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Kids Yoga Survey Results and Logistics

Young Yoga Masters held a survey for the month of May, 2023. In that time we got almost a hundred responses from kids yoga teachers and those who want to become teachers. Here are the results to these questions:

  1. Who is teaching kids yoga?
  2. Where are they located?
  3. What kind of training do they already have?
  4. Plus, the logistics of the survey (what program I used, etc)

Don’t Make this Mistake

Before you read on, it’s important to note that the numbers are easy to misinterpret. For example:

  • In the first question about connection to kids’ yoga, the number one response, 41 people, said “I’m already a kids yoga teacher.” (51 people did not choose this response).

  • The question about training had the number one answer as people had 0 – 20 hours of kids yoga training (coincidentally also 41 people).

You might think people those 41 people with 0 – 20 hours of training are the same people who answered that they are already kids yoga teachers, but the individual responses show this is not the case. Only one person identified themself a kids yoga teacher with 0-20 hours of training, and this person indicated they’ve been teaching yoga for 20+ years (before the children’s yoga teacher designation existed at Yoga Alliance!).

Most people who answered 0-20 hours training did not identify as a kids yoga teacher… but we hope they will eventually.

As you look at the final tallies, review each question on it’s own, you can read the answers below each graph.

Now, let’s take a look at what people answered:

Who is Teaching Kids Yoga?

Q. Describe Your Connection to Kids Yoga:

Participants could check all the boxes that apply, so there were 185 answers! Here are the responses:

  1. Already a kids yoga teacher: 41
  2. Kids in my family (eg. parent, aunt, grandparent): 40
  3. Yoga Teacher interested in teaching yoga to children: 28
  4. School Teacher (grades K-3): 18
  5. Work with children (not a teacher or ECE): 17
  6. School Teacher (grades 4 – junior high): 14
  7. Early childhood educator: 13
  8. Other: 14

Q. Where are you located?

Respondents could give one response.

  1. USA: 36
  2. Canada: 31
  3. England: 5
  4. India: 4
  5. Ireland: 3
  6. Australia: 2
  7. Chile: 1
  8. Serbia: 1
  9. Czech Republic: 1

Q. What Kids’ Yoga Training do you already have?

Participants could check one.

  • 0 – 20 hours kids yoga teacher training: 41
  • 21-94 hours kids yoga teacher training: 23
  • 95+ Hour Graduate from a Registered Children’s Yoga School (RCYS): 8
  • 95+ Hours of Training but not with an RCYS: 7
  • RCYT (Registered Children’s Yoga Teacher = 95 HR + 200 HR + Registered with Yoga Alliance): 5
  • Other: 8

Logistics of the Survey

For those thinking of running a survey, here’s how I ran it:

  • Set goals for the survey: my main goal was to get feedback about what people are thinking about teaching kids’ yoga. My secondary goal was sharing the Yoga Alphabet postcards, a really useful resource, which is also part of our kids yoga training. My third goal was to promote the kids yoga teacher training.
  • Methodology: I thought about running social media ads and decided I didn’t want to pay that money to social media. Social media is designed to be addictive and some of the yoga on social media is a problem. I also decided to offer prizes to entice people to fill in the survey, then had the brainstorm to do a mail out as well. This felt like a great way to actually support people who are making an impact in the real world by teaching yoga in a way that empowers kids!  I got excited about sending the actual postcards so I decided that everyone could get this prize and added 5 additional grand prizes to be drawn from the entries.
  • JotForm for the survey. Once I set my goals and knew what info I needed, I developed the survey. I wanted it to be short (5 questions). I used my paid version of Jotform for the survey, it’s a tool I’ve used for years for registration, intake forms, waivers, contracts, and surveys. It’s quite easy to use and it gives good reports and spreadsheets to review answers and keeps my contracts organized and in one place.
  • Got the word out: once I had my great mail out offer and the survey ready, I set about telling people about it. In one month I included the survey 5 times in my email newsletter, and posted anywhere I could for free on social media.
  • Mailed out Postcards: after the survey was over, I drew the prize winners and mailed out postcards to anyone who added their address. Yes, hard copies in the actual mail! Almost 1000 postcards went out into the world. My hope is that people will share a few of the postcards with others who are interested in kids yoga and they will see how dang useful our resources are!

Thanks for Completing the Survey!

I’m drilling down into the other responses about people’s goals for kids yoga. There’s a lot of interest in games and the business side of teaching kids yoga.

Watch for an email series on these topics and possibly some new courses.

Your feedback means so much to helping us serve kids yoga teachers!

Opening Doors for All Abilities Yoga

Today, I want to take a moment to share some wonderful news that has me feeling happy and proud.  One of the graduates of our recent 200 Hour yoga teacher training was featured in the news last week.  His name is Robert Zwarun. Since graduating last February, he has helped a ton of people at his local YMCA in Cape Breton by teaching chair yoga classes.

Check out the news story about it here:

Learning to Teach All Abilities

I found new joy when I started teaching yoga. It’s very rewarding to help students discover how good yoga makes you feel. Now, as a trainer, graduates connect with new students and take yoga to so many new places I could never reach on my own! It feels like a dream job for me.

As with everything, there was a learning curve to teaching all abilities yoga. Robert told us that when he signed up for teacher training, he didn’t think he could become a yoga teacher because he had never met a yoga teacher who had a disability like his.  When he graduated, the certificate he earned opened up so many possibilities he had once thought were impossible.  

When we first set out to teach all abilities classes, we also wondered if it was possible. We had heard over the years that chair classes should be separated, and believed that was true, until we discovered the work of Jivana Heyman and his book, Accessible Yoga as well as his training and even his Instagram account is a great resource. Our limited beliefs got shattered.

Discovering Jivana’s work led us to the Accessible Yoga Silent Auction where we bid on and won a consultation with Shannon Crow of The Connected Yoga Teacher Podcast.  Shannon connected us and with our tiny little YouTube channel we got to interview Jivana! Here’s how it went: 

Check out the Silent Auction

This year we’re supporting the Silent Auction with a donation of our Mindfulness for Children Kids Yoga Teacher Training (you can probably get a good deal on this training in the auction).

Chair Yoga with the Frog Yoga Alphabet

It just goes to show how working together, we can do so much good stuff, including things we thought were impossible!

Last week we held a Chair Yoga training using the Frog Yoga Alphabet and I was thrilled to have Robert attend and even teach a pose. The replay is here.

Give the Impossible a Try

We encourage you to consider giving yourself a chance to do something big, maybe even impossible, like introducing yoga to the next generation as a kids yoga teacher. If you’ve never seen a kids yoga teacher like you, we need you!!! Yoga is so much more than a physical practice.

Putting yourself out there, whether you’re teaching at the YMCA, supporting a movement, or becoming a teacher, can lead to amazing accomplishments and new possibilities for everyone.

Chair Yoga for Children

When I first started teaching I had so much passion for yoga because it has transformed my life. Once I became a yoga teacher, I wanted everyone to discover it’s miracles. Finding a niche in children’s yoga, I began teaching in after school programs, community centers, and daycare centers.

The learning curve is steep to jump from adult yoga to kids’ yoga, but there was help out there to figure it out.

That curve became steeper the day I walked into one of my kids’ yoga classes and met a new student who used forearm crutches every day. 

A cartoon frog sits in a chair doing chair pose. Text: Monthly Kids Yoga Mini-training with topic All Abilities Yoga
Explore Chair Yoga and Monthly Mini Training (click the image to see more details)

Mistakes to Avoid

I was unprepared and untrained to teach all abilities at that time, but I had to learn what I could because we were thrown into it together. What I saw was a need for:

  • Less transitions, e.g. moving from standing to floor to standing again,
  • More options in balancing poses,
  • Practicing in community with everyone together in one class.

I’d like to say I got it right but unfortunately, I made a lot of mistakes. My lack of training led to some bad ideas, including unintentionally singling out the student by offering chair yoga only for her and asking her to be at the front of the class.

We both did the best we could with our limited knowledge until she moved to another school.

If you learn how, you can teach all abilities in one class.

Teaching All Abilities in One Class

Years later, I showed up to teach a class which included a child using a walker. I had learned a few more skills about how to teach All Abilities Yoga by that time including:

  • Putting out chairs for everyone,
  • Offering everyone the option to sit on chairs or mats
  • Offering many options for each pose. 
  • Doing breathing and mindfulness activities with everyone in a chair.

Understanding Able-ism

When I first started teaching, I had an ableist mindset, buying into the common misconception that yoga can heal anything and the “full expression of the pose”is the best version that everyone should work towards. It turns out that is just not true.  My beliefs were more harmful than good and founded in the ableist mentality I had learned.

According to Accessible Living, ableism is “the discrimination of and social prejudice against people with disabilities based on the belief that typical abilities are superior. At its heart, ableism is rooted in the assumption that disabled people require ‘fixing’ and defines people by their disability.  Like racism and sexism, ableism classifies entire groups of people as “less than’ and includes harmful stereotypes, misconceptions, and generalizations of people with disabilities.”

 Examples of ableism show up in yoga everywhere.  It starts when Chair Yoga is defined as a modified form of yoga. 

In reality Chair Yoga IS yoga, not a modified form of it.

Asana is not about flexibility, according to the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Sutra 2.46 says:

Sthira sudhamasanam.

Asana is a steady, comfortable posture.

The 8 limb path describes asana as only one limb, and there is nothing about flexibility or pretzel poses in the description of asana.

Now We Can Do Better

It was hard to find out about modifying poses when I started teaching yoga, but it is a lot easier now.

A few excellent All Abilities books:

  • Accessible Yoga: Poses and Practices for Every Body by Jivana Heyman.  
  • Yoga for Everyone: 50 Poses For Every Type of Body by Dianne Bondy
  • Teach People not Poses: Lessons in Yoga Anatomy and Functional Movement to Unlock Body Intelligence by Mary Richards

Over time, my original nervousness has transformed into excitement about the idea of being better able to share yoga with all abilities and inspiring other teachers to do the same. I appreciate how much everyone benefits when everyone is welcomed into a class.

Free Monthly Mini-Training: All Abilities Yoga

Learn more about All Abilities Yoga in Kids Yoga using the Frog Yoga Alphabet in the monthly Mini-Training for May, 2023. Details are here. You’ll practice chair yoga poses and understand how to quickly adapt your lesson plans for everyone.

Affirmation Song – Believe in Yourself

We all have times when we don’t feel good about ourselves. We might feel anxious about what’s happening around us, to change, or to a trauma where we feel ashamed or blame ourselves, or any number of things. It can lead to negative self talk.

That’s where affirmations can be helpful.

Affirmation Song

We can remind ourselves of the Affirmations in the song:

  • “There is no one better to be than myself.”
  • “Today is going to be an amazing day.”
  • “My family loves me so much.”
  • “I learn from my mistakes.”
  • “I get better every single day.”

Such beautiful messages to repeat in the morning while you get ready or when you’re upset and think you are not doing your best.

About Doggyland

Doggyland is a 3D animated series created by Snoop Dogg, October London, and Claude Brooks, Executive Producer of Hip Hop Harry. The program includes a colorful cast of dogs in an energetic setting where they sing, rap, and dance to catchy tunes that teach children cognitive and learning skills.

Their songs help promote social-emotional development and age-related cognitive development in the preschool set and older. Along with modern remixes of classic nursery rhymes, they cover various engaging topics like the alphabet, numbers, colors, animals, polite behavior, sanitation, accepting others, and more.

This is our song of the week because it brings kids yoga music into a more modern age. Give this song a try in your classes or with your family!

Kids Yoga Survey – Everyone Wins!

Give your feedback and get a Yoga Alphabet mailed to you. Complete the survey before May 31, 2023

Giveaway Complete!

Thanks to everyone who completed the survey and provided feedback for our planning. Your free Frog Yoga Alphabet postcards are in the mail and the grand prize winners are announced here:

  • Grand Prize mailed to winner: Amy L. of New York
    • Yoga Alphabet Cards,
    • Big Yoga Alphabet Book,
    • 40 Pack of Stickers
    • PLUS The Yoga Scavenger Hunt Game (online resource)
  • 2nd Prize: Yoga Alphabet Cards mailed to winner: Emma W. of Ontario
  • 3rd Prize: Big Yoga Alphabet Book mailed to winner: Kajsa K. of Ontario
  • 4th Prize: 40 Pack of Yoga Stickers mailed to winner: Michelle F. of California
  • 5th Prize: The Yoga Scavenger Hunt Game (online resources): Nancy of Ontario
  • Guaranteed Prize – 6″ x 9″ Yoga Alphabet Postcards mailed to everyone! With a note from Aruna. (address must added to survey to receive this prize)
Everyone who entered with their address is guaranteed a prize.

Survey Results

Check out the survey results here.

Contest Closed

The contest is close but we got some very interesting feedback from you that we’ll share as soon as all the envelopes are mailed out!

Business of Yoga: When to Do a Trade Show and When to Pass

Well festivals are returning after years off, and I couldn’t be more excited to get back out there that I’m considering them all.

If you’re ever wondering whether to jump in and be a presenter or a get a booth at a yoga festival or conference, the tip below could help you decide.

In the meantime, I’d love to shake your hand (and maybe give a hug) to anyone who comes to visit me at these:

Free Toronto Yoga Show Ticket
A map of the trade show floor that shows how you get to booth 526 and 627 to see us by going left at the entrance and then past the Yoga Garden towards the food court to find our booth.
Click on this image to get a free ticket to the Toronto Yoga Show
  • October 22, 2023:  Intentional Well Being Conference I hope to be accepted as a vendor for this conference. This one-day conference, spearheaded by Dianne Bondy, is designed with all bodies in mind. Creating a welcoming space for diversity, equity, belonging, and self-expression.

When to Do a Trade Show or Festival Booth and When to Pass

I’ve done trade shows for about a decade, some I’ve been thrilled with, and some I’ve regretted.

After all this time here’s my biggest tip for doing a show.

Can You afford to do it?

You can afford to get a booth if you can literally pay for it without going into debt.  A booth at a show can range from free to over a thousand dollars.  Some conferences let you volunteer for the publicity and some charge you to be a presenter (yes that’s right, they don’t pay you to get in front of their people, sometimes they want you to pay them).

Start by doing the shows that you can afford because you want to figure out what to do, how to present your material, and what people want.  All these questions can be answered at affordable shows, before you commit to a more expensive show.  Too many yoga teachers go into debt buying things that they can’t afford.

It is highly likely that you won’t make your money back by doing a booth, one of the main reasons to do it is for the market research, to get in front of your customers and find out what they want. If you can’t afford the booth, there are other ways to connect with your customers.

Kids Yoga at the Toronto Yoga Show
My nephew showing off his Yoga Man shirt at the Toronto Yoga Show.

Can you afford NOT to do it?

The question of if you can afford NOT to do a booth is about getting your priorities straight. If you have a lot on your plate already, you can’t afford the time to do a booth. If you have the time and you need to get yourself out there, you may not be able to afford NOT to do the show.

Your answer will help you keep your priorities on track.  If you can afford NOT to do it, it means you’ve examined your priorities.  If you decide to pass, you can put that time into social media, creating posters, or finishing the final exam on the training you took.

If you have a lot to do anyway, don’t drop everything else to get a booth. A boot his rarely the answer to your marketing troubles.

Four people play with breathing balls at the yoga show booth and smile at the camera.
Volunteers help at the Toronto Yoga Show booth.

Are the Demographics Right?

The booth we pay for most often is at the Toronto Yoga Show. We do it because we know it puts us in front of our target market of people who are already interested in yoga so we can tell them about our Yoga Teacher Training resources.

But this conference is not appropriate for a Kids Yoga Teacher. Why?

Because at this conference you’ll meet people from all over the city and province. However, you won’t want to travel to give them a kids yoga class and they are not going to travel more than a few kilometers to take a kids yoga class with you.

This conference casts too big a net to find people to fill local classes.

Look for a booth at a local farmers market where mostly everyone who attends lives in the area. If the price is right, that might be worth considering.

If you are trying to build clients for your yoga classes, you might not be able to afford to miss that chance to promote.

If you teach kids yoga, look for opportunities at local schools or daycare festivals, places where you know families will attend. Depending on the price, getting a booth could build your email list so you can send out your newsletter and build a relationship with them.

Not All Trade Shows are Alike

There are other trade shows I’ve looked at, The Women’s Show, the Green Show, but I don’t get a booth at those shows because it is missing the yoga element that ensures that the traffic is already into yoga. For the price I would pay for a booth, it would not be worth it.

Our booth at the Toronto Yoga Show in 2019, the last one before the show closed down for 4 years because of the pandemic.

The Biggest Factor: Will You Follow Up with People You Meet?

The final factor to decide if you should get a booth is whether you can build a relationship with the people you meet after the event is over. From all the years doing trade shows, rarely does someone sign up for a course or event at the booth. All that happens after the show when I send out my newsletter.

If you don’t have an email list and newsletter system set up, there’s not much point in meeting people and getting their emails.

I sell related products (books and kids yoga props) at my booth which brings in some cash flow to cover the costs of the booth, for all the time it takes me (and my husband and the volunteers who help staff the booth), that would not make it worthwhile. The real benefit comes when I follow up with my newsletter and people sign up for the training.

The same is likely true for your booth. If you have a product you want to sell, then that is an added reason to invest in a booth. If you don’t make sales, at least you will get feedback from customers.

But if you are doing it to promote your classes, then that needs to happen long term. People need to get to know you, like you, and trust you before they leave their children in your care for a yoga class series. That can take some time.

Which Way are you Leaning?

I hope my experiences and insights help you make a decision about getting a booth.

Leave a comment with any stories you’ve had from promoting at festivals or conferences. Did you pay, get paid, or volunteer?  Was it worth it?