It’s summer! Which means kids yoga camps and time to try fresh ideas that you just don’t have time to try in a regular class.

I’m planning a summer camp right now. It’s 18 hours of kids yoga over 5 days in our Kids Yoga Teacher – Summer Certification. So going through my resources and picking my favorite activities. This camp during the Kids Yoga Training is so much fun and adds a dimension to the training you only get teaching actual kids. Here’s what happens at the Summer Certification and why it just may be for you:

18 hours of kids camp where you actually get to teach real kids
tons of easy to use resources, colouring pages, books, yoga cards, props, all things that kids like, and they are all included
you get to retreat from your regular life and focus on being a kids yoga teacher
you make amazing connections with the teachers and the other participants and for a supportive community

You can get your 95 Hour Certificate from our Yoga Alliance Registered Children’s Yoga School. Email me if you have any questions or are interested: [email protected]

So while I’m prepping for camp I’ll share some of my plans. Here are 5 Kids Yoga Summer Camp Ideas from our Kids Yoga Teacher Training that are sure to enhance your camps.

5 Kids Yoga Activities to Enhance Your Camps this Summer

1. Chakras for Children

Explore the Chakras Each Day of Camp: When I teach kids yoga at a school or daycare, I steer away from the Chakras. The topic is too esoteric for the public domain. But when I teach a kids yoga camp in a studio, the Chakras are perfect for yoga studio territory. I explore this topic from angles that kids can relate to: favourite colours, elements of nature, and super-powers that each chakra hold. Learn more on Chakras for Children in our Kids Yoga Teacher Training and get this free printable Chakra System PDF on this Blog Post here.

2. Mandala Activities for Kids

This includes both drawing Mandalas and making them with your body as these pictures show:

kids mandala workshop - during yoga class the group is seated in a circle and makes shapes with their arms and legs that look like a giant mandala. this is part of the Young Yoga Masters Kids Yoga Teacher Training — Part of the Young Yoga Masters Kids Yoga Teacher Training

Kids Mandala Workshop Meditation and Yoga Presentation, kids hold up the mandalas they created with coloured ink and stampers Kids Make Mandalas - part of the Young Yoga Masters Kids Yoga Techer Training — Kids Make Mandalas with large paper and stamp pads. – part of the Young Yoga Masters Kids Yoga Teacher Training

3. My Song

It can be hard for some kids to open up in class but you you will find that most children have a favorite song. During an 8 hour a day, week long yoga camp I taught, we had a lot of time for extra activities.

One of the big hits was talking about our favorite songs and why they are meaningful to us. Give kids time to contemplate what “My Song” will be. Once they choose, it might surprise you how they open up in class. Plus its very relaxing to listen to songs and hear their meaning.

4. Eye Pillows (and Washable Pillow Cases)

Eye Pillows are a fun one or two day craft and activity that comes straight from our Inclusive Yoga Certificate of Kids Yoga Teacher Training. We use eye pillows as weighted objects to help kids get into their body.

First Part: Fill the first sock with rice or grains. Then pass around some dried herbs or essential oils to smell. The kids can create a custom fragrance in their pillow.

Second Part: Draw on the second sock to make your pillow case. Just follow the directions on the fabric markers. We put the socks over a can of club soda to make it easier to draw on the material.

Tip: The Crayola Brand Fabric Markers boast “Great for dark fabrics” but I was disappointed. So all my dark socks became the inner pillow, and the white socks were for marking on.

I think these eye pillows are better than stuffed animals or Beanie Babies, because you can pull off the pillow case and wash them!

5. Word Games

We developed the Frog Yoga Alphabet especially to help keep kids busy during kids yoga and Yoga Camps. You can print and play all kinds of games with them.

Sometimes people think a Yoga Alphabet is just for children learning the alphabet, but with a little imagination, those letters become words and the words become games and stories! The next thing you know, you are playing charades, hangman, or discussing your “Word of the Day,” coloring it, and putting it up on your wall.

We recommend you keep it “yoga” by doing the yoga pose each time a letter is used.

Enhance Your Camps

Yoga and fun go hand in hand. So when you’ve got the extra time in a Yoga Camp let these activities inspire you to enhance your camps.

What is your favorite activity for a kids yoga camp?

Upcoming Events:

Get Your Kids Yoga Teacher 95 Hour Certificate in the Summer Certification!

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

Contact [email protected] for more information or visit the Registration Page for dates and registration info.

Make Your Kids Yoga Training One to Remember!

Register Now for an Unforgettable Training

Students make up their own classes in Kids Yoga Teacher Training

Children’s Yoga Summer Activities

Legend has it that Yogi Bhajan, the Master of Kundalini Yoga, would inspire and direct everyone at original Summer Solstice gatherings to write and sing songs . Having composed and practiced their creations the musical students would take the stage and perform live for those in attendance and for Yogi Bhajan. I myself attended some of the later Solstice gatherings and left the events with pockets stuffed with cassette tapes. The songs from those events are so catchy that though I still own the original cassettes I have gone on to buy the professionally produced versions on on cassette, DVD, and downloadable digital formats.

This rich body of music is part of why people love Kundalini Yoga so much.

I’ve been to other retreats where students put on all kinds of performances for their teacher. It was always one of the highlights of the event and a time when the teacher sees how the students interpret the teachings. Some people think yoga retreats are hard, but in my experience they’re very uplifting and creative. For me they’re like Summer Camp for adults.

Activities for Kids Yoga

It’s helpful to look at what the Master Teachers did with their students. The teacher gives guidelines then sends the students off to experience the teachings for themselves. Whether its something simple like explaining a yoga pose then having everyone do it, or more complex like writing songs at Summer Solstice.

I take ideas from the Master’s Play Book. In my Kids Yoga Teacher Training course there is always a part of the course where the teachers take what they’ve learned and create their own kids yoga classes. Then they teach it to me and the rest of the group. On the feedback forms, many write that this is their favorite part of the course.

You may want to try it too if you teach kids yoga, whether its in a yoga camp or in your own living room. Make Creativity an activity. Give children the assignment to write their own songs, poems, or skits. Then let them show you what they’ve done.

It just may be the highlight of their summer and yours.

My Favorite Yoga Album of the Summer

“I don’t mind what happens, whatever happens I don’t mind.
I don’t mind what happens, whatever happens I’ll be fine.”
– lyrics from I Don’t Mind song by Harnam Singh
from the album Love Infinite Divine.

I still love to listen to music! I recently downloaded an album, Love Infinite Divine, and have been playing over and over at home. It’s music that came out of the Kundalini Yoga tradition that is living strong even though Yogi Bhajan passed on many years ago.

What kind of things have you learned from Master Teachers that you make a point to do in your classes?

summer camps