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You are here: Home / Archives for breath

breath

Avoid this Common Mistake with the Hoberman Sphere (Breathing Ball) in Kids Yoga

It’s said that a picture is worth a thousand words, in kids yoga you could say the same about a good prop.  A good prop becomes your classroom management as it silences conversations and draws kids into your circle. It’s the difference between asking kids to be quiet and quieting them without having to ask.

The breathing ball (also known as the Hoberman Sphere) is a favourite prop of many teachers. When introduced as a tool for calming and connecting to the breath, rather than just a nifty toy, the breathing ball captivates kids attention.

The Breathing Ball, also known as a Hoberman Sphere

3 Breathing Ball Activities

Here are 3 ways to use the Breathing Ball:

  1. Demonstrate Lungs: explain how the lungs expand and contract with the inhale and exhale
  2. Self-Regulation: Leave the breathing ball in the quiet area of your class, on a child’s desk, or on a bedside table for children to use on their own. It’s an engaging tool for self-regulation once children know how to use it.
  3. Children Follow the Ball: The teacher opens and closes the ball, the class breathes to match the pace of the movement.
a kids yoga teacher demonstrates the breath by opening and closing a breathing ball.
Using the breathing ball for the whole class to see.

The Common Mistake

A common mistake teachers make happens in the 3rd activity above.  When you open and close the ball and ask children to breathe along with the movement, make sure you are breathing at a pace suited to the age and lung capacity of the group you’re teaching.

Kids won’t be able to follow a breathing ball that is opened and closed too slowly. It’s not physically possible for little lungs to keep up with adult lungs, especially the lungs of a yoga practitioner.

Consider these Ventilation/Respiration Rates for Children and Adults

Average resting respiratory rates by age are cited on Wikipedia:

  • birth to 6 weeks: 30–40 breaths per minute
  • 6 months: 25–40 breaths per minute
  • 3 years: 20–30 breaths per minute
  • 6 years: 18–25 breaths per minute
  • 10 years: 17–23 breaths per minute
  • Adults: 12-18-breaths per minute
  • Elderly ≥ 65 years old: 12-28 breaths per minute.
  • Elderly ≥ 80 years old: 10-30 breaths per minute.

Children breath faster because their lungs are smaller.

The Breathing Ball is a great attention getter, but you risk creating frustration in children if you don’t choose an age appropriate pace.

children use a breathing ball, opening and closing it wiht their breath to demonstrate the pace of their breathing.
Children set the pace with the Breathing Ball in a Yoga Class

4th Breathing Ball Activity – Ball follows Child’s Breath:

  1. Breathing Ball Follows the Child’s Breath: Instead of starting with #3, try this activity.  Invite a child to sit with you and take a few deep breaths moving their arms and emphasizing their breath. Then the teacher opens and closes the breathing ball to follow the breath of the student, instead of the child following the breathing ball.  When you follow the breath for a few cycles, it can start to change on its own.  Try this exercise for a minute with different children and kids soon see the different breathing rates and how awareness can change the breath.

The breathing ball is a favourite yoga prop for many.  When you learn the various ways to use the Breathing Ball, it becomes imbued with the power to bring calm and peace. And laughter too since kids will find silly ways to use the breathing ball on their own!

3 kids put the breathing ball over their heads and look at ehe camera laughing
Of course, kids will also find new ways to use the breathing ball.

Upcoming Kids Yoga Teacher Training

Each person registered in the Themes and Dreams Kids Yoga Teacher Training Module receives a Breathing Ball and more Breathing Ball activities too!

Kids Yoga Teacher Training and Certification with Young Yoga Masters
Find out about becoming a Certified Kids Yoga Teacher – click the image above

Filed Under: Kids Yoga, Meditation with Children, Teacher Training Tagged With: breath, breathing, breathing ball, classroom management, Kids Yoga

Be Clear on What You Want in Kids Yoga Training

This guest post is by Bekah Starr of Sproutin’ Yoga.  She explains why she registered for our training this weekend even though she’s been teaching kids for five years.  She also gives you two new classroom management tips and shares the challenges she still experiences as a teacher (and she’s not alone!).

It’s not as easy as it seems to get kids on their yoga mats.

Be Clear on What You Want in Kids Yoga Training

by Bekah Starr, Kids Yoga Teacher

Even though I’m trained as a Hatha/ Vinyasa yoga teacher for adults, I’ve been teaching kids yoga for about 5 years now instead.  Why? I find it to be lighter, less serious, more fun!

The joy and excitement that kids bring to everything lights me up everyday and I feel truly blessed to offer the teachings of yoga to kids in “kid sized” portions.

I also have to admit; I understand yoga and the philosophies of yoga much more since I’ve been teaching kids. Somehow breaking down the concepts for kids makes it easier for me to understand too. Maybe it doesn’t have to be so complicated after all…

Challenge: Kids Off their Mats and Running Around

Don’t get me wrong; teaching kids also has its challenges. Children can be much less forgiving than adults.  If I don’t plan well and keep them interested they get bored VERY easily.  And once they’re gone, they’re gone. They’re off running around the studio, playing tag and such, even though there is a rule to “stay on your mat.”

While it is nice to keep it simple, less complicated, and less serious then you might with adults, the rules can get lost with all the innovation and creativity.

So this weekend I’m excited to be traveling from Buffalo, USA to Toronto, Canada for the Young Yoga Masters Kids Yoga Teacher Training.

I want Training for New Games and Classroom Management Tips

I’m making the weekend investment because I gotta find lots of creative ways to impart new ideas and concepts.  My hope is that at the Young Yoga Masters weekend I’ll learn some new ways to share yoga with kids, new games and fun ways to teach. And to discover how to keep the children on their mats!  Is that possible? J

One thing I use now that works well is breath.  Doesn’t that work for you too? Take a deep breath.  It’s universal, it really is.  I use breathing a lot in my classes and it seem to work well, especially when I have the kids make wind with their breath.  Sometimes I use books to illustrate a theme in class and I have them stay focused by making wind with their breath and blowing the next page open.

A Handy Tool I Use Now for Classroom Management

Let’s take for example my 3-4 year old classes, I teach 3 of these a week.  This past week particularly has been a hard week to follow the “stay on your mat” rule.  It’s warm and sunny out, I get it, they want to run outside, like little wild animals.  Which can be really cute, if they would just stay on their mats for a few minutes so I can teach a few poses.

I have one little boy in particular who likes to lead the others around.  He happens to be the oldest, so the others follow quite readily.  He also happens to be the most rambunctious.

Responsible Kids Make a Calm Kids Yoga Class

In the beginning, these two qualities added up to a lot of frustration for me.  Now, I’ve given him an important job.  I’ve made him responsible for leading us in a deep breath between each pose.

We learn a new pose, move around in it and feel how our bodies can make lots of shapes.  Then when it’s time to focus again I ask this little boy to lead us in a deep breath.

It’s hard to move around and lead a deep focused breath at the same time for a 4 1/2 year old. He’s got to stand still to do it, so the other children follow him and stand still as well.  It’s centering and calming for everyone and I can teach whatever I need to.

I invite you to try this too.  When your feeling a bit out of sorts refocus yourself with a deep breath.  Teach it to others too, it’ll change your world!

Watch for my follow-up blog, coming after the training where I share my experience of the course and how the tools worked with my rambunctious kids.

Bekah Starr
Sproutin’ Yoga
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P.S.  What do you look for in professional development or training that you take?  Please leave a comment.

Filed Under: Co-Operation, Kids Yoga, Teacher Training, Yoga Games Tagged With: breath, classroom management, kids yoga teacher training, yoga for boys

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