Yoga Games

Kids Yoga for Disabilities

First off, take a look at this fun video of two Canadians, Rick Mercer (comedian/host) and Rick Hanson (Man in Motion hero/educator) blowing away all ideas of what one can and cannot do when one has a disability:

Pretty Amazing, Eh!

This Friday marks the beginning of the Paralympic Games in Vancouver. It’s another event that shows how ABLE all people are. The first Paralympics Games were held in 1976 in Sweden and this Paralympics has five sports:

alpine skiing
biathlon
cross-country skiing
ice sledge hockey
wheelchair curling

Here’s a link to a whole page of activities from Official Website of the Paralympic Movement. I’m looking forward to reading this worksheet in my kids classes: A Fairytale: A Class Discussion of Inclusion it’s a great story with discussion questions included.

I also want to try the Sitting Volleyball Skills Sheet with a soft volley ball for younger kids.

When it comes to yoga, are there any limitations that could prevent a child from joining a class? Considering that kids yoga is already so imaginative I think kids yoga can be done by all.

The best tip for teaching yoga to someone with a disability: talk to the person to find out what works and what won’t work for their particular situation. They’ll be able to tell you what they need to make it possible, what they want to try and what they can’t. Don’t make assumptions!

If you’re stuck for ideas – a simple Google search of “wheelchair yoga” produces over 400,000 results!

Finally, this book Susan Laughs by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross is recommended for discussing disabilities with young kids. It looks like a great book that I’ve just added to my wish list. Let me know if you’ve seen this book or if you have any other ideas for including all kids in yoga classes.

Olympic Kids Yoga and Valentine’s Day

A Gold Medal Week

for Kids Yoga Lesson Plan Themes

Those who work with kids know it can be a challenge coming up with themes for kids yoga classes. Often we turn to current events for ideas and this week we’ve hit the jackpot!

Not only are the Olympics happening, but it is Valentine’s Day too.

The Olympics are pretty easy to connect with yoga poses. You can ask the kids about their favorite Olympic sports and how yoga could help them in that sport. Don’t forget all the concentration poses like archer below or tree pose. Work both the physical and the mental muscles.

Summer Olympic Kids Yoga Poses

I’ve posted in the past on the Summer Olympic Games:

Olympic Rowing for Forward Bends including some partner yoga,
a Rowing Game that builds Concentration (using a Caller like they do in the boats with a lot of rowers),
Archery and Archer Pose

Winter Olympic Kids Yoga Poses

But now it’s time for the Winter Games and a whole new look at the Olympics:

Rowing is very similar to the Luge so we could use the two ideas above again,
Snowboarders, skiers, and Ski Jumpers need to know about mountains so I include: Mountain Pose, Volcano Pose, and Avalanche Pose and these videos from Janet of Children’s Yoga Books show some great ways to do these poses.

Avalanche Pose – Kids Yoga Winter Olympics

Volcano Pose – Kids Yoga Winter Olympics

Partner yoga: There are team sports at the Olympics, so do some team building activities by making a Podium (see the picture above). Children make a small pyramid, starting with everyone doing cat/cow pose, then having one child kneel or stand on the base. If the kids can do it safely you can move onto a larger pyramid. You could also tie in the ideas of what it takes to get to the podium (see below) and the children in the base represent the head, and the heart and add more characteristics like practice, dedication, and ideas the children come up with to be the foundation for getting to the Olympics).

kids in yoga class climb on each other ot make a pyramid — Discuss the foundation it takes for an Olympian to get to the Olympics.

The Heart and the Head Come Together for Kids Yoga on Valentine’s Day

Now with the Olympics and Valentine’s Day coming together it is a perfect time to talk about the Romance between the Heart and the Head. How does the head – the logic, the mind, the calculations – come into play for an Olympic athlete training to shave a fraction of a second off their time?

How does the heart – the dream, the dedication, the quest – come into play? Why don’t those Olympic Athletes quit when it starts getting hard? How do they stay calm when the big day arrives?

Both the head and the heart are developed by a top athlete and we need to develop them too. Not only for a healthy body, but for our dreams, our aspirations, and our goals, which make a healthy life.

The heart leads the way to what we care about, whether it’s the kids we love, in our career, providing for our families, or in our hobbies. Then the head follows through on the heart’s desire to help us get to our goal.

They make a perfect pair! We marry both the head and the heart for a perfect Valentine’s Day – or a Perfect 10 in an Olympic Sport.

Aruna Humphrys
www.YoungYogaMasters.com

P.S. Please share your ideas for Yoga Poses for the Winter Olympics or Valentine’s Day in the comments. You can also get tons of other yoga theme and game ideas in the Young Yoga Master Kids Yoga Teacher Training. A training that counts as a Registered Children’s Yoga School with Yoga Alliance.

Upcoming Kids Yoga Teacher Training Courses and Dates in Toronto at this link — Our next Kids Yoga Teacher Training starts soon

What Else Kid’s Want – A Get Acquainted Game

When the Tree Goes Up so Does the Excitement

A Yoga Game: What Do You Want Under the Tree?

I’m extending Christmas just a little longer to play a game with you.

Imagine if for Christmas we could ask for presents, but we could also ask for other things, things that are less tangible. What if we could ask for a virtue or a quality from Santa? What if we could wake up and find happiness, faith, or love under the tree? What would kids ask for then? What would you ask for?

In my kids yoga classes sometimes I play a little game when the kids line up at the end of class. I ask everyone the same question and each child answers before they line up. Usually it’s a question they can give a short answer to that lets me get to know each child a little better.

Knowing how excited everyone was about Santa coming, the week before Christmas I asked,

What present do you want that isn’t a thing?

The hands shot up in a flash. Going around the room in a circle, I’d say the top three answers were easily:

love,
happiness,
time with my family.

But some answers surprised me from this group of six, seven, and eight year old kids. For instance, one girl said she would like herself for a present. She really likes her life!

One girl just wanted to be out of school – freedom.

Then there was one boy who came up and told me softly, “I want INVISIBLE toys!” He found a loophole for the question. I guess what he really wants is what we all could use a little more of – IMAGINATION. My teacher, Tulshi Sen (listen to his talks here) describes invisible as IN-visible, visible on the INSIDE, not on the outside. Our personal Vision, our Imagination, is invisible. Imagination is visible within before it is visible on the outside. Everything is first created within before it exist outside.

This year my choice of gift that isn’t a thing is going to be the same as the last boy. I want the Invisible gift, Imagination, to help me see what I want inside clearly before it becomes visible outside.

Questions like these are a fun way to get to know the kids you care about a little better. What do you think? What do you want this year? What present do you want that isn’t a thing?

Kids Pick their Favorite Yoga Poses

Mountain Pose a Surprising Favorite for Boys

One of my favorite activities for the last class of a kids’ yoga series is to have a “Yoga Party.” It’s a great way to review all the fun yoga we’ve done through the session.

Children like to show you what they know. I often hear, “look at me,” “look at this,” “Can I show you something.” Kid’s want to be recognized just like we all do. A Yoga Party is a great way for kids to show you their stuff while still doing yoga. In an end of series yoga parties, each child picks their favorite thing for us to do.

When I teach this class in my community centre class, which is an hour long, we usually have time for a yoga game at the end of the class.

But this summer I taught at a daycare where the class was only 30 minutes, which meant we usually didn’t play games in the class – there’s just not enough time for games. For this yoga party each person picked their favorite yoga pose.

Now for some reason this class was all boys and only one girl that day, for a total of about ten of us. It was the last week of summer holidays and a lot of kids were away from school for trips and holidays before going back to the grind.

Here’s what the kids picked:

Sun Salutation: Well this was my pick. I led off with sun salutations, which we had been learning all summer. Both the daycare teacher and I were impressed at how well the kids were getting to know them by heart.Also, kids will launch into yoga poses sometimes without warming up. Often it doesn’t matter too much for the active kids who are always warmed up. But you have to think of the whole class. If you are letting the kids choose the poses make sure they are warmed up first, or ask if any favorites are warm-up poses. It’s also a good way to review the idea of warming up.
Eagle Pose: picked by the one girl. Interesting because I don’t teach Eagle pose in my class – it’s just not one we do in Kundalini Yoga alot. She must have learned it from another teacher. Whoever taught her that – Thanks! (check out the fourth picture down in the Karmaspot blog post linked here to see a kids’ version of Eagle).
Cobra Pose: check out this beautiful description of Cobra on a great kids yoga blog: YogaInMySchool.com. Cobra is always a favorite.
Downward Dog: Again always a favorite for kids and everyone can do it.
Donkey Kicks: this one is best to do if everyone has their own mat, otherwise some people may, you guessed it, get kicked. If you don’t have mats and the kids are sharing or on a carpet, take turns doing donkey kicks and ask any other adults around to help supervise. (I’m going to do a post on donkey kicks next.)
King Cobra Pose: Again a favorite and picked again even though someone had already picked cobra earlier.
Bundle Roll: lying down the kids put their arms by their sides and roll across the floor, kind of like you would roll down a hill. Try not to bend. I’m told that this is good for kids with any attention problems, it is grounding.
Freeze Dance: I use a version by Christopher Carbone on the Namaste! CD, but feel free to recommend your favorite freeze dance music or songs in the comments!
Mountain Pose (see picture above): This pose surprised me! There is usually one child who picks a very still and relaxed pose. The imagery of being as solid as a mountain is very comforting.
Tree Pose: Children love the challenge of tree pose, it takes a lot of mental strength.
Archer Pose: Read about Archer in a past post here.

When kids can pick any pose they want, you may be surprised by what they choose and how well they end up doing a nice balanced class.

Aruna Kathy Humphrys
[email protected]

Kids Need a Place to be Creative

Creative Movement in Yoga Class

This week’s story about teaching kids yoga is from a 30 minute daycare class I teach to a junior school-age group (ages 5 – 7 years old). This class has an even mix of boys and girls. A few of the children also play other sports and are very active and there are a few children who don’t exercise much. So it’s a typical school class nowadays.

Kids Yoga Teachers Get to Know the Personality of the Class

Let me get back to the story in a second and pass on a teacher training tip. One job of each kids yoga teacher is to get to know each class and their unique personality. At first thought, you may think kids are kids. But I’ve found that each class has their own favorites, style, and cast of characters.

So back to the story, I had got to know that this kids yoga class liked to be pushed. The leaders in this class liked a challenge. I observed one boy, who a lot of the kids look up to, he encourage everyone to throw in few extra sit ups during a break, rather than resting. The others followed along.

Seeing this, I decided to ramp up the class, increasing the times we held our yoga poses and giving them more challenging exercises. They liked it!

So in the next few classes I started teaching this class some Kundalini Yoga Kriyas – the same sequences that I teach to adults. They liked it more.

Can Kids Do Adult Yoga – Yes Some Can!

These kids were doing some hard sets. For instance, we did one series with 18 exercises in it. We had 15 kids and 3 teachers in the class that day, so we went around the circle and everyone led one of the 18 poses. They were absolutely spent at the end of the 30 minutes, calm and rested.

In another kriya of 9 exercises (I found the complete Kriya posted online here) , everyone sits in easy pose, raising your arms behind your head and holding opposite elbows, then bowing your head to the ground and straightening back up. The kriya prescribes 5 1/2 minutes of this movement, but we didn’t have that much time, so I challenged them to do 108 reps. They went for it! Sure, some said, “No way!” at first, but as they counted up to number 80, they were motivated to finish. Most kids did all 108 repetitions.

It’s a great experience to learn about how we limit ourselves with out beliefs, thinking we can’t do something, then realizing we actually can do it.

The next class I planned, I had the feeling that I was pushing them too much. I didn’t want to forget the fun. But I also didn’t want to mess with something that was working, so I thought twice, and picked another challenging yoga set to do.

When I arrived at the class. One girl came up and asked for a game. Another asked for dancing, and another wanted to do something with an Easter/Spring theme. Aha! The cry for creativity. The cry of the heart. The cry of your Consciousness!

Kids Want to Be Creative Too

“There are always two creations; one in your heart and the other in time and space. The creation in time and space is impossible if it is not first created in your heart, which is your Consciousness.” >Tulshi Sen, author of Ancient Secrets of Success for Today’s World

What’s the point of all the challenges if we are not listening to what the heart wants? I decided to forget the lesson plan and go with the flow. We started with a freeze dance (I use a version by Christopher Carbone) – they danced like there was no tomorrow.

Namaste! Songs, Yoga & Meditations for Young Yogis!

A Kids Yoga Game for Creativity

Then we played a Creativity game. Everyone was encouraged to be as creative as they could and come up with their own ideas. We started in easy pose with eyes closed, then I said a word. Keeping their eyes closed the kids would make up a yoga pose for that word. Then on the count of three everyone would open their eyes and see what all the poses looked like.

I think I called out about 8 or 10 words. The ones I remember were: egg, meatball, star, earth, rich, poor, happy. The results ranged from expected to ridiculous – but everyone enjoyed it so much they didn’t want it to end.

Children’s Meditation for Creativity

Then we played one of the kids favorite songs from Snatam Kaur’s Feeling Good TodayCD called I am the Light of My Soul. Again everyone was encouraged to make up their own moves and simultaneously move as a group and we will see how it feels and what happens. It calls for creativity, spontaneity and detachment.

At the end of the song one girl exclaimed, “That was wonderful!”

It is fun to have a challenge but every once in a while we must be creative. We must listen to the call of the heart, which is our Consciousness. Try it and see how it works with your kids.

Kids Yoga Teacher Training Yoga Alliance Registered Childrens Yoga School — Click Here for Upcoming Dates

Aruna Kathy Humphrys

[email protected]

March Break Kids Yoga

The Dead Body Test in Corpse Pose

Take Yoga From March Break To Summer
In Toronto, Canada, where I live, we’re getting close to March break where kids and teachers get the week off school. It’s a one week break and then everyone comes back for another ten or twelve weeks until summer holidays when school closes for most of June, and all of July and August.

During March Break school closes down and the daycares get busy. I often have a few extra bookings to come in for a special Kids Yoga program at daycares during this school holiday. If you’re a kids yoga teacher looking for new classes, it’s a good time to go out to daycares close to you and offer them a one class special.

Give Kids a Yoga Class they Won’t Forget
When you teach a one-time yoga class it is a chance to introduce the yoga experience to the daycare. Give them a yoga class they won’t forget. Some kids will remember the class for months. I’ve returned to daycares for the summer program and the kids will ask to play the game or do the activity that we did during March break. If they have fun they will remember it.

When I do a one-off class, I teach my favorite (at the time) kids yoga activities. Something that I know all ages will like and games that they will remember. It’s not a time I try out something new or something untested.

Kids Favorite Yoga and Games
Here’s one of my older posts with Five of my Favorite Kids Yoga Activities that always work for me.

Give the Kids Time to Relax
One of the kids favorite parts of yoga is the relaxation time. I’ve heard again and again from other teachers that kids are so busy they really appreciate a time to relax in the class, not just yoga class but in the classroom as well.

Corpse Pose – the Dead Body Test
I make sure we have at least five minutes for relaxation. In a March Break class I like to play soft music and come and see who is relaxed. If you ask the kids what a corpse is you will get some interesting answers. Then ask the kids to let go of their body for the relaxation so that it is like a corpse, so it doesn’t move, they don’t move it, they let their body lie there, still and lifeless.

Then come around to each child and test the body to see if it is lifeless/corpse-like. Pick up the child’s arm and move it around. See if it is floppy or stiff. Ask them not to lift their arm to you but wait till you lift their arm. If you have time, you can test arms and legs. With a large group ask other teachers to help you.

This relaxation game is very popular. It’s also a nice moment to connect with each child as you test them.

Finish With a Freeze Dance
If you still have time left, you can reinforce the yoga you taught already with Yoga Freeze Dance . Most kids like it because it is creative (dancing) and you can play it so that no one gets out.

If you really want everyone to have fun, choose a game where no one gets out. I’ve found most kids prefer these types of games.

So if you live somewhere where March Break is coming up, it’s a great opportunity to introduce yoga to a daycare. Even daycares with a limited budget, usually have something put aside for their March Break program.

With some favorite yoga poses, an intriguing game, and a fun attitude you just may develop a relationship with a daycare that can continue on into the summer and beyond.