Young Yoga Masters

Kids Yoga Teacher Training and Certification

You are here: Home / Archives for Kids Yoga

Kids Yoga

What Does It Take To Be a Kids Yoga Teacher?

What you need to be a Kids Yoga Teacher is kind of confusing because there are a lot of different levels of certification and training.

In this replay of the Monthly Mini-Training, you’ll get answers for many of the frequently asked questions about teaching kids yoga.

Watch the full replay and download the Guide to Becoming a Kids Yoga Teacher PDF, click here.

Here’s a transcript of the questions covered:

How do you divide the age groups for kids yoga classes?

I usually divide kids ages in the same as schools. Here in Canada, we have preschool, usually around walking, two, three, or four years old. We have junior and senior kindergarten who are four to six years old. Then we have junior school age, and senior school age.

In terms of partner poses, preschoolers don’t love partner poses.

Once you reach senior school age, they’re reading, and you can play games with them. You can do more puzzles, have them up, and teach them partner poses.

When you get into teen yoga, you’ll realize that teens like partner poses. You can have them teach the class as well with notice. That’s how I usually divide the age groups.

A group of 6 children and 2 teachers are standing with their arms over their head and leaning in to touch all their fingers to the centre to make a tent. One person is smiling as they crawl into the tent.
School age children do a group/partner yoga pose creating a human tent!

What time is best a kids yoga class?

I’ve taught morning classes and afternoon classes. Afternoon classes are tricky if you are trying to teach younger ages because they nap.

I did teach an adult/tot class at 2:45 in the afternoon, right before pick up from school for our area. The adults and tots came, did the class, and then went and picked up their other kids. But sometimes, they would miss the beginning of class because of naps and a child sleeping late.

I suggest scheduling your class not too late at night. The latest I would go is a seven o’clock class or before dinner.

What is the maximum time you can teach a yoga class for kids?

The maximum time for kids yoga class depends on the age group. I find 30 minutes is a nice size class for the youngest age, like toddlers and preschoolers.

In the school age, juniors, and seniors, teens, anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour can be excellent.

If I teach for an hour, I will bring in a storybook, a craft or colouring, or play a game for the last 15 minutes. All 60 minutes are not doing yoga poses, but we doing other mindful activities like all the ones covered in our teacher training.

Levels of Certification

There are quite a few people asking about registering with Yoga Alliance. Yoga Alliance is a voluntary registry. It’s not required that you register with them to teach.

However, if you’re looking at teaching yoga as a long-term business, you might consider registering as a Registered Children’s Yoga Teacher.

16 Hour Module

Most Kids Yoga Teacher Training gives a certificate of completion at the end of a course, regardless of the length of the training. Young Yoga Masters provides a certificate after each completed 16-hour module, so you can start teaching right away.

If you’re looking to finish the 96-Hours Kids Yoga Teacher Training, you can take the modules in any order.

95-Hour Kids Yoga Teacher Certificate

Yoga Alliance set 95 hours of specialty training in kids’ yoga as the standard for a Registered Children’s Yoga School (RCYS). An RCYS must follow specific training requirements and provide training in various categories to create a well-rounded training. Young Yoga Masters is a Yoga Alliance-registered children’s yoga school.

Yoga Alliance Registered Children’s Yoga Teacher (RCYT)

Yoga Alliance’s standard for Registered Children’s Yoga Teachers is:

  • 200 hours Adult Yoga Teacher Training plus
  • 95 Hour Children’s Yoga Teacher Training
  • then 30 hours of practical experience teaching children that you track on your own and add to the Yoga Alliance website

To learn more about the Level of Certification read here.

a group of kids yoga teachers holding their certificates
If you want to become a kids yoga teacher trainer, your students will want a Yoga Alliance Registered Training

Still have questions?

If you have any other questions about Kids Yoga Teacher Training and Certification, and as a kids yoga teacher, I’ve turned the comments on here so you can drop them in the comments.

If you are looking for a Kids Yoga Teacher Training, we hope all the ongoing support we offer at Young Yoga Masters will encourage you to choose our RCYS training.

Halloween Scares: Social and Emotional Learning in Yoga for Children

Watch this Video on Kids Yoga Teacher Training for Halloween Yoga Ideas

Halloween is full of spooks and scares and gives kids yoga teachers a great opportunity for Social and Emotional Learning (SEL).

Here’s a short video where I show you how you can play with SEL in your kids yoga classes.

 

Social and Emotional Learning for Preschool Children

One of my favourite activities in preschool yoga is play-acting emotions.  It’s so much fun to act out fear, sadness, excitement, greed, happiness, suspicion, and more with children in a yoga story.  With this age the story doesn’t have to be complicated, its simply exploring emotions in a playful way and helping children discover many ways to deal with the emotions.

One of the keys is letting kids connect to the concepts they already know from yoga class.

Instead of telling them to take a deep breath, ask them, “I’m scared!  What can I do?”

Let them tell you to take a deep breath. The lesson will sink in deeply when they make these connections for themselves over and over.

 

Kids Yoga Teacher Training

I use both SEL and stories in our kids yoga teacher training modules.  Not because kids are supposed to learn them, but because they are fun.  The learning is the added bonus that comes with a yoga and mindfulness practice.

a boy doing yoga on a pumpkin orange yoga mat
More Halloween Yoga Poses for Kids

Have a Happy Halloween filled with Kids Yoga!
Aruna

Lead Trainer of Young Yoga Masters
Yoga Alliance Registered Children’s Yoga Shool,

3 Olympic Themed Kids Yoga Ideas

3 Olympic Themed Kids Yoga Ideas
3 Olympic Themed Kids Yoga Ideas

Olympic Themes for Kids YogaThe weather today in Canada is cold and snowy, perfect for getting cozy in front of the TV to watch the Olympic Games. This morning I was up early to watch the women’s moguls competition.  One Canadian athlete made it to the podium and one lost control on her run and went out of bounds and did not finish the race.

In post-event interviews, the medalist described persevering through challenges with sickness in her family and her sister getting cut from the Olympic team.When she got to her last run she said she let all that go and claimed the moment as her moment to shine. She got the silver medal.

The other athlete was in contention for a gold medal but experienced an agonizing defeat.  She fought back tears as she shared how difficult it was to lose her standing, but she had to accept there is nothing she can do to change it now, she will hold her head high and move forward.

I like watching these athlete’s courage, the strength it takes to put yourself on the world stage. The victory is euphoric, but most athletes at the Olympics compete for a personal best, knowing they will likely never land on the podium.  There is always the risk that you will experience a “personal worst” moment, and you must be willing to take that risk.

While I’ve certainly never participated in the Olympics, I know the courage, dedication, and commitment it takes to put yourself out there. Just teaching a yoga class was difficult at first, then moving to part-tine business, and eventually to a full-time career in yoga. As a trainer, I see new teaches work through their nervousness in their first kids yoga classes too.

We all “go to the Olympics” in our own way, which is why it makes a great theme for kids yoga classes.

Consider sharing the sports ideas and also the difficult parts of competing and dealing with winning and losing.  Here are three ideas ways the Olympics theme can be used in your kids yoga classes this week.

3 Olympic Themed Kids Yoga Ideas

1. How the Olympics Can Help Sore Losers

What if kids don’t want to even risk playing a game because they don’t want to lose?

Helping Sore Losers by Using the Olympics and Yoga
Click the image to read the full article.

2. Olympic Yoga and Valentine’s Day

Building a pyramid to talk about the foundation of doing your best as an athlete or whatever you strive to do.  Lots of winter Olympic pose ideas here!

three kids make a pyramid like the podium of the Olympics and discuss the founations of success
Try mini pyramids like a Podium for an Olympic Valentine’s Day theme, the top can be either kneeling or standing. Make sure you have mats or a spotter.

3. Olympic Games that Build Concentration and Focus

More yoga poses for the Olympics and how your lesson plan can be adjusted to suit for different age groups.

family yoga, families doing a rowing arms pose that can be used in an Olympic themed lesson plan
Rowing Arms in a Family Yoga Class. Rowing can be adapted for different settings and age groups.

 

Sometimes when you start teaching kids in September, it can be difficult to find new ideas and lesson plans for the end of the year. Let’s get inspired by the spirit of the Games and the universal drive to reach for our own personal best, and give kids a gold medal yoga class.

Upcoming Events

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

Be sure to sign up early to save!

What Great Kids Yoga Plans Do You Have This Summer?

I’m away from home and I’ve been thinking about a family of swans I stumbled across a couple of weeks ago while I was out for a walk.

I just finished teaching a full week of the 95 hour kids yoga teacher certification in New Orleans and I’ve got one more week left. Then I’ll be back home preparing to deliver the 95 hour summer certification in Burlington, Ontario.

yoga swan building nest
Hard at work preparing family home!

Before I left for New Orleans I went for a walk along the lake shore of my hometown and to my utter delight, right smack in the middle of the marina along the pedestrian path, was a swan family building a giant nest!

Mama and Papa swan were hard at work piling branch upon branch making a home for three big eggs. The swans barely noticed us nosey human beings gathering around them (at a distance) pointing and giggling and taking photos. The majestic birds just focused on their nest building preparing to incubate their eggs and expand their family.

The swan is one of the most important symbolic creatures in all of yoga. It represents the breath and the connection of the finite to the Infinite. The symbolic swan can take us from our tiny individual self to our expansive higher Self.

In Sanskrit, a swan is called a hamsa and an accomplished yogi is called a paramahamsa (meaning transcendent swan). A yogi is one who gracefully glides across the ocean of life to liberation from time and space.

In other words, just like the swans I came across along the city lakeshore, being a yogic swan means living in the world with homes and traffic and humans side by side (all that stuff that can sometimes rub us the wrong way) while remaining cheerful and energized and focused on expanding ourselves.

yoga swan incubating eggs
The nest is built and the incubating has begun!

Since swans incubate their eggs for about forty days I’m hoping I’ll get to witness those swan eggs hatch into baby cygnets when I return to Canada to begin the kids yoga teacher training in Burlington. That would be a great summer treat!

That got me wondering, what yoga plans do you have hatching this summer?

If you’ve been incubating the idea of becoming a kids yoga teacher then the Burlington 95 hour, 12 day certification which starts July 23 is a great way to get certified within two weeks. You still have time to take advantage of the early registration discount. The early registration deadline is approaching fast on June 30, 2017.

If you’re already a kids yoga teacher then I’ve got some links below to some earlier posts with ideas for the summer.

I hope you hatch something wonderful this summer!

Get these Free Earth Day Kids Yoga Activity Pages

While planning my kids yoga classes for the daycare’s theme “Earth Day” I set to work looking for a book or some kind of visual for supporting material.

Earth Day Kids Yoga book

First I remembered a children’s book I bought a while ago but never used called, 100 Facts – Saving the Earth by Miles Kelly.  Great, a lesson plan ready to go!

But when I flipped to the first page, there sat a message of doom and gloom: the earth in danger, the planet a mess, temperatures rising, extinction probable!

I quickly closed the book as if trying to put Pandora back into her box. The idea of the end of human existence simply wouldn’t do as a theme for Earth Day.  I needed plan B – to share the message of hope and mindfulness about our big blue planet.

Now I’m curious if this negativity pervades kids attitudes about the Earth.

Getting to Know the Mind in Kids Yoga Class

The negative mind, as it’s called in Kundalini Yoga, is akin to the part of the mind that sees danger and helps you avoid getting into trouble.  The negative mind is the first and fastest function of the minds, so it’s no surprise we are bombarded by information that feeds into our fears and insecurities.  Marketing all around us tries to connect to that negative mind to get your attention.

The solution to counteract this way of thinking is to use the Positive Mind to cut through the negative.  Then the Neutral Mind can weigh the negative and positive to make a decision.

In the Yoga Sutras it is called Pratipaksa Bhavana.

“34. When disturbed by negative thoughts, opposite (positive) ones
should be thought of. This is pratipaksa bhavana.”
Book 2.34, The Sutras of Patanjali, Translation and Commentary
by Sri Swami Satchidananda p. 120 -122

Use Your Curiosity to Teach Children about Mindfulness and the Mind

I’m curious about the level of negativity children experience when they think about the Earth.  I’m going to start my kids classes by asking them what Earth Day means to them.  I wonder if it will be negative or positive?  The rest of the yoga class will flow from their answers.

We may become Earth Warriors to cut through the negative and find a positive.

Or maybe we’ll do yoga poses for all the earthly elements and animals that are happily named.

Whichever way it goes, we will to finish with hope and gratitude for all the Earth provides for the plants and animals on the planet (including humans).  We can practice Pratipaksa Bhavana to combat the negative thoughts.  Then Earth Day will be a reason to celebrate the hope the planet offers.

Earth Day is April 22

Earth Day parnter yoga coloring page for kids yoga
Earth Day Printable Colouring Page

And if you’re looking for some Earth Day activity ideas for your kids yoga classes, you check out the links below.

Earth Day Warrior Printable Colouring Page for Kids Yoga
Earth Day Warrior Printable Colouring Page

Download both printable Earth Day colouring pages here:

Download the Earth day colouring pages

More Earth Day Activities for your Kids Yoga Classes:

 

Kids Yoga makes a World of Difference!

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.

Get More Ideas and a Certificate!

Learn more activities for the Hoberman Sphere in the Themes and Dreams Kids Yoga Teacher Training Certificate!