First of all I’d like to welcome all those who have joined Young Yoga Masters (YYM) recently.  I’m so happy you are here because it means more Yoga and Mindfulness for kids. I welcome your comments or questions about the kids yoga tips you find here.

Also thanks to everyone who answered the survey in this blog post.  Your advice and experience on what school Principals need was extremely helpful. It was inspiring to see how many people are already bringing yoga into schools.

Today I’m sharing my notes from the International Principals Conference in Toronto.  Since the Conference was in my home town (Toronto, the next Conference is in Australia) we wrangled a group together to share a booth.  Together we created a “Fit Class Kit” which we sold at our booth, but a big part of doing the show was to meet Principals face-to-face to see what they are interested in, what they want, and what their biggest problems are when it comes to kids health.

Here are 5 Tips about Yoga in Schools that came from talking with Principals from all over the world at the International Principals Conference:

5 Tips from Principals for Yoga in Schools

1. Make Yoga for Kids Easy for Teachers: Principals explained how yoga has to be easy for teachers to teach, especially teachers who don’t do yoga. Their eyes opened up when we showed them some easy tools to lead kids yoga.

   

   Principals particularly liked the Teacher Guides with pictures (as in the picture above) of how to teach each pose found in:

   • the  Yoga Man vs. The Stressor Teacher Training Guide and
   • The Frog Yoga Alphabet Teacher Training Double Pack
2. Train other Students to Teach the Yoga:  Principals explained how every school has kids who really like to help.  Well many Principals utilize this energy and encourage teachers to get older kids to lead the younger students in other classes.  Kind of like a peer leadership program.  Principals were interests in a program that would train other students which has led to the creation of our tween leadership program.
3. Get the Whole School Moving Together:  Some schools meet their health requirements, like the 20 minutes of Daily Physical Activity (DPA) required in my area, by getting the whole school active together.  A number of principals were looking for school wide yoga programs.
4. Staff Development Training:  we sold many Fit Class Kits, but Principals wanted live training too.  They know that the best professional development is a personal experience.  There were many requests for teacher training programs, both in house and off-site.
5. Learning On-line: We met Principals from all over the world who took our flyers, but they could not carry back books in their already stuffed luggage.  The On-line training for schools sparked a lot of interest.  Not only is it convenient, it’s also affordable. I leaned Young Yoga Masters is heading in the right direction with the Frog Yoga Alphabet Teacher Training and the Yoga for Boys Teacher Training available on-line.

Principal declares the Yoga Booth “A refreshing new idea!”

Who knew that Principals would have so many great ideas for kids’ yoga!

Thanks to everyone who came by the Children’s Yoga Network booth to discuss kids’ health.  One Principal was kind enough to share her delight that we weren’t the same old boring booths she was expecting!

Children’s yoga was a pleasant surprise for many Principals who don’t think of yoga for children right away, but were happy to learn about it. I was very glad we got the booth to bring kids yoga to the forefront.

I love the internet, blogging, and all that technology does but there’s nothing like face to face time.  We may need a push to step away from the screen and connect in person with others but when I do it I’m always happy I did!