How Yoga Can Help if Your Kids Drop Out of School and Join the Circus – A Yoga Game for Worry

Worry is imagining all the things that CAN go wrong. Its like creating a personalized haunted house in your head.  Worry is illusions, smoke and mirrors, things that haven’t actually happened for real. Like our kids flunking out in school and having to join the circus!

Back to school time is a popular time for worrying.  We help ourselves and our kids by looking worry straight in the eye and seeing it for what it really is – a trick of the mind.  The Yogis say the mind is like a wild stallion that must be reigned in.  We’ve got to tame that stallion so that it can preform the tricks we want, not put us in danger!

So if you or your kids are worrying this week about back to school stuff, take off the pressure with a little fun by asking, “How bad would it really be?”

The “How bad would it really be?” game helps us learn to laugh at the tricks of the mind and put the mind in it’s rightful place.  For instance, if school does go horribly wrong a yogi could get many jobs that a regular education does not prepare them for.

How bad would it really be?  If school doesn’t work out, kids can always join the circus!  They could do a balancing act on the 80 ft. poles.

How bad would it really be? Since there’s so may animal yoga poses don’t forget the petting zoo fast track.

How bad would it really be? A child who likes meditation may choose Sand Sculpture for their livelihood.

How bad would it really be? Bendy Em seems to be fitting in fine with her yoga background:

How bad would it really be? Look what a calm and steady state of mind can help you with:

How bad would it really be? If none of these work out, this shack may be the dream job of a lot of children:

By facing worry with a light heart we can better transform it and think about what we like instead of what we don’t like.  When worry takes the reigns – try playing this game to take the reigns back. Soon you’ll find there is really not that much to worry about after all!

Tame that stallion and go for a pleasure ride.

What games do you play that help adults and kids with worry?

More News

The Fall Schedule is here! Don’t miss out on the Young Yoga Masters Kids Yoga Teacher Training course. Its like no other! Pass on the wisdom of yoga to the future generations! Too see the upcoming courses click here. To bring the Young Yoga Masters training to your area contact: Aruna@YoungYogaMasters.com. Registration is now open. I’d love to meet you in-person for this inspiring and practical training.

Contest: Thanks to everyone who filled out the Survey and entered to win the prize Romancing the Stove, A Practical Guide to a Lifelong Celebration of Eating for Health by Samahria Ramsen.  I will be contacting the winner from Alfred, ME, USA!   Everyone’s input was so valuable to guide the direction of Young Yoga Masters for the coming months.

How to Start a Kids Yoga Program at a School

Back to school looms closer and closer.  This is good news for kids yoga teachers interested in finding new classes.   Here are some pointers, from experience, on how to get a kids yoga program into a school.

How Well Do You Know Your School System?
The first thing to do is to get to know your school system and curriculum and this is where we give thanks for the internet. Search your city name and “education,” “Ministry,” or “Board” until you find the official government website.

You’re about to learn a new language – the one used by your school.  Write your proposal using the language from their curriculum NOT yoga language.  You won’t find a single requirement for chakra opening in a school curriculum.  Each school system has their own vernacular, learn it and use it as much as possible in your proposal.

Physical Education Curriculum:
What is it called and what are the curriculum requirements.  In my area (Ontario, Canada) the Health and Physical Education program is divided into “Strands” (see what I mean about language!).

There are three strands in Grades 1 – 8, and four in high school.  When you’ve got a good idea of how your yoga program enhances the curriculum, then who do you talk to?  Usually its the Physical Education Department Head.

Class Sizes – How Many Can You Teach?
Also look on the website for the typical class size.  This will help you determine how many classes you can teach at a time.  If you put two classes together, one teacher can stay for yoga while the other gets to catch up on other work.  It also cuts down on expenses.  My area tries for 23 students or fewer in primary classes.  Put your class size limits in your proposal as well as how many classes you can teach in a row.

Professional Development for Teachers:
Can you sweeten the package by adding a free class to teachers at the staff meeting if they book you for a minimum number of classes?  Talk to the department head, VP or Principal of the school about how you can save them money and time.

Other Types of Education in the Curriculum:
Examples:  Stress Management, Character Development, Healthy Schools initiative, Michelle Obama introduced the Let’s Move program.  Tap into these with kids yoga.  Please share any grants you know of in the comments!

Lunch-Time or After School Classes:
These classes usually involve charging each student enrolled.  If you can get high numbers you can keep the cost down and still make a living.  Approach the Parent Board at the school as a way in.

Daycare Classes:
Some regions offer daycare programs for after school.  Approach the daycare manager about doing a weekly class in each room.

Make someone’s life easier.
Who ever you approach, make their life easier.  No one wants a program that means more work!  Deliver a great kids class.  If you can’t, get the yoga and kids yoga training to do it. You’ve got to know how to manage and run a kids yoga class or you’re program won’t last.

Become a Reliable Resource for the School
Most of the places I teach kids yoga, I’ve gone to for over 7 years, some schools for 10 years!  It’s better to return to a school rather then to keep finding new classes.  If you make the whole program stress-free, they will want you back and this is good for everybody.

The Time is Now:  The Week Before School Starts
All this information is very timely!  There is a window right before school starts where the teachers are back to work but the students aren’t.  In Ontario the teachers start back on Sept. 1 but the children don’t come back till Sept. 7.  Find the window and go in with a proposal.  Or wait a month till the back to school rush is over. You may be able to help the teachers meet their requirements.

All the best to everyone out there working to increase kids health and happiness.  Please feel free to add any insights or links you have to the comments and let’s get more kids doing yoga!

Aruna Kathy Humphrys
www.YoungYogaMasters.com

More News

The Fall Schedule is here! Don’t miss out on the Young Yoga Masters Kids Yoga Teacher Training course.  Its like no other!  Pass on the wisdom of yoga to the future generations!  Too see the upcoming courses click here.  To bring the Young Yoga Masters training to your area contact:  Aruna@YoungYogaMasters.com.  Registration is now open.  I’d love to meet you in-person for this inspiring and practical training.

Contest:  Win Romancing the Stove, A Practical Guide to a Lifelong Celebration of Eating for Health by Samahria Ramsen.  To enter fill out the short survey here.  Contest closes:  August 31, 2010.  Thanks to everyone who has already filled out the survey.  Your input will guide the direction of Young Yoga Masters.

Survey Contest – Win with Your Opinion of Kids Yoga

3 Hard-to-Teach Kids Yoga Poses

This post is a free sneak peak at the Kids Yoga Teacher Training I offer at Young Yoga Masters.  You can get many more tools like this by joining me for one of the upcoming fall courses.  I’d love to see you there.  Click here for full details.

An important part of the kids yoga teacher training is finding out what doesn’t work in kid’s yoga BEFORE you are with the kids.  You’ve got to know age-appropriate poses, how to teach them, and how to time your classes.  Too many hard-to-teach poses can lead to frustrated, injured, or tuned out kids.

“Hard” means “Time Consuming”
For instance, these three poses can be hard to teach to kids.  Perhaps “hard” isn’t the best word, lengthy-to-teach may describe it better.  It doesn’t mean I don’t teach them.  It also doesn’t mean kids don’t like them.  In fact I do teach them and kids do like them – a lot!  Certain poses just require more time and energy.

I DO NOT recommend introducing all three of these poses in  one class. Here’s why:

1. Cat/Cow Pose:  usually ends up being Downward Dog/Cow pose.  Hard-to-teach because no matter what you say, about 25% of the class doesn’t get the part about keeping your knees on the floor. By the time you’ve helped the 15th child figure out the pose, the first children have been doing the pose for a long time or have tuned out.
   

   Wheel Pose (variation)- also called 1/2 Wheel and Bridge

2. Wheel: The kids who can do wheel pose love it – and ask for it!  So if kids ask for it, don’t give in right away.  Often 50% of older kids can’t do it.  Wheel pose takes a heap of arm and abdominal strength plus flexibility.  This can’t be taught in one class.  If you start off with wheel, you’ll have half the class watching on in awe, but unable to do it.  Then they feel inadequate doing an alternate pose.  Most pre-school kids can’t do wheel at all!  If kids ask for wheel, start off teaching the poses that build up to wheel, like table, bow, and camel pose.  Then offer up wheel to try at the end of class for a short time – the kid’s who can’t do wheel, after all those other poses, will be too tired to care.
   

   Donkey Kicks

3. Donkey Kicks: kid’s love donkey kicks, but you’ve got to warn them about NOT FLIPPING OVER!  Sometimes kids get so excited they really go for it.  And then there’s the problem of KIDS GETTING KICKED.  With Donkey Kicks the teacher must be up and walking around – to serve and protect.

Sometimes when we’ve been doing yoga for a while we forget which poses are beginner, intermediate, and advanced.  Introduce yoga to kids with beginner poses, then sprinkle in the hard-to-teach poses.  Those poses will feel much more satisfying when there aren’t too many.

Do you have any tricks for teaching these hard-to-teach poses?

Do you find any poses hard-to-teach?

For When You Have a Few Extra Minutes at the End of a Kids Yoga Class

Have you ever been teaching kids yoga only to find yourself with 7 or 8 minutes at the end of the class, not sure what to do?  It’s too little time for a big activity but too much time to finish early.

It’s those few minutes after you’ve already done the yoga, relaxation, a meditation, and a game.

It’s in a setting, like a school or daycare, where kids get story time and drawing – so you don’t want to repeat.

I’m referring to the places where you charge them for a full hour, which usually flies by, but on these days, the last few minutes seem like eternity.

This happened to me this week in a summer day care class with a group of 3-4 year old kids.  The class was small (8 kids) so all the yoga and games went by fast (compared to when there are 15 kids).  Yoga was right after nap time (3-4 pm), so the kids didn’t need a long relaxation.  Plus an hour with this age group is already on the long side of the class length.

Here are three things I go-to when I want to fill those last few minutes on days like these:

1. Reflection Time:  Ask the children to list all the poses we did in class.  Which were difficult to do? Which were easy?  Which was the most fun?
2. Dancing: Free form dance or a Freeze Dance (like Move and Freeze) gives the kids some unstructured movement.  Play many different styles and rhythms of music.  End with a slow song and then a minute of sitting quietly to leave the class in a calm state.
3. A Goodbye Song: Have you ever heard of Lawrence Welk?  He had a Goodnight song for the end of the show. I also have another song that uses kids names that involves a bathtub, a giraffe, and a plug.Make a slight adjustment to the words, but use the same tune and you have a sweet song to finish class (bubbles optional):

Lawrence Welk’s Good-Bye Song

Here’s one version I’ve used:

Good-bye Maya
So Long Maya (or change the name each time if you have a lot of kids)
Good-Bye Everyone
It’s time for me to go.

Hope you had a happy time, happy time, happy time.
Hope you had a happy time, I had a happy time too.

(repeat with another name)

When you have a few extra minutes at the end of a class do you end early or fill it?  What do you do in those extra few minutes?

Yoga for Preschool Children

Yoga For Preschool Children

Adults have been walking so long we forget that just standing is a balancing pose.  So yoga with preschool kids means thinking like a preschooler.

Preschool children usually range from toddlers up to 5 or 6 years old.  Here’s a quick overview of  the many changes that happen during these years, in case you don’t remember from when you were a kid:

• At 12 months kids are usually standing on their own and taking their first wobbly steps, they’re only speaking a few word;
• at 18 months the kids are toddlers, meaning they walk well, starting to go upstairs or walk backwards, their vocabulary is around 15 words;
• 2 years – identifying body parts, putting words together, singing, jumping;
• 2 – 3 yrs – can follow 2 step instructions, throw overhand, jump, run, and potty train
• 3 – 4 yrs – speaking short sentences, walk backwards, sideways, balance on one foot for a few seconds, pedal a tricycle, use a fork/spoon and hold a pencil correctly.
• 5 – 6 yrs – now we can start introducing complex poses!

Choosing Yoga Poses for Preschool Kids

When it comes to yoga, the poses must fit the child’s stage of development.  When choosing poses ask yourself:

• How many steps does it take to get into this pose?
• How much co-ordination/balance does it take?
• Do the kids know the body part I am naming?
• How much abdominal strength does this pose take?  I’ve found younger children have more flexibility, especially in forward bends, but less ab muscles for things like rocking on your back.

Yoga Poses:  The Good, The Bad, and the Awkward…

Here are three of my favorite yoga poses for preschoolers.  Even at 18 months they just copy these:

1. downward dog
2. cobra
3. squats

Here are three poses that seem like they should be easy to do – but for younger kids they can get awkward:

1. tree – notice (above) that balancing on one foot doesn’t happen till 3 – 4 yrs old,
2. cat pose – when kids see this one they often go into downward dog – they need help to understand that they keep their knees on the floor,
3. pigeon – any three or four step poses will probably require individual attention.

If you’re teaching yoga in your living room or a small class, you’ve got the time and attention to get awkward and work it out.  If a child isn’t doing a pose they may not be at that stage of development yet.   Be sure to realize it’s your problem and not theirs.

If you’re teaching a large class (15 – 20 children) in a thirty minute daycare setting, you’re going to adjust your lesson plan according to the complexity of the poses you have chosen.  The more complex the poses, the more time they will take to teach.

What are your favorite preschool yoga poses?

Have you ever done a pose the kids just couldn’t figure out?

Imagination: Creates and Destroys

It reminded me of what my teacher says about thoughts, circumstances, and imagination:

Often we try to change by changing our circumstances.  But like my three year old comrade, if we don’t change our negative thoughts to a new way of thinking, we’ll keep kicking down our castles.

This realization comes in handy when working with kids, especially three year old children.  They don’t want to change who they are.  If you try to change them, and start thinking negatively, teaching a class is difficult. Thinking about your own approach to the class is the only real option and you’ll probably find this method easiest.

Here’s an inspiring talk called Vaccination Against Negative Thoughts with Tulshi Sen.  He looks at why we dream and what ends up happening when we imagine.   I found it inspiring.  Enjoy!

Yoga, Obesity, and Weight Loss

Yoga has many role models from fat happy Buddha’s to skinny contortionists, although one of my pet peeves is that everyone in the yoga magazines leans towards the later.  As someone who thought about weight a lot, especially as a teen, I found this info on Obesity from the Vitality and Stress course very interesting.

A person’s weight can affect their stress and their stress affects their body weight.  We know childhood obesity is a big concern for parents.  What I learned last week is our view of the cause of weight problems is distorted and can increase stress and makes matters worse.

The Survey Results
In surveys most people believe will power is the biggest factor in weight problems (60%), followed by lifestyle (25%), and genes (15%).  However the facts show weight problem factors are the opposite:  5% willpower, 50% lifestyle, and 45% genetic.  If we believe people are overweight because they lack will power or are lazy – we add to their stress and at the same time we don’t address the actual problem.

Our best results for weight loss come through lifestyle modifications.  Here are some to encourage:

• a good night’s sleep is proven to help balance your weight,
• use smaller plates (6″ plates are best) helps reduce food intake,
• stay hydrated by drinking water, sometimes we’re thirsty when we think we’re hungry,
• add exercise to our lifestyle like a sun salutation or some favorite yoga poses, start with small amounts then increase times,
• bring awareness to our eating:  look at how we deal with our feelings, notice what we eat, how we eat, and when we eat.

It’s been proven over and over that diets and short-term exercise plans just don’t work in the long term.  As teachers, do we push for these?  Do we make kids feel like they lack will power?

My mentor often gives of an Ancient  meditation that includes these words:

When kids are unhappy because of their body, they don’t understand who they really are.  If our happiness is related to our body, then we are destined to diminishing happiness. As far as I know there has never been a  body that has not eventually become food for the worms.

Will power relies on the mind and we all know the tricks the mind can play.

When we rely on Consciousness, I Am, as our true support, we find happiness in all conditions regardless of circumstances like how we look.  This is the way to become the masters of our happiness. Then only can we see that our body is ours, we can be free to choose the lifestyle we want to live.

Then we are truly living the yogic lifestyle.

Has weight been a concern for others out there?

Medical study – Yoga Helps Some Kids with ADHD

This week I’m taking a sixty hour Yoga Teacher Training called Vitality and Stress, learning all different aspects and qualities of stress. My favorite so far has been examining our “stress monster” personality. Sounds like something that could work in kids yoga – don’t you think?

Here’s an intersting article and video on how yoga helps relieve stress, balance cortisol levels, and create a better state of mental health. About half way through you’ll find this:

One thing we’re also understanding is that low levels of stress can be motiviting.  Its the unrelenting, ongoing stress that we want to avoid.

Hope everyone has a low stress week. I’ll have some more tips next week.

Aruna Kathy Humphrys
http://www.youngyogamasters.com/

Announcing: Kid Yoga Teacher Training Dates

Announcing the next Kids Yoga Teacher Training Dates
This Kids Yoga Teaching Training course gets you ready to teach kids yoga and avoid the problems that new teachers experience.  With a tested six week kids yoga curriculum filled with yoga and activities that kids love. You will also discover additional poses, games, meditations, and songs to build the skills and confidence to design your own classes.  This course will equip you to spread the health and joy of yoga with children at home, in daycares, studios, or in the classroom.

1. New Program:  12 Hour Training + 6 Hour Co-Op Training (6 weeks): Toronto, Ontario, Canada Starts Tuesday, January 12, 2010
2. 12 Hour Training Weekend:  Toronto, Ontario, Canada
   Friday, April 30 – Sunday, May 2, 2010

Who Should Attend the Kids Yoga Teacher Training:

Attention:  Those who want to give kids the life-long rewards of healthy bodies and happy minds.

• Yoga Teachers
• School Teachers
• E.C.E.’s (Early Childhood Educators)
• Doctors, Therapists, and Kids Specialists
• Specialty Kids Teachers
• Teaching Assistants
• Parents
• Grandparents
• Those who work with kids
• And all those who love and care for kids

Teaching Kids Yoga Training is for you!

About the Course:

Connect with kids from toddlers to tweens with a meaningful yoga practice.

Young Yoga Masters is a unique Kids Yoga Teacher Training program that will give you the tools to explain yoga and meditation to kids.  It is for those who are just starting out and also for those who teach kids regularly and want to rejuvenate their lesson plans with inspiring ideas and activities.

For Developing Focus & Keeping Imagination Alive
Teaching Kids Yoga features age old postures and meditations that can build self-awareness and confidence. The stories from Ancient Secrets of Success for Today’s World by Tulshi Sen inspire teachers and kids alike.
Take your classes from good to awesome!  In this weekend workshop you will discover:

• Classroom Management: How to gain kid’s cooperation, work with groups, and build passion for yoga,
• Child Development: An overview of the ages and stages of children’s abilities and development,
• Yoga Fundamentals: The fundamentals of yoga and meditation and how to present them to kids,
• A six week class curriculum based on Ancient Secrets of Success for Today’s World by Tulshi Sen – a tested program that inspires kids, filled with inspiring kids yoga, meditations, games and stories.  This curriculum tells you exactly how to introduce yoga to kids in a way they can understand and apply.  It will give you the tools to create a meaningful yoga curriculum to teach in your kids classes;
• How to develop your own kids yoga classes for different ages, time frames, and settings from the living room to the classroom;
• Quick Yoga: Quick, everyday tools for calming and centering for kids and adults;
• Rejuvenation: An amazing course to connect with others and nourish your soul.  Practical and personal development that’s full of imagination and fresh ideas.

For full course details link here:  http://www.youngyogamasters.com/in-person-training/

Please contact me if you have any questions about the course.  I’d love to see you there,

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