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You are here: Home / Archives for Olympics Yoga

Olympics Yoga

Kids Yoga For Special Needs and the Story of the Special Olympics

Kids Yoga for Special NeedsMy large experience in traveling the world and working is that we’re a lot much more alike than different at the heart. And sport is a great common denominator. – Dr. Frank Hayden

A Revolution in Play Skills for Kids with Special Needs

We become a wiser and kinder society when we try to understand each child in their uniqueness, with unique needs and unique capabilities.

Dr. Frank Hayden, Founder of Special Olympics
Dr. Frank Hayden

Yet there was a time when children with special needs were thought to be unintelligent and physically incapable of participating in the most basic play and sporting activities.  All teachers, families, and coaches saw was what those children couldn’t do.  Few were asking or wondering about what kids with special needs could do.

Sometimes it takes someone thinking differently than everyone else to transform long-held social beliefs like these. Once such person was Dr. Frank Hayden. He revolutionized the way educators approached teaching physical activity to kids with special needs.

“Nobody taught them to ride a bike because they figured they would never learn. Nobody on the street played with them because they didn’t have the play skills to do it. And people were in some ways, even frightened of them.”  – Dr. Frank Hayden

Dr. Hayden currently lives in Burlington, Ontario, where we hold our kids yoga summer certification, but he started his revolutionary fitness research with a group of inner-city Toronto children in the 1960’s.

It’s Not the Disability that Prevents Participation, It’s a Lack of Opportunity

Using the tools of the scientific method he showed it wasn’t disability that prevented children with special needs from participating in play and recreation, it was a lack of opportunity.  Those children had never been taught play skills which meant they had never gotten the opportunity to learn play skills.

The Dawn of the Special Olympics

When Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the sister of John F. Kennedy, heard of Dr. Hayden’s revolutionary research she asked him to help start an Olympic style event for children of differing sporting abilities. The first such event was held in Chicago in 1968 it became a regular occurrence going on to be named the Special Olympics. Dr. Hayden played a key role in the growth and development of the Special Olympics which now involves over 5 million athletes in 170 countries.

For his pioneering work in sport and play Dr. Hayden was recently inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame.

This video of Dr. Hayden’s work is highly recommended because it shows what a difference one person with the right attitude can make.

Dr. Hayden changed hearts and minds and proved that highly skilled physical activity and athleticism was possible for all children, especially those of varying physical and learning abilities.

To develop these skills, kids must be given the opportunity to learn.

Society has become a kinder and wiser thanks to this ground breaking research and world changing actions.

As kids yoga teachers we can honour Dr. Hayden’s work when we learn ways to offer yoga with activities and environments where children with special needs can fulfill their physical and emotional potentials.  All kids can do yoga if we give them the opportunity to learn.

Inclusive Yoga

If you would like to learn more about teaching yoga to children of varying abilities, the next kids yoga teacher training module is Inclusive Yoga and it focuses on yoga for kids with special needs. In addition to poses and music, we present techniques and tools like visual schedules, games like the yoga obstacle course, and activities that teach kids how to self-regulate stress using our super hero Yoga Man.

 

Inclusive Yoga Certificate Kids Yoga Teacher Training

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

 

 

Filed Under: Kids Yoga, Olympics Kids Yoga Tagged With: benefits, children's yoga, kids yoga teacher training, Olympics Yoga, yoga for special needs

Olympic Kids Yoga and Valentine’s Day

Olympic Kids Yoga and Valentines Day

A Gold Medal Week

partner yoga is great for kids yoga during the Olympics

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

Filed Under: Kids Yoga, Lesson Plans, Olympics Kids Yoga, Yoga Games Tagged With: heart, kids yoga teacher training, Olympics, Olympics Yoga, partner yoga, themes, Valentine Yoga, Valentine's Day, yoga poses

One World One Dream – Olympic Yoga

One World, One Dream - Olympic Yoga

The Spirit of the Games

While yoga is not (yet) an Olympic sport, there are ways to tap into the excitement of the Olympics to enhance your kids yoga classes.
Many kids love the Olympics. They are really special because they only come around every four years. This morning in my pre-school yoga class (3-5 year olds) at a daycare, five out of eight kids said they were watching the Olympics on TV. Earlier in the summer, my nephew asked to have an Olympic-themed birthday party, and it was a hit with all the kids.

Behind the Olympics

Knowing from personal experience that this is an event and topic which engages kids, in class today I asked, “What are the Olympics?”
They remembered swimming, gymnastics, bicycling, and racing. I wondered if they knew that these athletes practice for years to go to the Olympics. They have to keep going and practice even when it gets hard. These athletes want to compete against the world’s best.
At the Olympics, many athletes record their personal best, and are happy to know that they themselves are among the best in the world. Not everyone will win gold, but it is an incredible accomplishment to qualify and participate in the games.

Challenge Can Inspire Us

Yoga is not usually a competition, but it is a challenge. We are striving for our personal bests, wanting to master a pose so we can move on to more difficult ones. When others can do a pose better than we can, we can choose to feel defeated or inspired. We can be happy to be around our peers who have mastered poses we have yet to master ourselves, just like the Olympians are happy to be at the games. It is up to the individual.
Yoga teaches us to overcome challenges. Off the mat, we have greater courage to start living life with more meaning. This is true success.
“As long as we are not bold enough to step out into the unknown
and experience life to its fullest, we will feel bored.
Ancient Secrets of Success for Today’s World by Tulshi Sen, p. 161
If kids are never given challenges they will never experience the bliss of living. There is no greater feeling than lying on the ground exhausted and satisfied, having fully put body, mind, and spirit into overcoming a challenge.
A Challenge for you: Can you guess some Olympic-inspired yoga poses? Comment below!
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Filed Under: Inspiration, Kids Yoga, Lesson Plans, Olympics Kids Yoga Tagged With: children's yoga, lesson plans, Olympics, Olympics Yoga, themes

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