book reviews

Great Yoga Gift Ideas for the Holidays

If you’re stuck for a gift this holiday season, share your Yoga Love with these gift recommendations for kids and adults.

1. Emily and the Mighty Om

This kids yoga book stands out because of its story. The plot has twists and turns with a little girl named Emily who learns some yoga and helps her neighbor out of a jam. Most of the yoga poses are background, but you can be sure the kids will do what they see. Emily and the Mighty Om by Sarah Lolley is recommended for younger readers who have done some yoga. Priced around $13 on Amazon.ca, its a good yoga gift that doesn’t break the budget.

2. What I See, I Can Be – Now On iPad

I’m definitely biased when it comes to this book by Janet Williams, lead trainer in our Registered Childrens Yoga School. It guides kids through a yoga flow with care and safety in mind. I’ve met many happy school teachers, grandparents, and people who are not yoga teachers, who love this book because it tells you exactly how to do the yoga. Now you can get it on iPad too for only $9.99. You’ll find the link here, along with a lot of other great kids yoga resources.

3. Shanti Generation – Partner Yoga for Teens

It can be difficult to get teens to try yoga and Shanti Generation is doing everything possible to help them along. This DVD is a yoga class with partner yoga, mindfulness, and even interviews with articulate teens that just may help young yogis raise their awareness. It’s a gift that teens who are into yoga could use over and over. Get it at Amazon.com or ShantiGeneration.com for around $15.

4. Toe Talk Yoga Socks

The sayings on these socks are as sweet as can be and remind us to Be Mindful, Inhale/Exhale and more. I’ve been wearing them in schools where street shoes are removed in the classroom. I just pop on these no-slip socks and I’m ready to teach yoga. The kids think they are cool. Tweens and teens will want their own pairs. At $8 – $11 a pair, it works for gifting. Check out the selection of high quality socks with inspiring messages here.

Yoga Alphabet Gifts

Consider a personalized yoga gift. The whole yoga alphabet from A to Z is on our Cafe Press store. You can get your yoga letter on almost anything you can think, like water bottles, t-shirts, they even have yoga mats.

Check out the first letter of your name. Other popular letters are: Y – Yoga, R- Relax, and N – Nectar.

There’s still time to order these through Cafe Press and get them delivered for the holidays. Prices of these custom gifts vary depending on what you put your letter on.

Give an Experience of Yoga

For those who love yoga, why not give a gift certificate for a Yoga Experience? An experience of an interesting yoga workshop, class pass, or teacher training can go straight to the heart. Choose something to match the personality and experience of the person.

For kids, try a kids yoga class pass at a local studio and add one of the items above. Voila! You’ve got a sweet surprise for Christmas morning.

Kundalini Yoga Workshop Toronto January 10, 2015, 2 - 5 pm — Click here to see all the details of Kundalini Kick Start 2015

Workshop: Kundalini Kick Start 2015 – Toronto, Canada

Gifts are so much more than material objects, they can also be ways to show we care.

There are still a couple weeks till Christmas, so if you’re stuck for something to give, consider giving the gift of yoga.

If you’ve got a gift idea, or a kids yoga class or workshop coming up, please share it in the comments. You could make someone’s Christmas shopping that much easier.

Disclosure: I received review samples of some of these products, but all opinions are my own. The Amazon.ca link for Emily and the Mighty Om is an affiliate link.

3 Creative Yoga Ideas for a Classic Story

A fundamental skill for a Kids Yoga teacher is the ability to come up with creative lesson plans that keep children interested. A simple method from Young Yoga Master’s Kids Yoga Teacher Training is using stories that children already love and adding yoga to them.

One such story was created by Claire Matthews, a recent Kids Yoga Teacher Graduate. Claire is already teaching in schools during a lunchtime yoga program that is so full it has to turn kids away. Claire is also holding a Summer Yoga Camp for Kids in Grimbsby Ontario that I highly recommend. She’s an RYT-500 (Registered Yoga Teacher with 500 hours of training) and completing the 95 hour kids yoga training sets her up for the Registered Children’s Yoga Teacher designation (RCYT) with Yoga Alliance too.

Claire - Kids Yoga Teacher — Some Partner Yoga: Claire Completing the Kids Yoga Teacher Training Practicum

Here are 3 creative ideas Clarie recommends for the classic story first published in 1942: The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown.

3 Creative Yoga Ideas for The Runaway Bunny

The great thing about this story is it gives you a way to get kids to open up about what might be bothering them. At the beginning the bunny wants to run away, but never says why. If you ask the children “Why might the bunny run away?” It can give you all kinds of insights into the world of your kids.
The wonderful pictures and stories make it a natural fit for yoga. When the bunny says he will not be found because he will turn into a fish, a rock, a crocus etc these all can be paired with yoga poses like fish pose, rock pose, make a flower with arms stretched out and so on. There are at least 12 different poses that go with each turn of the page.

Claire - Hide and Seek — A Partner Yoga Pose for Hiding and Finding – No Matter Where the Bunny Runs, the Mommy will Find Him

Three: It’s also a wonderful way to get kids to recognize their support system. When the bunny feels like running away he talks to his mother. You can ask kids, “When you feel like running away who could you talk to?”

The Runaway Bunny as a Yoga story could easily fill 30 minutes or longer if you use the discussion questions. The beautiful pictures are a great asset when it comes to classroom management too. Wait till all the children are sitting down and focused before you turn the next page and find out what the bunny will say to his mom next.

Thank you to Claire from Yoga Truly for these wonderful and creative ideas to take a classic story and give it a yoga twist.

Leave a comment with your favorite classic storybooks and how you use them for yoga.

Upcoming Events:

Get the Kids Yoga Training that Gives You Experience, Tools, and Counts towards Yoga Alliance Certification

Click on the dates below for full details:

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

You’ll be happy you did it!

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.