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Levels of Certification for Kids Yoga Teachers – Who Gets What?

levels of cert

With news of the ongoing advocacy work of Yoga Alliance to prevent Yoga Teaching from becoming legislated, it is not unreasonable to feel a little confused about what is actually required to teach yoga. At this year’s Yoga Show and Conference in Toronto, the most common question we were asked was: “What training do I need to become a Kids Yoga Teacher?”

Here’s the short answer: yoga training standards are not required or enforced.

A big part of this is thanks to Yoga Alliance’s work to demonstrate that yoga teachers are self-regulated with industry standards. Typically, reputable kids’ yoga instructors will work towards completing the industry standards. However, there are valuable milestones that can be achieved on the way to full certification:

Weekend or Workshop Certificate

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.

Who typically gets this level of Certification?

  • Those already working with children in a school, daycare, or camp typically take a weekend certification course and use the training immediately with the kids they are already teaching.
  • Those who want to test the waters and see if teaching kids’ yoga is right for them.
  • Those on their way to becoming a Registered Children’s Yoga Teacher who have chosen a training with a Yoga Alliance registered school

95-Hour Certificate

Yoga Alliance set 95 hours of specialty training in kids’ yoga as the standard for a Registered Children’s Yoga School (RCYS). A 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.

Who typically gets this level of Certification?

  • Those only interested in teaching children, not adults.
  • Those who need insurance for their yoga business (insurance companies usually require more than a weekend of training)
  • Those who need more practical experience teaching kids to feel confident
  • Those teaching yoga to children who want more ideas and more variety to keep kids engaged
  • Those on their way to becoming a Registered Children’s Yoga Teacher who have chosen a training with a Yoga Alliance registered 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 followed by 30 hours of practical experience teaching children.

Who typically gets this level of Certification?

  • Those who want full qualifications to teach yoga to children, qualifications that meet the Yoga Industry standards
  • Those who want to strengthen their yoga teaching foundation beyond the playful approach of kids yoga to areas like alignment and sequencing
  • Those who one day want to be Children’s Yoga Teacher Trainers
Infographic outlining different levels of certification

So What Training is Right for YOU?

Take a minute to consider where you fit into the information above.

All Yoga teacher training is incredibly valuable, exploring many topics and teaching habits yogis may have not considered or come across in their own practice.

In-depth training explores best pedagogical practice and ethical concerns you should be aware of. For example:

  • It is crucial as an instructor to understand ways of determining when and how to physically assist students and when verbal cues may be more comfortable and appropriate.
  • How can poses be adjusted for those with different abilities?
  • How to review your lesson plans to make sure they ensure best practices?

Can you Get Insurance with the Certificate you Have?

If you are staring a business you want to make sure you have enough training to get insurance. Each insurance company for each region has different requirements. If you are running a business the time will come when you need insurance. Ask your insurance company about certification and a bonus question that is helpful to know:

  • how much training do I need to be a kids yoga teacher,
  • what kind of waiver do I need my students to complete to be covered by the policy (some don’t require a waiver and some do)

Expanding Your Network and Building Community

An added benefit of participating in lengthy training with other like-minded individuals translates to an easy entry to the yogic community, or expansion of your existing network. Though this is not a requirement, it is certainly a benefit to training participation.

Your network can be a great resource long after training is complete, whether it be for personal support, finding a sub, hearing about new classes, or professional development.

Training can be a time of tremendous personal growth as well.

Will this Certificate Serve Your Long Term Goals?

We have had more than one very experienced children’s yoga teacher take our Yoga Alliance Registered training just so they could get the Certificate and be listed as a lead trainer in another Yoga Alliance school!

If you take a training with an school that is not registered with Yoga Alliance, that door closes for you. It won’t affect you when you when you are getting jobs teaching.

It will affect you if you have a long term goal of being a trainer.

Yoga Alliance won’t recognize you as a Trainer or a School if your Certificate is not from a Yoga Alliance registered school.

For many people this doesn’t matter for quite a while, but if you plan to become a trainer one day, your choice now could save you time and money later.

Recommendations for Choosing a Level of Training

In the end the best practices lean towards choosing training registered with Yoga Alliance that will count towards your 95-hour certificate.

There was a time when Yoga Alliance was not responsive to the needs of Yoga Teachers, but that time passed when Yoga Alliance began to advocate on behalf of teachers at the policy level. We are happy to have Registered Adult and Children’s Yoga Schools.

These are just a few of many important questions to consider before taking the lead in a yoga class.

Whether you get a weekend training or full certification will be your choice in the end, and you’ll consider what you are getting and what you won’t get with the training you choose.

What factors are important to you in choosing a Yoga Teacher Training? How will you decide?

Kids Yoga Lesson Plans: Respect

Respect is the Character Development theme for the month of September in our School Board. Respect means thoughtfulness, consideration, honor, admiration, regard, esteem.  All these words show what happens when there is respect.  But with kids you need to give them more than words, you need to give them an experience of Respect for them to understand it.

The Respect Game (below) uses child pose, a good pose for resting and hiding games.

The Roots of Respect:

Start a class about respect discussing the roots of the word:

“Re:” when “re” is in a word it means “again, back to the original place, with reference to” like in repeat, remind, resource. The “re” tells us to do something again.

“Spect” – means to look at.  The words spectacle, spectator, or spectacles contain “spect.”

To respect is to look again, to go back and take another look. We take another look when we feel there is value, what we respect we hold in esteem. If we respect a teacher, we look to that teacher to teach us. If we respect a friend we want to go back to that friend.

Ask the kids, “What things do you respect?”

Warm-ups
We respect ourselves, what we do (yoga), and each other by looking again.  Lets look as we sit in easy pose. Are you warm, cold, comfortable or uncomfortable?

Now warm-up with the Sun Salutation (or choose some other warm-ups).  Then come back to easy pose. Look again at yourself. How do you feel now? Warmer? More comfortable? Less comfortable? Tired? Energized?

Looking at yourself again is Self-Respect. Knowing yourself lets you respect and take care of you!

 

A teacher and student play together in a parnter yoga pose doing cobra pose and Cat Cow
Partner Yoga Teaches Children about Respect and How to Have Fun Playing

Next: Partner Yoga for Children

What does it mean to respect your partner? Before you begin, look into your partners eyes and greet them. In partner yoga you look at yourself (self-respect) and also respect your partner.

Ask the kids:  What could happen if you don’t respect your partner?  (They could get hurt, you might stand on their foot without looking!)

Choose a few partner poses for the next part of the class.  Look at your body to get it in the right position.  Look again at your partner, are they okay?  Then look again at your breath. Then look again at your muscles.  Each time you look again, you will see that there are many layers to everything we do and understand that respect is about looking deeply, not just on the surface.

A Yoga Story About Looking Again

There is an old yoga story about a man walking through the forest at night. It was getting dark  and he stepped on something on the path.  When he looked down he saw a snake and froze, screaming for help. When the neighbors arrived with torches, they saw it wasn’t a snake at all, it was only a rope.

The first time we look at something we see one thing, but when we look again we see all kinds of other things.  Just like the man in the story, what we think we see may be an illusion and not what is actually there.

Look Again: A Kids Yoga Game for Respect

I made up this game to try in class to help children understand why we need to take another look, to help understand what respect is:

One child stands at the front of the class with all the other children looking at them. They have 30 – 60 seconds to look at the child as everyone does the pose (tree, cobra, butterfly, even downward dog – any pose where the children can look at the front without hurting their neck). Try to remember everything you can about the child.

Then all the kids rest in child pose with eyes kept closed (including the child at the front – they have to remember too!). The teacher calls out questions and the kids call out their answers to see how much they can remember. What color is their shirt? pants? shoes? eyes? Were they wearing jewelery? What style is their hair? etc.

They come out of child pose and look again at the person at the front and see all the things they  missed. Repeat the game or repeat with 2 or 3 children at the front for a real challenge.  Take a few minutes to rest at the end of the class.

Discussion Questions for Yoga Lesson Plan for Children:

How did this game help you understand what respect is?   How does looking again show respect?

Sometimes we look at a person and because of how they look (short or tall, underweight or overweight, old or young) we think we don’t need to look any further.  We judge the person based on one look.  How is this related to respect?  Is it dis-respectful to do this?   Why or why not?  Has this ever happened to you?

These are some ways that yoga can give children an experience of respect.

Please add your comments and suggestions about teaching kids about respect.  Can anyone recommend any good songs for a kids theme about respect?

 

Upcoming Kids Yoga Teacher Training

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