I’m working on a new quick reference chart (below) for teaching yoga to children of different age groups.

I’m making the chart because so many new kids yoga teachers wonder about teaching specific ages, things like:

“What age range should I choose for my studio classes or summer camps?”

“Are games too juvenile for teens?”

“What should I do with the energetic 4 year olds?”

“At what age can children start to do yoga?”

“What ages can I teach in a daycare?”

These are valid questions because age is an important factor when creating kids yoga lesson plans.  Some activities work with all ages but most will be either too mature or too juvenile depending on the age of your kids.

As you plan, you need to know what certain terms mean. Generally you will find yoga classes for children divided into these age categories:

This chart is handy for new teachers getting booked in studios, daycare, or summer camps for yoga.

Last year our kids yoga camp was amazing.  The kids fed off our yoga energy and excitement over the 5 days. The children, ages 5 – 13 years old, took to us quickly.  They even started playing pranks on us, hiding in different spots in the gym, when we arrived. One day they set up a decoy hiding spot and when we headed to it and found it was empty, we all burst into laughter.  They really got us! We had so much fun teaching yoga at the Community Centre to different age groups for a total of 3 hours every day!

Each of the teacher trainers in the Summer Certification developed a beautiful connection with different children.

The kids were sad to see the yoga camp end and so were we.

When we plan our 18 hours of practice teaching with actual kids we aim to divide the classes by age range. Here’s what our schedule looks like:

• 3 x 30 min toddler classes in a daycare
• 3 x 30 min preschool classes in a daycare
• 3 x 50 min kinder classes in a daycare
• 3 x 90 minute school age classes in a daycare
• 2 x 4 hour kids camps at the community centre with a mix of ages from 5 – 15 years including kids with special needs

Trainees get lesson plans for all these classes as part of our Certification. While this has changed with the online training, we hope to return to the in-person practicum when the live training returns in 2023.

My heart is skipping a beat just thinking about how great it will be.

As we plan for this summer, it’s always helpful to hear from other teachers.  We all know there are great Free Yoga Class Printables you can use, wonderful ways to use stories in yoga, and fun animal adventures.

What About a Mixed Age Yoga Class?

Probably the most challenging class of all is teaching a mixed age range class where you have young children and older kids all mixed into one class. It takes a lot of choices and giving the older children choices (including sitting out for parts) and as much responsibility as they want to take on. Which means getting older children to help teach the class.

Developing your Niche in Kids Yoga

As you teach, you will likely have your favourite age groups, and maybe even a niche teaching that age group as a bit of specialist. For me, I enjoyed teaching toddlers because of their enthusiasm but also because of the option to teach them on weekday mornings.

What is your favorite age group to teach?

What’s your favorite activity with them and why?  What’s the broadest age range you have taught and what do you like to do?

Tell me one of your stories on our Instagram post.

I’ll be linking this blog post to my teacher training manual, so your comments will be a great resource for new teachers and also for those who have been around and want some fresh ideas.

Please share your story in a comment below.