Kids Yoga Teacher Training

This photo was from my last kids yoga teacher training course – can you believe it was 4 months ago!  That was a fun class – each group is a different mix, but I don’t think I’ve ever taught a training with so many yoga teachers in it.  In this class we went deeply into what to do when you get in front of the kids.

Some of the trainings have more daycare teachers or school teachers and parents.  These folks know a lot about the classroom management side of things and so we go into yoga more.

The in-person trainings cover everything you need to know.  You find out not only what you didn’t know, but also what you didn’t know you didn’t know!  That’s the trickiest part of learning – when you don’t know you need to know something.  When I first started teaching children I didn’t know how to manage a class.  I didn’t know I needed to set guidelines and boundaries with the kids and I got walked all over.  When I figured out that I NEED TO KNOW this – then only could I find out HOW to do it.

In-person training illuminates all this because it allows for interaction with the trainer but also the other people attending and all their experience.

That being said, I invite you to come and experience my Kids Yoga Teacher Training.  I won’t go into too much detail as I know many of you are in other countries, provinces, and cities.  But I invite you to mark the date for the April training for an edu-holiday:  come take the course and see Toronto.

But for those reading in Toronto you may be interested in the six week Training starting January 12.   It’s special because it’s the first time I’m pairing the course with a Family Yoga Class.  As you know, it’s one thing to talk about teaching kids, but another to do it.  It helps to actually see children doing yoga.  So that’s what we’ll do here.

Also for the Torontonians (that what we call ourselves here): You are invited to join in the Family Yoga Class.  Especially for those with kids, but also for those who want to bring out the kid in you!  This class is open to all.  So feel free to join even if you just want to do an extra yoga class each week.  Guaranteed to be more fun than your average yoga class.

Here are the links:

• 6 Week Kids Yoga Teacher Training – Co-op Course (18 hour Certificate) – Starts Tuesday, January 12 – click here.
• Family Yoga Class:  6 week series starts Tuesday, January 12, 5 – 6 pm – click here
• Spring Kids Yoga Teacher Training Weekend – save the date – April 30 – May 2 – click here.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.  I’d love to see you there.

Aruna Kathy Humphrys
Aruna@YoungYogaMasters.com

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,

Kids Yoga Animal Poses

One yoga teacher in the kids yoga teacher training course asked me a question that every new teacher must ask when doing kids yoga:

Yoga animal poses are part of the basic tools for teaching kids. You’ll find them in many kids yoga books like:

The Yoga Zoo Adventure for Little Kids by Helen Purperhart

Fly Like A Butterfly: Yoga for Children by Shakta Kaur Khalsa (I’ve bought this book twice, my first one I used so much it fell apart!)

Plus many other great books and videos. There are also some great blog posts on Yoga Animals here at:

Stuffed Animals for Yoga Class Help Kids Focus from the Yoga in My School blog

Here are some scary animals like bats and Spiders in this post: Halloween Yoga for Kids from the Childlight Yoga blog.

I have to admit I haven’t included a yoga animal story in my teacher training curriculum. Yoga animals are part of other themes like in the Story of the Lion Cub who Was Raised by Goats – we do lions and even a goat pose! But in my desire to do a kids yoga training that was more than just pretending to be poses, I figured this was already available.

Yet this question helped me realize that animals and yoga go together so naturally, it is a fundamental of kids yoga. So I’m going to cover it here and include this blog post in my teacher training manual. I’m grateful for people’s questions and feedback because they also show me what can be added to improve my training course.

Here are my current top ten favorite yoga animal poses:

1. Camel Ride - a basic warm-up in Kundalini Yoga, sit in easy pose, hold your ankles, inhale lift your spine forward and up, exhale and relax your spine back – as if you were riding on a camel.
2. Elephant taking a Shower: stand up and make a trunk with your arms, keep your legs straight and dip your trunk into the imaginary watering hole in front of you, then lift your trunk up and spray the water like a shower.
3. Frog: squat and stretch your legs like a frog warming up and then jump!
   
4. Cobra Pose
5. Downward Dog
6. Butterfly Drinking Nectar: sitting, put your feet together and knees bent wide apart. Flutter your legs up and down like a butterfly. Then move your chest to your feet and drink the nectar from a flower in front of you.
7. Cheetah: move quickly on all fours like a cheetah running across the land
8. Camel Pose: See the picture above.
   
9. Unicorn: Make your hands into a magical unicorn horn over the centre of your head then gallop.
10. Donkey Kicks

Start an animal yoga class by saying, “Put your hand up if you like animals.” You’ll get so many hands you may have to limit comments from the kids, but you’ll quickly find out animals they like to do. You can also suggest that there are those who feel some of the yoga poses came from watching how animals stretch. Then ask them if they want to do some animal yoga. I’ve never had young kids say no, although the older kids (10 – 12 yrs) may lose interest in this.

Then you’ll be off to the races, or should I say the Zoo, going through all the poses, plus the ones the kids make up.

What are your favorite Animal Yoga Poses and Games to teach or do?

Get Started Teaching Yoga for Kids

How to Teach Kids Yoga

A lot of people find my blog because they’re asking “How to teach Kids Yoga.” It’s what most of the people in my teacher training courses want to know and it is an important query.

The query reminds me of a saying about teaching that was emphasized when I became a yoga teacher,

Teaching Yoga Your Way

I have a confession to make.

In my first attempt to teach other adults about kids yoga, about seven years ago, I basically compiled a bunch of kids yoga ideas that I learned from other people’s books, DVD’s, and workshops. I took things from the daycare that I worked in too. These things definitely worked with kids. The classes were fun and the training was effective. But a part of me didn’t feel good about it.

I didn’t want to just “borrow” other people’s ideas. And I didn’t want to just play pretend class after class. At one point I realized if I wanted to keep teaching kids and train teachers, I needed to create a program that was unique and meaningful.

How to Explain “Yoga” to Kids?
I started to examine the things that connected with me in yoga and how I could teach these concepts in my kids yoga classes. I started with the idea of what Yoga is. How to explain “Union,” which is a very mystical and deep concept, to kids. That became the first week of my kids yoga curriculum.

I began noting how the kids reacted to different themes and how to phrase them so they really made an impact.

Then, a curriculum emerged of my favorite yoga themes. I felt relief. Not only was I teaching something that came from within, I enjoyed teaching it a whole lot more. I could not go on, class after class, pretending to visit the zoo! Doing yoga without any depth.

Kids Yoga Training that is More than Fun and Games
This is what makes my Kids Yoga Teacher Training different from others. Sure we pretend and play games, but we also talk about the ideas of yoga and meditation that make it more than an exercise class. Of the hundred teachers I’ve trained so far, all of them have loved it not only for what it does for their kids yoga classes, but also what it does for them.

Awakening imagination, finding your voice, and creating your own story. Don’t you think this is what life is about! Doing it Your Way.

I invite all those who feel that yoga is more than an exercise class to come to my next Kids Yoga Teacher Training on the weekend of Sept. 26 & 27. This twelve hour kids yoga training is like no other – guaranteed. It is based on the teachings of my mentor, author of Ancient Secrets of Success for Today’s World, Tulshi Sen. It contains wisdom to build the whole person, body, mind, and spirit. It will train you to connect with kids Your Way.

Even if you’ve taken other kids yoga trainings, you’ll be amazed at what you learn in this transformational and extremely playful weekend. There are still a few spots available. Register by this Saturday you’ll save $40.

The full details are here. If you’re the kind of person who wants to teach kids more than stretching….I’ll be expecting you there!

P.S. Thanks to Adrienne for letting me know my blog was named in The Top 50 Yoga Blogs for a Healthy Mind and Body.

One Creative Way to Stir the Imagination

After 10 years running my own yoga business and teaching kids yoga, I have discovered a powerful way of keeping creativity flowing. I use it when I develop a new curriculum or write a blog post. Without stirring my imagination I can’t get excited about my business. Creativity and Imagination are essential for a successful business and also for my own happiness and satisfaction with life.

Yet, sometimes we feel stuck creatively. Whose fault is it? Those things, people, circumstances we believe are boxing us in? Or is it our fault for for letting them? The free tele-seminars I’ve been listening to with Tulshi Sen have revealed how to Raise Your Belief Level. He says, “You don’t get what you want, you get what you are.” We want to live a creative, meaningful, exciting life, but we don’t really believe certain things are possible. We don’t get what we want, we get what we believe.

Sometimes we don’t even know what we want even if we did believe. We’ve got to go back to basics and stir the Imagination to let us start dreaming again. Like the sign says in the picture – we want to JOIN THE FUN, and the tickets we need as adults are imagination and creativity.

Creativity is in every five year old. If we find the five year old in us, we’ll find the creativity. Can you remember what it was like to be five? Start by imagining this to Join the Fun. Can you see the world through the eyes of a child?

The kids I teach are excited about life. They like to get up in the morning. They’ve got a dream, they’ve got a rocketship to build, they’ve got a crocodile to track. They have passion for life that lets them smile easily and laugh often.

To stir creativity and give yourself something to get up for in the morning, think back on your favorite play activities as a child. Can you remember a favorite joke? Did you like puzzles, art, building, games, maybe pretending? Make a list of toys you loved and what you loved about them.

Today I was talking to a supervisor in her office at the daycare. Through the hallway and into the office travelled the sound of the xylophone, but this was no song I had ever heard. It went on and on without stop and continued on in a cacophony of notes. As I was leaving the music continued and I passed by the doorway to see a 5 year old girl absorbed in playing her instrument. All the kids were doing activities, and she sat alone on the carpet making music.

She looked up, smiled, then went right back to her personal symphony.

What engrosses you in this way?

I’m not saying you take up Tinker Toys, but these are the clues to your hearts passion.

Next, daydream a little. Daydream like a 5 year old who doesn’t understand “impossible.” Imagine you didn’t need to have a job and you could do whatever you wanted. What clues would you get from your childhood toys. Would you play the xylophone in an orchestra, on American Idol, or in a spaceship?

Think of all the things you could do and also how you would feel doing it. Do you feel brave, independent, strong, healthy, imaginative, romantic, playful?

All day long we work for security, but when do we take time for our happiness? What is the point of having security if we don’t have any of the feelings that we want to feel?

“Life is thinking and feeling.”
- Tulshi Sen author of Ancient Secrets of Success for Today’s World

Children usually don’t think of security, they think of what makes them happy. Then imagination flows and we start to see all kinds of possibilities for happiness. We notice opportunities and connections we may have overlooked before. We find possibilities for self-expression that we missed before, and we begin to dream of a creative life again.

Seeing life through the eyes of a child, the imagination is stirred and we Join the Fun even as an adult.

Do you have a way of stirring your imagination. What do you do when you feel stuck? Please leave your comments and ideas.

Details here.

Does Every Teacher Need a Teacher?

Then, this morning as I was lying in bed Visioning my day and my life, a thought popped into my head about my first yoga teacher. I started laughing to myself remembering how weird it was when I became a yoga teacher. My first year of teaching yoga – I sounded exactly like him! I felt like an observer as his words kept coming out of my mouth as I taught.

You’ve Got to Stretch for Success

Summer Workshop Special Price:
I’ve missed letting everyone know about this Saturday’s workshop till now (is anyone else not working this week?). So all you spontaneous, success-lovers out there – take advantage of this Last Minute Deal.

This yoga and meditation workshop for adults who want to get a clear Vision of their success – is now only $40. Open to everyone who registers in the next 48 hours (by Thursday night) and can get to Toronto, Canada for Saturday afternoon. Save $25 from the original price!

Saturday, August 22, 1 —4 pm
Defining and Experiencing Your Success
The Foundation of True Success: How to Build a Life of True Bliss in a
Seemingly-Crazy-Scary-World

We know that things like fame, money, or good looks don’t guarantee happiness, if they did the tabloid magazines would be out of business. Then what does it take to achieve true happiness and success?

According to the Masters, success must be charted by the individual. What brings one person pure bliss and fulfillment might seem crazy to someone else. It is through the quest to understand who we are in this dream of existence that life becomes exciting.

Set the intention to live a life that you cannot wait to get up and dive into. This workshop will give you techniques to open the valve of imagination so creativity can flow in our lives.

The beginning of an exciting, creative, delicious vision will begin to form and take shape and we will come to understand True Success. Through strengthening the body and mind we build the strength and audacity to see where our intention, imagination, and vision can take us.

Your Teacher: Aruna Kathy Humphrys (Santokh ) has taught yoga workshops and classes for over 10 years. She’s a certified Kundalini Yoga Teacher, certified Ancient Secrets of Success trainer, children’s yoga trainer, and blogger.

Defining and Experiencing Your Success
Saturday, August 22, 1 —4 pm
We will tap into the strengthening exercises of kundalini yoga, prosperity meditations, and visioning tools from Ancient Secrets of Success for Today’s World by Tulshi Sen to read the compass of the soul that points to our unique and Divine path to success.

Location: Downtown Toronto, Canada (College and Bathurst – address will be sent with registration)

Last Minute Registration Deal:
$40 if registered by August 20, 2009, $55 at the door

Registration Now Open:
call: 416-944-2888
e-mail: Aruna@YogaUnlimited.com or register instantly with Paypal here .

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