school activities, over-scheduling — it all adds up. And just like their parents, kids today are turning to Yoga to help them relax. Everyday is stressed in some way.

Yoga teaches you how to deal with this stress. With different stages of yoga it will help anyone, beginner, intermediate or advanced. Since kids are stressed with school, peer pressure, sports, and all the other everyday stress that comes with life.

Yoga is an excellent way for a child to exercise and has many other benefits for a child’s health. Not every type of yoga can be used as yoga for Children though. It must be taken into consideration that children’s bodies are still growing and cannot cope with the strenuous exercises of intense yoga sessions.

Yoga is helping the kids become more in touch with their self. They learn how their body and mind reacts to everything and then they are taught to handle it in a very positive way.

When yogis developed the asanas many thousands of years ago, they still lived close to the natural world and used animals and plants for inspiration—the sting of a scorpion, the grace of a swan, the grounded stature of a tree. When children imitate the movements and sounds of nature, they have a chance to get inside another being and imagine taking on its qualities.

When they assume the pose of the lion (Simhasana) for example, they experience not only the power and behavior of the lion, but also their own sense of power: when to be aggressive, when to retreat. The physical movements introduce kids to yoga’s true meaning: union, expression, and honor for oneself and one’s part in the delicate web of life.

Yoga with children offers many possibilities to exchange wisdom, share good times, and lay the foundation for a lifelong practice that will continue to deepen. All that’s needed is a little flexibility on the adult’s part because, as I quickly found out that yoga for children is quite different than yoga for adults. We have to honor the children’s innate intelligence and tune in to how they were instructing us to instruct them.

We can use the yoga asanas as a springboard for exploration of many other areas animal adaptations and behavior, music and playing instruments, storytelling, drawing and our time together will truly become a interdisciplinary approach to learning.

Together we can weave stories with our bodies and minds in a flow that could only happen in child’s play.

Yoga has a lot of Physical and mental health benefits for kids

Mental Health: A peaceful mind and relief from stress means children will be able to do regular day things longer. This could also mean concentrating more on homework rather than playing violent games. As children get the pleasure from peace, they will avoid violent games, and it will happen naturally. On top of that yoga also helps increase focus, which means when children who do yoga go to school, they will feel fresh and be ready to learn!

Physical fitness and health: Since yoga makes a person smarter in daily lives, children will realize that health must be prioritized before food.

They will tend to avoid fatty foods, or foods that cause discomfort while doing yoga, such as spicy burgers, or heavy cheese pizza.

Since fatty foods cause the stomach to be more acidic, children will get the burning feeling while doing yoga, and thus will start avoiding such foods before bed. These things happen naturally, because yoga keeps them mentally fit and alert and makes them worldly wise.

Breathing Longer: Many yoga exercises focus on breathing heavily, in and out, which means that children will learn to control their breathing at a very young age, thus making a heart attack less likely in the distant future. Control of breathing also helps in swimming, doing harder yoga exercises, and feeling fresh all the time. Breathing heavily has more benefits such as:

- Not feeling hungry right after a meal

- Not panicking

- Not getting frustrated

- Having control on anger

We all know that anger, frustration can lead to high blood pressure, but if children start doing yoga at a young age, they will be in a much better position to control their own mind and control breathing.

Body Benefits: The yoga poses for kids opens the hips, lengthens the hamstrings, gastrocnemius and soleus muscles of the leg.

Back/Neck/Leg/Arm Problems: As young children start participating in school sports events, they will have to put effort to make a sports team or to run longer which means that they will put pressure on the sensitive areas such as back, beck, head, and arms. But by doing yoga they will be much more flexible, meaning they will not get permanent neck injuries or develop back pain.

Back pain is not a significant problem in children, but by starting young they will get used to the benefits of yoga and it will be easier for them to continue doing yoga even when they reach adulthood, when many health problems can occur but since the child started yoga early they will be less likely to develop any of these problems.

Brain Balance: Crossing the midline of the body with certain Yoga movements like the bow and arrow pose stimulates the 300 million nerve cells of the corpus callosum. The corpus callosum is known as the brain’s superhighway.

Yoga promotes balance on all levels. It raises awareness of the body, which in turn causes children to want to take better care of them. It raises energy levels, thus encouraging a desire to be more active. On the physical level, yoga builds strength and maintains flexibility.

Yoga elevates self-esteem, which helps to develop a positive body image. This can reduce or eliminate a tendency toward eating disorders in adolescents who might otherwise succumb to the belief that they are too fat. Likewise, yoga helps to stave off obesity, which, in children, is reaching epidemic proportions.

A relaxed child will sleep better. Proper rest is intrinsic to concentration and mental clarity. Yoga helps improve memory and cognitive skills and Studies are now showing that children who practice yoga on a regular basis are achieving higher grades in school. Yoga students handle problems better, too. Children who practice yoga are able to deal with difficulties creatively, sensibly and without resorting to violence or rebellion.

It seems hard to believe that a bit of stretching, twisting and balancing can change a life. Yet yoga can and does do exactly that. Yoga teaches acceptance while providing opportunity to improve. It gives kids the ability to overcome their limitations. Off the mat, yoga kids achieve remarkable things because they learn that health is not just a matter of being physically fit. They grow to understand that being physically fit enhances emotional and mental fitness as well.

Being a holistic practice, yoga approaches health in subtle ways. It is not uncommon for a student of yoga to suddenly experience emotional releases or gain unexpected insight into difficult problems. A burst of laughter or of tears during a yoga workout may initially be alarming, but what it means is that through the practice something that needs to be expressed is finally being expressed. Yoga helps to release these in healthy ways, preventing illnesses from manifesting over time.

Anuradha Sundaram teaches Yoga classes in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

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