And now, a message…
Often in yoga class we’re encouraged to hearken back to our days as little kids and *gasp* be playful! Because children are curious and open-minded and natural yogis, with less bills to pay and no concept of 9 to 5 except for maybe breakfast and dinner! As BIG kids we endeavor to redeem that innocence and carefree attitude, but imagine if we had learned how to deal with stress and anxiety when we were just tots? Yoga for kids is definitely gaining traction these days and for good reason, we can really underestimate the potential stresses in a little tykes’ life. Or bigger tykes, like say grade schoolers dealing with divorce, or middle schoolers struggling with twinklings of adolescence.
And so it is with pleasure and reverence we introduce to you one of our newest sponsors, ChildLight Yoga (you may have noticed their vibrant square in the upper right corner). In brief, ChildLight offers childrens and family yoga classes for “kids” of all ages. They also offer specialized trainings for we grown folks to better assist and lead the small fries in their own playful yoga journey. Founder Lisa Flynn is a mommy and longtime yogi who developed the program out of her own experiences having kiddies, and budding yogis, at home. If you’re a yoga teacher thinking about adding children’s yoga classes to your repertoire of service, or interested in Yoga 4 Classrooms, we recommend checking out ChildLight for further education, since we may not be kids necessarily, but we are always students. There are several locations up and around the Northeast region. [more info]
And thus concludes this word from our sponsors…you big kids can get back to work now!
Even though my kids are long grown this subject is of great interest to me.
First of all, I now have two grandchildren. They’re a little young for Yoga (1 1/2 and 11 months), but not by much. Yoga will be a really fun thing to do with them.
Secondly, my wife is an education consultant and avid Yoga practioner. She is very interested in how Yoga can be used in the classroom.
Thirdly, one of my favorite books is “Babar’s Yoga For Elephants”, in which it is revealed that Yoga was actually developed by elephants in prehistoric times and only adapted by humans many years later.
Finally, I personally see connections between the way kids think and Yoga sages. On my website you will find this passage:
“The great gurus of Yoga and other Eastern traditions achieve inner peace and experience the ultimate joy in life by cultivating the boundless wonder of a child. For them every moment is the occasion for innocent amazement, even in the middle of the most trying circumstances. They still experience all the ordinary pain and difficulty of being human. They just process it differently.”
Thanks for reminding me of all these fun connections I have with kids!
Bob W.
http://www.yogademystified.com
@reweis on Twitter
I didn’t realize how long that last comment was until I posted it! I decided to post it on my own Yoga Journal blog with a link back to you and Childlight:
http://community.yogajournal.com/_Thoughts-about-Yoga-and-Kids/blog/580762/25925.html
Kids yoga is hugely popular. It is also great for the little ones to keep the imagination active as I’ve heard imagination/creativity will be most valued in the future when computers do a lot of the other work for us. As you mentioned it hard to be creative when your too busy being stressed.
Always wonderful to see yoga for kids and teens get a shout out. It helps them in so many vital ways. What a tremendous gift to give the little people in your life, something they will actually use again and again. Share yoga with a child today!
As for me, education system is not created for children at all. It is made for government, it is comfortable for them when for children it is very difficult. It is awful. I think that too much education can cause a bad effect on health and nerves. Thats why a lot of students smoke. Educational system is difficult a little bit. I have huge problems with my neck and nerves because of learning smth without sleeping. When i will have children i will let them use such services https://pro-papers.com/au/prices to keep them healthier.