This week’s story is from a 30 minute daycare class I teach to a junior school-age group (ages 5 – 7 years old). There is a pretty even mix of boys and girls in this class, a few who do other sports and are pretty active and a few who don’t do much exercise.

What’s the Personality of the Class?
Each class has their own personality and I’ve found that this class likes to be pushed. The kids who have become leaders in this class like a challenge. I noticed this while I observed one of the boys, who a lot of the kids look up to, during a break between yoga exercises one day. Rather than resting he decided to throw in few extra sit ups and the others joined in.Seeing this, I decided to ramp up the class a bit, increasing the times and giving them a few more challenging exercises. They liked it. So in the next few classes I started doing some Kundalini Yoga Kriyas with them – the same classes that I was going to teach the adults. They liked it more.

Can Kids Do Adult Yoga – Yes Some Can!
For instance, we did one kriya with 18 exercises in it. It turned out there were 15 kids and 3 teachers in the class that day so everyone demonstrated one pose. They were absolutely spent at the end of it – finishing calm and rested.In another kriya of 9 exercises (I found the complete Kriya posted online here) , has us sitting in easy pose, raising your arms behind your head and holding opposite elbows, then bowing your head to the ground and straightening back up. It says to do it for 5 1/2 minutes, but that is a bit long for a 30 minute class – so I challenged them to do 108 of them and they went for it! Some said no way at first, but as they got up to the 80′s in their count they were motivated to finish. It’s a great way to learn about our self-imposed limitations through experience.

The next time I was planing the class, I felt like I had really been pushing this class and I didn’t want to forget the fun. But I also didn’t want to mess with something that was working, so I thought twice, and picked another challenging yoga set to do.

The Longing for Creativity
When I arrived at the class. One girl came up and asked for a game. Another girl asked for dancing, and another wanted to do something with an Easter/Spring theme. Aha! The cry for creativity. The cry of the heart. The cry of your Consciousness!

“There are always two creations; one in your heart and the other in time and space.
The creation in time and space is impossible if it is not first created in your heart,
which is your Consciousness.”

>Tulshi Sen author of Ancient Secrets of Success for Today’s World

Meditation for Creativity
Then we played one of the kids favorite songs from Snatam Kaur’s Feeling Good TodayCD called I am the Light of My Soul. Again everyone was encouraged to make up their own moves and also move as a group and we will see how it feels and what happens.

At the end of the song one girl exclaimed, “That was wonderful!”

It is fun to have a challenge but every once in a while we must be creative. We must listen to the call of the heart, which is our Consciousness. Try it and see how it works with your kids.

P.S. Not sure how to get your creative juices flowing? Consider attending the Kids Yoga Teacher Training Course.  Details here. Space is limited so register early to reserve your spot. Let me know if you have any questions at: Aruna@YoungYogaMasters.com . See you there.