Kids Yoga

Silly Dance Contest – Kids Yoga Song of the Week

You’re probably aware of the classic freeze dance game, in which everyone dances to the music and then freezes in a yoga pose when the music stops.

Having a playlist of songs like the Silly Dance Contest is very handy for those days when you show up for a kids yoga class and everyone is full of energy.

This has happened to me a few time, like the class I taught on Valentine’s Day where the kids had lots of sweets and just didn’t want to sit down and focus. I changed my lesson plan on the spot and we did a whole class of fun songs.

Eventually I was able to bring the energy down to a sitting meditation with movements at the end of class, but it took a lot songs like this one to get there.

Silly Dance Contest

In any class, this song by Jim Gill makes a great warm up at the beginning of class or playfulness at the end. Freeze dance with your kids in all these fun ways:

About Jim Gill

The Silly Dance Contest was released in 2019 in an album Jim Gill’s Most Celebrated Songs: Music Play, Vol. 1.

Jim Gill is a musician and author with unique credentials among children’s artists. Jim is a child development specialist who earned his master’s degree at the Erikson Institute of Chicago, focusing on the study of play. Because of this, each of Jim’s books and recordings serves as a venue for amusing encounters between a young child and a responsible adult.

Sun Salutation Song for your Kids Yoga Class

Sun Salutations are great for kids in children’s yoga but today’s song is more suited for tweens and teens.

Teach the Sun Salutations using this upbeat instructional music by Linda Lara (feat. Cory Fandel and Nancy Coletti).

Week 3: Song of the Week

Watch the moves here:

About Linda Lara

Linda Lara is a certified children’s yoga teacher. She is also a composer and musician and special education music teacher.

Her songs are about nature and the seasons, and they also offer musical yoga sequences which imagine experiences from around the world.

Teach the Sun Salutation

Learn how to teach Sun Salutation by registering for Inclusive Yoga 16 Hour Kids Yoga Teacher Certificate.

You’ll have access to the Yoga Man Sun Salutation series, with ideas to teach about the stress cycle and tools of yoga to fight the villain “The Stressor.”

“Look Into The Mirror” Song uses Positive Affirmations in a Good Way

I remember when I was younger and dealing with problems that overwhelmed me, I learned about affirmations. Saying, “I can do this. I am strong.” My father taught me one I still find myself saying, “You got this, Humphrys.”

Positive affirmations can help you deal with problems. You can calm yourself by saying them to yourself. You can take the “fake it till you make it strategy” to help combat negative thoughts. You can even use them to create a growth mindset, not getting stunted but believing you can grow into what you want to become.

Week 2: Song of the Week

Look Into the Mirror

“Look Into the Mirror” includes affirmations to appreciate yourself as an incredible person with incredible parts. What I like about this song is that it doesn’t say affirmations that will cause kids to question their truth. For instance the line:

“Look into the mirror and what do I see,

An incredible person looking back at me!”

Then they sing about their eyes, ears, nose and all the other parts that do pretty incredible things.

Be Thoughtful about Your Affirmations

The thing about affirmations is they aren’t as great if you say them but don’t really believe them. For me, affirmations that I didn’t believe just caused me more doubt. I’m sure I’m not the only one with this kind of active mind.

For instance, saying “I am smart” after failing a test, could make a person feel a disconnect. I don’t want to teach kids to learn how to disconnect from how they actually feel. For me, an affirmation like, “I can learn anything if I try” would be a better affirmation.

I’m careful when using affirmations with children to let children choose their own affirmation. I also look for affirmations that are easy to believe, like in this song.

About the Kuumba Kids Album

This song was released in 2012, together with the other pieces of the Ooh Kuumba album.

Iya and The Kuumba Kids provide culturally rich educational programs and materials for children. They use a variety of outlets to promote creative learning and development.

Teaching Kids Positive Affirmations

Finding the right positive affirmations can help children. Affirmations can impact self-esteem, confidence, and overall well-being.

Affirmations can help children develop a positive self-image by reinforcing their strengths, talents, and abilities.

Now it’s your turn, do you use affirmations in class? What are your favourite affirmations?

Kids Yoga Song of the Week: Colors by Kira Willey

Lately, I’ve had a lot of meetings with people graduating from the self-paced training. Reading their lesson plans and feedback on their classes I got inspired by how they are impacting children’s lives.

One thing I just love seeing is the music they use in their kids yoga lesson plans. I love, love, love finding new music!

So I had a brainstorm to add a new segment to the newsletter: The Song of the Week! The first one will be today.

“Colors” by Kira Willey

This song is an oldie but a goodie! Kira’s Dance for the Sun album came out in 2006 but doesn’t get tiring for me.

Why is this the First Song of the Week?

This is probably one of my most-played songs. It’s a great song for relaxation, talking about chakras, and doing a moving meditation.

Just make up a move for each line, try it now if you want to see the possibilities:

“I am green today, I chirp with joy like a cricket song.”

Did you pull your elbows back and flap them like crickets legs? That’s my go-to move, but any move you make up is great.

I like this song during relaxation because kids can either lie down and relax or makeup moves to the different colors in the song.

For me, this song is worthy of the first mention in my Song of Week Series. What do you think?

Essentials Checklist to Plan for Spring Break Camps or Classes

When you’re running your business, you’ve got a lot on your plate.

Like a couple of weeks ago when I wrote in my newsletter that registration would open for the children’s yoga teacher training next week. A week felt like enough time to get everything done.

The next week came and went.

Then the week after came and went too and the registration still wasn’t open.

What I thought would take one week ended up taking almost three! Three courses were actually a bundle of 24 smaller courses, each needing updates to the sales page, curriculum, checkout page, and thank you page. That’s 24 courses x 4 pages per course which means almost 100 pages! And it didn’t even include any promotion or planning of the event.

This is probably more than average, the back end of planning a yoga class, camp, or training is significant.

Standard Operating Procedures

While planning, I used one of my checklists of standard operating procedures (SOP’s) to help.

The list was long. There were a lot of little details and it helped me make sure I didn’t miss any of them.

Today I’m sharing a general version of my checklist because I think it will be helpful for anyone doing this kind of planning.

We also talked about this in the February mini-training on Thursday. February 9. If you’re curious about the mini-training, watch it here.

Three Big Takeaways From This Checklist

Don’t plan the details of exactly what you will teach till after you open registration. Most of the work happens in the planning, launching, and promoting part of the event. The fun part is when you get to teaching the event or delivering the series. Plus I don’t put energy into those details till I know I have enough interest and the event is going to run. For me creating my timeline is the last thing I do.
Save your work! This way when you offer a camp or training or a series again, you have a foundation to build on. You can just go in and change dates and times. Organizing yourself with files and clear titles will save you a lot of time in the future.
Price your offerings high enough to have a sale. Don’t base your price solely on the time you will spend teaching. You have to include the time organizing, preparing, and promoting your training. The price needs to cover the hours of work that have happened behind the scenes. When you’re self-employed, you won’t be able to sustain a business if you don’t get paid for the back-end work. Price accordingly keeping in mind that the next time you offer it, it will be less work.

Get the Checklist

We talked about this a lot more in the February mini-training. If you’ve got a Class series or a kid’s yoga camp in the back of your mind, these checklists can really help. Grab the checklist by clicking the button below.

GRAB THE ESSENTIAL CHECKLIST HERE

Mindful Planning for 2023

Last week at the Monthly Mini-Training we imagined our perfect schedules. Imagining and dreaming as if anything was possible. It feels liberating to let go of limitations, even just for a while. Learning how to let go of unnecessary limitations we place on ourselves takes practice.

Imagining as Meditation

Imagining in this way was something I learned about through meditation training. The mantra: Pragyanaam Brahman (Rg. Veda, Aitereya Upanishad 3.3) can be translated as Consciousness is the Creator.

The idea is to let consciousness create, rather than create based on the conditions around you.

I invite you to consider trying doing some mindful planning as a meditation. It’s a meditation you may enjoy. Spend a little time directing your energy towards what you truly want, let yourself plan without limits.

If you want to see how we did it, check out the replay here: