Just wondering whether any of you are doing yoga yourselves and/or plan to have your child learn yoga.
For a couple of months now, we’ve had a once-a-week “Family yoga” session, and it’s been fun. It’s amazing watching Felicity do some poses which I can’t even dream of ever doing now!
One thing I’ve always regretted for myself was not staying supple/flexible when I was young, since it’s so much harder to regain that flexibility now as adults, so I would like for Felicity to always remain supple and flexible. If she were to ever do gymnastics (which she probably will in school later), I’d think she’d find it easier too.
Having been doing yoga over the past couple of months myself, I can feel that yoga really does make you (at least feel) healthier and more at peace.
No, I hadn’t thought of Yoga for Sophia but definetly was thinking about it for me.
I am so inflexible and need to certainly stretch out. I don’t think there are any mum and bub yoga classes in my area but i guess I will have to look into it.
Yoga is not just good for flexibility training it is also really wonderful for the mind and can help with developing a greater concentration.
I tried yoga a few years ago, and I really liked it. I just couldn’t continue b/c the center was so far from home. I also did some yoga during my pregnancy. I think it would be a great way to maintain the flexibility of our children, but how old do they have to be to start?
I used to be a certified Yoga teacher ages ago, but I was trained only for adults. But i can see the application of yoga in children very easily as it helps not just to maintain /improve flexibility and breathing but has a more holistic approach of improving concentration and the ability to relax . I think both these aspects are so important in todays life. According to me once children are able to follow 3-4 step commands consistently, yogic practices can be initiated.
We know that children love to imitate and if parents participate in yoga consistently, kids will want to do it too! Just thinking about it, just like with reading, I think kids will want to perform the more wierd postures (at least for the giggles). Just make sure that you have a good yoga instructor .
I do Yoga at least once a week while my son is awake. The first pose he imitated was downward dog. SOOOO funny. I hadn’t thought about really incorporating him into my sessions yet. Maybe because he’s kind of young I didn’t think he’d stay focused. Funny since I’m doing so much else with him. You’ve given me pause about this. Maybe doing one or two poses with him could be great fun and a great learning on many levels.
Nikki, I think we can start them from 3 onwards. but even before then, you could get them to do simple ‘poses’ like cross-legged (double lotus, like what that girl is doing in the pic i posted!).
I think yoga is great. In fact, if I ever meet Glenn Doman I would tell him he should include yoga in his “How To Teach Your Child To Be Physically Superb” book!!!
KL, My son is 21 months today. I agree think 2.5 or 3 might be a more reasonable age to get his focus, but maybe no hard in trying to encourage him to imitate my sun salutations. Or maybe even making a point of doing Yoga in front of him more often. I like the idea of lotus too.
It shouldnt be too hard to teach at home, and if you dont now any yoga yourself I see heaps of yoga and pilates dvds and videos in my op-shopping travels, for $2 each. You can buy kids yoga dvds on ebay… usually from the US… i have Yoga Kids 2, ABC"s for ages 3-6, by “Gaiam kids”. So havent put it on yet, as bub too young. It was quite cheap (in the US), like $7. But I have noticed Azaria likes to often put her butt in the air, feet and head on the floor. And come to think of it, that is the downward dog. I usually grab her her feet to do a headstand, but why not do yoga!!
And for the record, some flexibility is just inborn… I’m super flexible (I do the splits after giving birth each time, just to see if my pelvic pain problem has recovered) though getting stiffer cos I dont try to stay supple, and the only kid that seems to have inherited this is my only SON!! I reckon he could be a contortionist if he practised. (feet behind his head, splits, on tummy feet and head touching behind his back etc). He didnt try to get flexible, he just was!! Usually it’s girls who are flexible, and boys are stiff and immobile. He doesnt do gymnastics, though it does come in handy for his karate in being able to do high kicks. Not sure what will happen to him at puberty though.
I did gymnastics as a kid, and have been following a little of How to Teach your baby to be Physically superb.
I had always thought that yoga had to do with strange esoteric things. Thanks for your ideas and thoughts. Though there are no yoga classes nearby I will surely get some videos!!
I’ve used yoga on and off for a number of years on its own and in conjunction with my running routine, which has also been in off position for most of the last two years. I’m happy to say I ran with the baby to the chiro, groceries and back this morning ( aprox. 7kms) without keeling over, and am determined to continue doing so at least three times a week. I may not be running any marathons this year, but my headspace will certainly benefit, regardless. Next goal on the taking-care-of-myself-before-I-completely-lose-it list is finding even a few minutes a day to do some yoga. Historically, this has been something I prefer to do in solitude, but since my limited solo time is taken up with work these days, the only way I can see this happening is if Marina is involved too. Although it hadn’t even occurred to me before you brought it up - thanks KL.
Let us know what you think of the Gaiam vids - they sound really good - thanks Nikita for your review.
I teach basic yoga positions in my preschool/daycare, and it is really fun. I bought some inexpensive mats (about $10 each), but I usually only have 2 preschoolers at a time doing yoga- the rest of the children are under 2. I place the littlest ones in playyards that face us so that they can see what we are doing and move around safely. If there is only one little one, I’ll let him crawl around us as we do the poses- he likes to crawl under my legs, which the kids think is very funny. I play Glen Velez’s “Rhythm of the Chakras 2”, which has some wonderful drumming and percussive music. I feel the sounds vibrate in certain chakras while we listen to each track- very cool!
As far as what positions we do- I just try to do two or three successive poses before wiggling and moving around a bit so that the kids have fun. We start with some breath exercises, and do most of these poses on any given week:
We also pretend to be animals, and we’ll try to imitate world animal dances we see on YouTube during “breaks” between yoga poses. Youtube search “Tiger dance” and you’ll see what I mean. Usually yoga time is goes about 15-20 minutes, and I do it daily in the midafternoon.
I have the Yoga Kids DVDs and they help a lot because my daughter and me follow the instructions on the video. She likes “doing it” because she sees other children on the video doing the poses and she “can make it, too”. It is a nice way to make her exercise, stretch and stay calm.
In order to keep them engaged- I will ask alot of questions and talk about visualizations in the course of doing the poses. Like, for a tree pose, “what kind of a tree are you- where do you live- do you grow any fruit? I’m a mango tree near a tropical beach- I feel the warm sun on my branches, and breathe in the salty sea air.” Its not meditative yoga, per se, until the very end, when we rest on our backs and stretch into a starfish position. I’m sure it would not be easy to do it continuously, pose to pose, for the whole time. Like I said, we’ll do a sequence of a few poses, and then do some wiggling and dancing, and then continue. I try to avoid poses that require an extensive amount of balance or where they could potentially fall or get hurt. Sometimes I will move over and adjust their poses, but sometimes I’ll say something to the effect of "Okay, can you strreeeeeetch your arms up higher? Can you reeeeach for the sun? " or in warrior poses "Can you beeeend a little more and show how you are a powerful warrior? Can you make a warrior face, but keep your arms and legs still? Warriors can be powerful without hurting others. " Kids LOVE opportunities to make faces.
I highly suggest a book (published by a local Utah author- not sure how widely it’s distributed) called “Create a Yoga Practice for Kids” by Yael Calhoun and Matthew R. Calhoun, published by Sunstone Press.
I have always felt like such a loser about yoga because I’m about as flexible as a stiff board. I would reallly like for my children to maintain some of their flexibility as they age.
I’ve always been terrible at physical things. I feel bad because I don’t want to pass my feelings on to my little ones. I’m definitely going to have to try harder!
So the consesus is to start when they are about three for the “hard core” stuff and younger for simpler things.
I love all the pictures of the little kids doing yoga. That is truly beautiful.
I find this part of the description interesting:
While many yoga books present individual poses, this book explains how to create a flowing yoga practice that will holds kids’ interest while providing the benefits of yoga.
Hipkids, if you could elaborate on how they do that, that’d be most appreciated!
