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How to Become A Kids Yoga Teacher Free Video Training Webinar

We had wonderful participation in the free webinar video training over the weekend.

I want to thank everyone for your great questions and feedback. We met, we talked, we learned a lot about becoming a kids yoga teacher. I appreciate all the questions sent in to make the webinar so informative and interesting.

Here are just a few questions that were answered:

  • What does it take to become a kids yoga teacher?
  • What is different about the 95 Hour Training compared to the 25 hour training I took?
  • How do you make the kids pay attention?
  • If you could have only 3 props in your kids class, what would they be?

We covered so many subjects for those new to kids yoga and for teachers looking for fresh ideas.

In addition to these questions, we answered a whole bunch of important questions by participants. For all those who want to know the ins and outs of getting trained as a kids yoga teacher, this is an excellent resource. If you weren’t able to attend the webinar live, the recording is below along with all the links mentioned in the webinar.

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Kids Yoga Teacher Training Resources Links

During the webinar I talked about some wonderful resources so here is a list of them:

July 14 – 26, 2019

Summer Certification in Burlington, Ontario
Come get your 95 Hour Certificate (or as many modules as you want to attend) by the shores of Lake Ontario this summer.
Summer Certification Details and Registration Costs Here

March 29-31
Toronto Yoga Show – Free Tickets to Show
Visit A Children’s Yoga Network Booth 526 at The Toronto Yoga Show
Metro Toronto Convention Centre
Get Free Tickets to the Show on our Facebook Page 

April 14-16
Kundalini Yoga Spring Getaway – An Amazing Yoga Weekend for Adults
Immerse yourself in a weekend to enhance your personal practice and see what a difference it makes in your teaching!
Register for the Spring Getaway Here

More Resource Links from the Webinar

New Age Teacher on Instagram
I highly recommend following Nicole from New Age Teacher on Instagram. We include her resources in our Mindfulness for Children Module and her audio tracks are so empowering for children.

Insurance for Yoga Teachers
Another favourite resource is The Connected Yoga Teacher, who has a wonderful Podcast and very active Facebook group.  Here is her article on Insurance for Yoga Teachers.

Tween / Teen Leadership Program
This very successful Leadership program for tweens and teens can be purchased at Ambassador Yoga.  It includes workbooks to give out in your classes that help youth stay engaged and work towards taking Yoga Teacher Training.  Leadership Program Details Here

Yoga Teachers: Lead a 200 Hour Training
I talked about how this program was inspired by my own experience of becoming a lifeguard in my teens.  There are so many kids starting yoga at a young age, why shouldn’t they deepen their practice with Yoga Teacher Training in their teens, the same way I became a lifeguard in my teens.  This program is designed to support those who are already yoga teacher, so they can offer a 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training to the Teens they teach.

Ambassador Yoga Trainer Fast-Track helps experienced Yoga Teachers start offering Teacher Training using Ambassador’s Manuals and School Syllabus.
If you are an experienced Yoga Teacher check this out!

Aruna’s Favourite Music on Spotify
Wondering what kids yoga music I play on my big portable speaker I showed you in the webinar? Here’s the link to my kids yoga playlist on spotify that you can follow or make notes from. My Kids Yoga Playlist on Spotify

Free Alphabet Poster
In the first webinar that didn’t get recorded, I promised a link for the Free Alphabet Poster (pictured below) that you can print out and use with your kids.  This is from the Yoga Literacy Module of our Kids Yoga Teacher Training where you receive a printed colour poster in English and French as well as Yoga Cards and a big Colour Book.

a kids yoga alphabet poster with one yoga pose for each letter of the alphabet
Frog Yoga Alphabet Printable Poster

 

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Kids Yoga Alphabet Teacher Training Double Pack

Online Training Resources

One of the webinar participants asked about online training options.  Young Yoga Masters has 2 self-study options available:

The Frog Yoga Alphabet Teacher Training Double Pack
With this package you receive a PDF of both manuals which includes games for kids learning the alphabet as well as readers. You get the PDF of all the yoga alphabet poses in colour, black and white colouring pages, and the Pose guides showing you how to do each pose. It’s highly recommended if you want activity pages to give to the kids yoga teach.

Purchase it here.

Yoga Man vs. The Stressor Yoga for Boys
This training package also includes a PDF with Yoga Man doing the Sun Salutation with Pose Guide and 10 Games featuring the sun salutation. If you find that boys just aren’t signing up for your kids yoga classes, you need this package!

Purchase it here. 

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Hope to See you at the Summer Certification!

Thank you for all you do to bring yoga to children. They need it now, more than ever.

We would love to see you at the Summer Certification, The Spring Getaway or the Toronto Yoga Show.

If you have any questions, feel free to drop us a note!

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Getting Clear on Your Kids Yoga Niche

Life is known for its surprises and December was no exception. That month I treated myself to the Kundalini Yoga Winter Solstice Sadhana in Florida for lots of yoga, meditation, and healthy eating before the cookie trays and gravy boats of Christmas. Florida started with lots of sunshine and good yoga then turned into a tornado zone.  Mid way through the week I abandoned my flooded tent for a cozy warm hotel room, hot bath, movies on TV,  and take-out Chinese food.

Even though it wasn’t what I expected it was what I needed. I released a lot of guilty feelings for taking care of myself.

You see, I did feel a little bad for not getting work done, then for not being at camp during the tornado warnings, but when I returned to camp the next day I was rested and ready to go.   All around me people were yawning, coughing and sniffling from all the rain.  They were so happy I had energy to give the kids in the Youth Camp. They immediately transferred me from crafts to a whole day with the 3-4 year olds.

With the sun shining again and our mindful supervision,  the kids played all day and I’m happy to report it ended very well for all.

Plus when I got home I had more energy for my family and now for work.

I know there will be more to write about this experience later, for now you can follow my Instagram feed for videos and pics from that trip.

Creating a Business Vision and Intention

Now that 2019 is here I’m back to planning for the year ahead. If you’ve ever wondered what mindful planning looks like, I’ll tell you my process now.

Visioning is part of my meditative practice. Consciously choosing a direction is my practice, just like choosing a yoga practice, I choose a life practice! Setting my vision means I don’t get pulled in different directions by what other people are doing ending up in a rut, trying to keep up, or forgetting what I was intending to do.

I’ve written about goal setting on my blog in 2018, offered a free visioning workbook in 2017,  and shared a story about setting intentions here.  Reviewing, planning, and intention setting is my ritual at the new year. It is a ritual that contributes to my business growth.

Here’s something you may not know about my early planning experiences.

My Ambitious First Business Plan

When I first started teaching yoga I thought kids yoga would be a side gig for me. I wrote my first business plan in 1999, which was to teach yoga classes and provide students with healthy meals. It was a yoga and meal service for people who wanted to be healthy. There was not much about kids yoga in it at all.  I had no clue that my side hustle would become my main focus.

Sometimes when you are starting a business you don’t know what parts will take off. However, that ambitious first business plan was part of the process that brought me to where I am now.

It also taught me an important lesson: your vision must grow and change with your experience!

As I learned that shopping, prepping, cooking, packaging meals, doing dishes, delivering food was not for me, I noticed my energy for kids yoga growing. I made the decision to pivot in a new direction.

tree pose with kids yoga teacher trainer Aruna Kathy Humphrys
This is one of the earliest pictures I have of me teaching kids yoga (maybe in 2002?).  My two nephews and niece are 23, 21, and 19 now!

Before I started offering Teacher Training, my niche was teaching children in daycare centres, after school programs, and community centres.  I didn’t like teaching private clients. I didn’t like teaching in yoga studios.  My niche was going where the kids already were, getting hired by those places, and staying there for as many years as they would have me.  I taught in one school for 18 years!

The niche of kids yoga eventually grew into kids yoga teacher training.

A Niche Helps You Stop Chasing Shiny Objects

Now let’s fast forward to my process in the present day. With a focus on training new kids yoga teachers lately I’ve been getting emails asking for online training.  The technology is there for this to be possible.

But the timing is not right and its not sitting right with me.  This time of taking stock of what I offer lets me clearly see if I can start anything new.

yoga teacher vision board business planning
Reviewing my Yoga Business Vision Board from 2018

Review and Revise Your Past Goals

My first step to my new year planning is looking back on my plans for the previous year. Here’s what I wanted to do in 2018:

  • Re-Write 95 Hour and offer Kids Yoga Teacher Training: updating my Kids Yoga Teacher Training was a long-overdue task and like most projects, it took much longer than I planned!  I’m happy to say it is completed and I love the new training! So this part can be checked off and will open up time for other goals like getting a regular newsletter and blog going again.
Kids Yoga teacher summer immersion training in Ontario Canada
The dates are set for the Summer Certification Intensive and registration is open!
  • Promote Ambassador: My goal of 12 new Ambassador Fast-Track Trainer Program fell short, but I did get to 5.  Helping experienced yoga teachers run their own 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training is still very exciting to me and will definitely stay on my goal list.  I’d love to see qualified kids yoga teachers make their teen program a 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training.  That would really get teens committed to their practice!  If you’re curious about this, take a look here.

 

  • Leadership in Training: Another work in process is bringing new trainers into the Young Yoga Masters kids yoga teacher training. It is slowly moving forward and I’m learning more about what I need to know. For instance I know that unlike the Ambassador Fast-Track, I will only draw trainers from graduates of the 95 Hour Training. Again, definitely something I want to continue to focus on.

It’s clear from reviewing my past year that my plate is already quite full!

I’ve made a choice not to do any new projects, so no online courses, no books, or no shiny new projects that cross my path. In fact, I’ve started naming these (often out loud) as “shiny object” to help me stay focused.

A Niche Helps You Find the Right Client

Contemplating my niche is helping me see that there are niches within niches.  For instance you may think that begin a Kids Yoga Teacher trainer is a niche. However after doing this for over 10 years now, I see the niches within kids yoga teacher training.

I am drawn to work with those who want to earn the full 95 Hour kids yoga training rather than those who want to take one weekend course and be done with their training. I enjoy seeing people progress through all the elements of the full training.  I prefer the longer term relationships with students where I get to know people and find out why they want to teach kids yoga and the best ways to support them.  I feel so proud when I give someone their 95 Hour Certificate because I’ve seen the commitment and sacrifices it took them to get to the full training.

I’m not exactly sure how, but I will be focusing more on supporting those getting the complete 95 Hour Certification.

A Niche Helps You Find Peace of Mind

Finally, if I didn’t take time to ponder my niche, I would not have hopped on that plane to Florida in December. Why?  Because I would have been drawn to start some new project, spreading myself thin and putting my own practice on the back burner (again).

Knowing I have a plan and a focus is comforting for me.  It gives me peace of mind that I wouldn’t get if I was trying to do everything.  This year my planning routine led me to create my own custom calendar through Vistaprint.

I use the calendar to track my bookings and the top to track my ideas and other important ideas.

Here’s a picture:

my custom made calendare from Vistaprint has flowers on the dates I marekd in the calendar for the courses, hearts for the birthdays, and the top of the calendar has blank spots to write down my ideas for my business

Do You Know Your Kids Yoga Niche Yet?

The more I vision, the more I’m drawn to explore the importance of a niche to explore you are going to do, and also what you are NOT going to do.

Narrowing down your niche may seem counter intuitive when you first start off because it may feel like you are turning people away.  You want to do it all to get your business going as fast as possible.  When you first start out you may not know what your niche will become.  At least it was that way for me.

Plus if you are reading this blog, you probably feel like you have a niche: Kids Yoga.

But consider the time when you could call yourself a yoga teacher, now you need to clarify that you’re a Hatha Teacher, Kundalini Teacher, or a Restorative Teacher.

The same clarification needs to happen in kids yoga.

  • Do you specialize in a certain age group?
  • Do you teach playful classes or more serious and meditative classes?
  • Do you work with sports teams, children on the autism spectrum, classroom yoga, or preschool yoga?
  • Do you do private classes, schools, or yoga studios?

Whatever you choose, look for what you love to do, because when you choose it as your niche, you’ll be doing it a lot as you become an expert.

The more you are an expert, the more you will be sought after.

That specialization will be good for the kids, for your business, and for your peace of mind too!

 

Can you Explain your Niche?

How would you identify your niche to a new client?

Leave a comment with your “elevator pitch” of your niche.  Then read others to comment on and offer feedback.

How clear the niche is coming across to you?

I will also read each comment and offer feedback!

Give Your Creativity Free Reign

Give yoru creativity free reign as a kids yoga teacher

The holiday season is officially over.  Gosh, how I enjoyed this break!  It’s so cold outside, I just love being holed up in my cozy attic and giving my creativity free reign in my bullet journal, vision boards and dreaming about all the things I want to do in 2018 and beyond.

Have you been doing any dreaming and planning for the year ahead?

I’m a firm believer in conscious planning for the future because most of my major accomplishments have started as notes in my journal.  As far as I’m concerned, creativity is king in visioning.  Its a key step to setting my intentions and goals, especially for my business.

Here’s the process that has helped me add a touch of magic to my planning.

Steps for Setting Intentions and Goals

My first step is always looking at what I intend to get done this year.  For example, in 2018 I see three major projects on my horizon:

  • Update our Kids Yoga Teacher Training
    (RCYS – Registered Children’s Yoga School)
  • Grow Ambassador Yoga Train-the-Trainer
    (200 Hour RYS – Registered Yoga School)
  • Mentor New Trainers for both my Yoga Training Schools

Right now my top priority is the first one, the update.

yoga teacher vision board business planning
Letting Ideas Flow on a Vision Board I created one night just doodling and writing what I want for the year ahead.  Now it’s taped on my wall to remind me of what I want.

 

Write Down What You Know for Sure

Some of my intentions are foggy and unclear but there are always a few things I know for sure.  I recommend acknowledging the things you know for sure, because this action can help the other elements come into focus.

In the case of my RCYS update, I know a few things for sure, things I’ve learned since starting the RCYS in 2012.  So I randomly listed all the things I’d like to change, add, reorganize, delete, and research in my journal.  I just let it come out in any order, I will organize it later.

I capture my initial ideas a couple ways:

bullet journal for yoga teacher to track habits
Here’s a page from my bullet journal that I use to track personal habits I know for sure I want to encourage in my life.

 

Put Everything on the Table and Design Your Destiny

I also recommend you put everything on the table to examine and make sure it is something you still choose to pursue.

Have you ever done this when you clean out your handbag?  Just empty everything on the table and then decide what you really want to put back in again.

In the case of visioning the RCYS update, I even put whether to stay with Yoga Alliance on the table. This decision wasn’t hard because I feel the Yoga Alliance Standards have made my training more thorough, complete, and professional.

Affirming my connection with Yoga Alliance led to this vision board, a playful way to review the Standards for a RCYS for the update.  I like to get the most out of life by enjoying my work and vision boards do it for me.

Registered Childrens yoga school standards and educational categories of learning for Yoga Alliance Certification
It’s important to me that our RCYS is in integrity with the YA standards, educational categories, and provides proper contact hours and non-contact hours allowed in each training.

 

Give Your Creativity Free Reign

The next part is the hardest part for me because I’m tempted to jump into planning mode.  Yet visioning requires lots and lots of time for new ideas.  This is time to let your imagination run wild and to slow down, to meditate, be still, get creative, and listen.

Continue using your journal, post it notes for ideas, tidy, clear out the old and create space for the new.

Try to resist the urge to do final planning, you still need a creative incubation period.

 

Organize Your Plan into a Vision

For my update it took a couple months for a new direction to came into focus.  It took a month longer than I thought it would take.

I just hit this phase last week, but the creative space allowed me to get really clear on what I want for the update.  These ideas sprung from the synergy of all the other steps and activities. If I started planning earlier it would have felt like work, and the result would be quite different than the ideas I have now.

I know I am ready to start my final update because I feel really happy and excited about the new ideas.

Your Vision is a Priceless Treasure

Visioning for your future is a priceless treasure, without your own vision you are borrowing from other people’s treasure, living a vision someone else created.

The New Year coincides with a slowdown in my business so it is a great time for me to work on my vision.  Visioning is best done all year long, even though it is hard to find the time, its something you don’t want to ignore.

If this New Year gives you the feeling to look at your vision for your life, or your yoga classes, or family planning, or other business, consider that there is no better time to start then right now.  The process can take weeks, months, and sometimes years to get excited about.

However setting your own vision is one of the most important things you can do to love and care for yourself.

It can also be wildly creative and what better way to live then letting your creativity reign free for a while.

Happy New Year and New Planning to you!

 

Aruna

Young Yoga Masters

 

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

Putting Yourself Out There as a Yoga Teacher

After yoga teacher training, starting your yoga teaching business is kind of like telling the world you’re a yoga fanatic.

Before teacher training the practice of yoga is highly personal, you do it for yourself. It’s glorious and indulgent me-time. At least, that’s what I felt when I first started doing yoga at the YMCA over 20 years ago.

When I realized I had become a yoga fanatic I knew the right choice for me was enrolling in yoga teacher training.  Teacher training was a protective bubble of positivity surrounded by uplifting fellow yogis. When I graduated and wanted to actually teach yoga, that bubble suddenly burst.  Yoga was no longer just me-time, a time to take a break from the stresses of daily life and relax. Yoga WAS real life. It was my real life and my job and I had to start telling others about it. I had to start promoting myself, something I had no experience doing and I didn’t really know where to start.

New Orleans Kids Yoga Teacher Graduating Class of 2017
New Orleans Kids Yoga Teacher Graduating Class of 2017

The completion of yoga teacher training can be a bit of shock as you shift from student to teacher. It is a big step that can leave you a little vulnerable.  You may be worried that you will turn people off by promoting yourself too much or too hard.

You Don’t Want to be THAT Person

We’ve all had the experience of having a friend or acquaintance contact us out of the blue about their new business. If we’re not interested, and the friend is insistent, it can become uncomfortable and put a rift in the friendship.

We don’t want to be that pushy person, but we also have to figure out how to put ourselves out there in a way that feels good for everyone.  We all know of people “living the dream” doing a job they care about and talking passionately about it in a way that inspires. They make it look easy, not sleazy.

tweens doing tricky tree kids yoga pose NOLA
Tweens do tricky tree in the practicum of the Kids Yoga Teacher Training in New Orleans

It’s Like Teaching Yoga to Tweens

Overcoming the hesitancy to promote yourself is like teaching yoga to tweens. They can be reluctant to try yoga because it’s different or they associate it with something “not cool” and they don’t want to look foolish in front of their friends.  But once they’re doing the poses and playing the games they forget about their worries and just enjoy themselves. Before they know it, class is over and everyone is hugging.

Maybe we all still listen a bit too much to the twelve year old kid inside us. The one who cares what other people think and who doesn’t want to look foolish but doesn’t want to miss the party either.  

That kid also has the urge to take chances and put him or herself out there to experience something different and create a new life for themselves.

n the practicum, the class discusses the meaning of the meditation and why it is relevant to tweens.
In the practicum, the class discusses the meaning of the meditation and how it is relevant to their lives.

How to Put Yourself Out There as a Kids Yoga Teacher

In yoga teacher training we learn that it is best for beginners to start with beginning poses. And so it is with self-promotion in the business realm.

  • Start by Telling People Who Support You: Who When I started my business, I started with people who I knew would be supportive. I told other yoga loving people in my social circle, I told my supportive family members and I told my friends who I knew would be happy for me and believed in me enough to tell others what I was doing.
  • Start by Subbing: I offered myself as a substitute yoga teacher to experienced yoga teachers who needed help during their time away for holidays or courses. I approached new studios looking for people with energy.
  • Start by Networking: I formed networks and shared my passion for my specialty, kids yoga, with anyone who had kids, taught kids, worked with kids or was interested in kids health and happiness. I had weekly tea with another kids yoga teacher in my neighborhood and we supported each other and eventually offered a 3 hour workshop to parents. I volunteered in the adult yoga community I belonged to and soon all the other adult teachers knew I was the Kids Yoga person. I always had time to talk to parents after my kids yoga classes, and one of them told me about a Montessori School that was looking for a kids yoga teacher. I ended up working at that school as the weekly yoga teacher for 18 years!
  • Avoid the Nay-Sayers: I did NOT tell people if I thought they would find fault in my yoga teaching career move. That would be like me trying to do Crane Pose in my first yoga class – definitely difficult and for me, even dangerous.

Beginners are best starting with beginner steps. Build your business in a sweet and steady way.

Warrior Pose Kids Yoga Teacher Certification Toronto Ontario Canada
Warrior Pose during the practicum of the Kids Yoga Teacher Certification – Become a Yoga Warrior who leads with their heart.

Be True – Avoid Sleazy Advertising

Advertising can be designed to trick people into buying (I’m looking at you Vitamin Water!) The yogic approach to advertising which involves working with integrity to build relationships has been successful for me. This type of marketing helps people see if my offering is right for them.

  • Let Your Style be Known: I started blogging to show people what I am about, what my teaching philosophy is and to give readers an opportunity to figure out if they resonate with the way I do kids yoga.
  • Be Real, Credible, Remove the Mystery: It’s best for new teachers to not promise the moon. Let your advertising be true to who  you are and describe what is unique about what you are offering. To you it may be obvious what happens in a kids yoga class, but to a new person, it is still a mystery. Let your advertising demystify your offering. Let your customers know if your kids class is challenging and disciplined helping children build focus and develop attention. Or maybe your kids class is playful and relaxing which helps children relieve stress and learn to manage anxiety. Whatever your style, develop your advertising to reflect your class, not to sound what you think it should say. You’ll attract customers who will appreciate what you offer.

Advertising that has a point of view doesn’t feel gross; it actually helps people make an informed decision.

a yoga teacher dressed as a superhero leads a yoga class for children to save the world!
Young Yoga Masters grad Marcia LeBlanc (and Cheryl Adams not pictured) teach a Superhero Kids Yoga class at the Yoga Show in Toronto.  The class has a strong point of view – be the hero of your own life!

Build Slow, Build Strong. Be a Support for Yourself and Others.

I didn’t overload my stress levels as I built my new kids yoga business. I took part time jobs that eased the financial pressure. It takes years to build a business so don’t expect to build in a few months.

I literally went out of my way to meet with other yoga teachers to brainstorm ideas for classes. I got their advice on what to charge and how to get myself out there as a reliable and professional teacher and shared my experiences with them. I sought and found active communities of support. If a class wasn’t in my area, I shared it with someone in my network, and others shared classes with me.

We have a private Facebook Group for Young Yoga Masters graduates that connects grads from all years and supports our new kids yoga teachers. If you are thinking of taking adult or kids yoga teacher training, find out what kind of post-training support is offered, that helps.

If you’ve completed your yoga teacher training and are at the place where you’re ready to teach new classes but don’t know where to start, you aren’t the only one.

As you start putting yourself out there let everything that you’ve learned in yoga guide you.

It is possible to create a new career, full or part-time, without destroying all the things you love about yoga and about yourself. You might have begun your yoga teacher training journey because you were a yoga fanatic and there is absolutely no reason it can’t stay that way as it it becomes your job and your business. I say this with confidence because I’ve been living that passion for over twenty years now.

Yours truly,

Aruna Kathy Humphrys

Lead Trainer, Young Yoga Masters

Yoga Alliance Registered Children’s Yoga School

Upcoming Events

For our fellow yoga fanatics reading, we invite you to consider the Young Yoga Masters Kids Yoga Teacher Training.

Click on the link below for more details.

Kids Yoga Teacher Training Yoga Alliance Registered Childrens Yoga School
Click Here or on the Image above for more details of the Kids Yoga Teacher Certification

Join the Newsletter if you’d like to be reminded of early registration deadlines.

Information Interviews: A Helpful Tool for Kids Yoga Teachers To Get New Classes

Creative Commons Interview Photo

Want to teach kids yoga classes but not sure where to start? Every country, state, city and neighborhood is unique, so a great way to find out what will work where you live is through information interviews.

What are Information Interviews?

“Information interviews” or “informational interviews” are conversations in which an entrepreneur or aspiring employee contact an expert in the field they intend to enter to ask questions and gain valuable insight into their potential career path. While this type of interview is conducted without the intention of securing a job, it is an excellent networking tool and a great excuse to make contacts.

We’ve gone through these informative posts on the topic and updated them to help you get started with the information interview process. They’re tailored specifically to those interested in expanding their children’s yoga businesses in places like daycare and preschools, however, they offer helpful suggestions for anyone looking to get started with their own information interviews.

Writing Your Information Interview SAurvey

1. Writing Your Information Interview Survey

Not sure where to get started? Preparing for the information interview is the best way to ensure your success. Aruna has outlined helpful suggestions for how to get started based on her own experiences conducting market research. Read the full article here.

Information Interviews Questions to Ask

2. Information Interviews: Questions to Ask

Still not sure what to say during the interview? Here Aruna has outlined some useful questions to ask when interviewing experts. Read full article here.

Scheduling Information Interviews

3. When to Schedule Information Interviews

The timing of your information interviews can play a crucial role in the response you get. Unsure of when the best time to make a call is? Read the full article to help you plan what time is best for you.

Have you ever conducted information interviews? Comment below with any questions or helpful tips!

Upcoming Events

Thinking of a Full or Part-time Career as a Kids Yoga Teacher?

Give yourself a solid foundation in Kids Yoga and the Certification and Practical Experience employers are looking for.

Free Kids Yoga Classes – When to Take a New Volunteer Opportunity and When to Pass

In the practicum of our Kids Yoga Teacher Certification, we offer free kids yoga classes. In the world of yoga, classes with student teachers are usually free. You can get great experience from volunteering if you are a new teacher.

kids do a partner tree pose while a student in the kids yoga teacher training is practice teaching and helping the children figure out how to do the pose
This picture if from our teacher training when we volunteered at the YMCA – it gave us access to so many children so teachers got lots of practical experience.

But occasionally I get emails from people looking for a kids yoga teacher willing to volunteer. The classes are positioned as “opportunities” rather than working for free.  It’s an opportunity to promote classes or sell associated products or gain experience.

Having done a few of these classes, I’ve learned the hard way that you’ve got to be choosy about what volunteer opportunities you accept. You want to make sure they are a good use of your valuable time and not a drain.  They all don’t work out the way they are supposed to work.  They can end up taking a lot of preparation, setting up the area, planning signs, hand outs and bringing products to sell to only have a few people attend who are not that interested in kids yoga.

I remember one volunteer “opportunity” early in my teaching, where no one showed up.  I didn’t realize I was volunteering to both teach the class and advertise the event.

Since then I’ve thought more about volunteering especially because seva (selfless service) is a cornerstone of the style of yoga I practice (Kundalini yoga). There is beauty in performing acts without thought of personal gain. It can be a form of meditation.

So you want to examine the question: When is the right time to volunteer?

Volunteer When you Need Experience Teaching Kids Yoga as a Business

Here, the kids yoga classes and family yoga classes are free because it is part of the Kids Yoga Teacher Certification
This family yoga class was free because it is part of the Kids Yoga Teacher Certification

Volunteering can be fun because there’s less pressures than a paid position.  So if you need experience, before you start charging for classes, volunteer. Everyone wins.

You get to learn the tools of your trade.  When our teacher trainees get in front of all the kids when we volunteer it brings everything they have learned to life.  They realize exactly how things work.  They see all the bumps and bends on the road and how to navigate them. Like when kids don’t want to do something, or want to take over teaching, or someone cries.

Through volunteer work you handle all these situations and you gain confidence. It’s a highlight of our kids yoga training that makes it more practical and professional.

When you charge for teaching, you’ve got to be able to deliver, you can’t charge for a job you can’t do.

Volunteer to get the experience and the legitimacy to run your business.

Volunteer to Get a Ton of Exposure

janet te
Lead Trainer, Janet Williams, teaching at the Main Stage at the Yoga Show were over 9600 Yoga lovers come on one weekend.

There’s exposure and then there’s EXPOSURE.  I’ve volunteered at school functions where only 15 people showed up and most of them were not interested in yoga.  It was a waste of time. However I do volunteer at The Yoga Conference, where thousands of yoga lovers are in the building, that is the right kind of exposure.

Get as much information as you can about an event before you agree to volunteer.  How many people will be there, do they expect to spend money at the event (if you are selling products), do they have kids or like yoga? Get all the facts so you can choose your “opportunities” wisely.

Most important:  Make sure you will be able to put out your email sign-up page so you can follow up with people after.

Volunteer When You Feel Passionate

Kids Yoga Teacher Certification at Community Living - Claire leads Meditaiton for Children
Teaching these kids at Community Living, that supports kids with a variety of needs, became a passion and we drove an extra 30 minutes in each direction to volunteer there the next year.

Of course there are times when you feel the call to volunteer because you believe in a cause or have a passion to reach out to a certain group.

This is seva, you do it to give, not to get.

For what causes do you feel called to volunteer? Feel free to promote them in the comments and let us know how your volunteering works there.

When to Pass on a Volunteering Opportunity

Pass When It Will Devalue Your Profession

Consider how volunteering impacts your business, and the whole niche of kids yoga teachers.

If you are teaching as a hobby, you can afford to volunteer. But when you teach for free you may undermine your future teaching opportunities.

You may be taking the value away from what should be a paid position.

The way I see it, if I value yoga for children then I need to value the work of those that teach it to them. If these teachers don’t get paid, they have to find work elsewhere.  If they find work elsewhere, they aren’t teaching yoga to children.

If you are working for no pay, there better be a good reason. Sometimes you’ve got to educate people about your value and push for kids yoga to be a priority in time and in budgets.

Pass When Your Schedule it Already Full

bendy em fits in a small box
Bendy Em is a yoga teacher, but the only one I know who makes a good career of fitting into tight squeezes.

Yoga teachers usually have big hearts which can make it hard to say “no” when asked to help out, and especially to help out kids.  It takes practice to say no, but there are times when in your heart you will know it is the right thing to do. Don’t let yourself become like Bendy Em (see pics) – trying to fit yourself into all kinds of places that make you feel more like a circus performer than a yoga teacher.

Pass When You Feel Exploited

As I said before, if you are teaching yoga as a hobby then you can afford to volunteer but what about when you do volunteer and you feel disrespected.

You’ve invested in proper training, put years into your own yoga practice and become a specialist in kids yoga. You want to help others, but sometimes what starts out as a volunteer position morphs into being taken advantage of.

You are being taken advantage of if you are doing a job for free that everyone else gets paid to do. You are being exploited if your volunteer classes are constantly shifted around and you are not being respected for what you are offering. It’s just not right.

When this happens, its time to have a heart to heart talk with the organization.  Let them know that this regular position should become a line in the budget.  You’ve volunteered to prove the value of the yoga class, so lets make this happen and take the next step to make it legitimate.

Otherwise it may be time to give your notice. Just think twice before helping them find another volunteer.

When do you Volunteer to Teach Yoga to Children?

Have you had any tough calls when it comes to whether to volunteer or not?  Have you had a volunteer opportunity go on a little too long? What rules do you follow to help decide what to do?