It’s holiday time! So what better opportunity is there to feel like a kid again? Oh come on, it wasn’t that long ago. Besides, we all get a bit childlike on the yoga mat, right? One of our favorite teachers always says ‘we are all little kids having an adult experience.’
WIN: So, now that that’s settled, we invite you to share your own “little kid” yoga experiences to enter to win a copy of the adorably fun new children’s book Watch Me Do Yoga, written and illustrated by senior Iyengar teacher Bobby Clennell. (thanks to Rodmell Press for providing!)
“Watch Me Do Yoga is a great introduction to how to do yoga with your kids: make it something you do together and make it fun.” Ann Pizer about.com
TO ENTER: Has yoga helped you feel like a kid? Did you have a fun kids yoga experience? Share it in the comments and help us all feel young again! See photo gallery below for inspiration. Photos are from the WMDY book launch at the Iyengar Institute of NY – Thanks to Bobby!
Giveaway ends Friday. Winners will be chosen at random and announced next week. Good luck!
AND THE WINNERS ARE…Congrats to Clare, alacrity, Lauren Z, Julie G, Latryce, Gretchen, Alexandra, Sheryl, Sarah and Katy!
Thanks to all for participating!
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Earlier…
Trying my very first headstands made me feel so much like kid!!! Kids are fearless! Learning how to tumble and fall again without judgment was such an important and fun lesson. 🙂 There was so much giggling that day in class!
Thanks so much for doing this giveaway!
Peace,
Lauren
I feel so much more flexible and able to have fun with movement since I started yoga!
I often go to my yoga room any allow myself to just play -allowing myself to try balance poses and inversions without any attachment to outcome. It is usually in those moments of just being fully present in my body and “playing” in the pose that I find a greater sense of ease and joy.
One time I was teaching a Mommy and Me yoga class for a local charitable organization. This class had a few sweet, but rowdy boys that were making jokes and chasing each other around before class. During the asana practice, we were all lying on backs and hugging our knees into our chests. I was explaining how the pose was considered to be a wind reliever position when one of the boys let out a loud and long burst of wind! (Yes… he farted) We all laughed so hard and long that we were still falling down with laughter during Tree Pose!
it make me bendable and flexible like a kid!
I took my seven-year-old son to a parent & me yoga class and his favorite part was doing cat/cow — with appropriate sound effects. The class was so joyous, I can’t wait to go back!
I currently teach yoga to groups of 10 year olds at a Brooklyn charter school, Ocean Hill Collegiate.
The kids are amazing, interested and such an inspiration to me, to be able to share and teach them everything I know while learning about what gets their focus, excitement, and engagement going.
Teaching yoga to adults can be strengthening and powerful but working with kids has helped me loosen my grip on ‘the right way’ of holding a pose, the quiet serious demeanor. I get a new group every few months so it’s great to introduce the practice to fresh faces, and it keeps it interesting for me too!
I’m grateful for the Uncommon Schools group and their progressive approach to education. The teachers are very dedicated and loving and it makes a huge difference. Not to mention the after school enrichment program opens these kids’ minds to new experiences and possibilities. LOVE!
What’s not child like about yoga?! To truly benefit, I have to let my inhibitions go. Children are open and willing to explore…That’s the main component to learning. I attend a yoga class as a student and being a school teacher, I have a chance to be on the other side! Listening to my teacher and following her cues and finding a great sense of accomplishments from her praise. To me, yoga is about balance and focus. After yoga class, I am energized and ready to tackle another day in my own classroom!!
Everything about yoga makes me like a kid! aHndstands rock my world and remind me all things childlike. But what really makes me happy, is doing yoga with my nieces. Their never ending desire to do down dog with partners is awesome. We usually play a game, I teach them a new yoga pose and they teach me a new basketball move or dance move.
The best though is after my little 6 year old niece complained of having a sore back, we did some simple yoga poses and with her cute little eyes closed she sighed while in a twist and said: “this is amazing”! Now a month later she does her yoga stretches each evening before bed. My cup runneth over!
When I teach kid’s yoga, I always go in with a plan, and end up scrapping most of it! Kids are amazing, and when you work with them, you truly have to surrender to the flow. I find that there is no truer sense of the teacher becoming the student than in kid’s yoga. One thing I’ve learned is that a kid’s yoga class must have some form of dance party, coloring, and or animal noises at some point in the format. 😉 One of my proudest moments was when my (then 4 year old nephew popped into half moon on the kitchen floor.
I can be pretty serious. Yoga teaches me to balance the playful, and certain poses and styles can cultivate this for me more than others. Vinyasa style yoga is a little more “freeing” and gives me a more tangible feeling of vivacity and dynamism that we often see in kids. Poses that especially challenge balance require a good humor to release the attachment of achievement. Falling is OK, and part of the process, and even…fun? Of course, the most obvious pose and lesson of the child would be Balasana. What a pose of intelligence—to know when to surrender. Kid’s can really teach us how to listen, especially to our Selves.
I co-teach a mommy (& daddy) baby yoga class. Both the other instructor and I are new mamas, and we instruct the class with our own babies. The class makes me feel like a kid because it’s all about play and adaptation–singing to the babies, making “whooshing” noises as we go into a forward fold, wiggling our fingers when we reach up to entertain the babies. Having your baby right there, you don’t care how silly you look or sound. That lack of self-conciousness is one of the best things I remember about early childhood, and it’s wonderful to regain it in class.
I love letting my kids teach me yoga! They are natural yogis living in the moment, completely free from attachment and aversion (it is all about fun for them). Their creativity and playfulness are an inspiration for sure. Batman and ballerina poses abound!
My two year old loves doing yoga. I babysit children in my home and we do Yoga together almost every day. The children love it.
My daughter uses yoga when she is bored. If we are in a restaurant I always ask for a booth because she will do yoga in the booth to keep herself busy if she gets restless while waiting for food. She does it while waiting in line. She does yoga everywhere we go!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ginthefer/5147258943/
My little yoga chicken.
I love practicing yoga with my kids–they are so flexible and always willing to try anything. Unlike adults…they think it’s hilarious to fall out of a pose.
Just doing yoga makes me feel like a kid- its all I talk about and all I want to play. I also used to be a gymnast so this is like the “grown-up” version of that. 🙂 but truly, playing yoga at schools with kindergartners or even 6th graders and having my 3 year old demonstrate partner tree pose with me is the highlight of all experiences. Kids LOVE to be in the spotlight and move their bodies and I am so grateful to be the one that gets to “stand tall like a mountain” for all the kids out there waiting to find their inner light. 🙂 plus it doesn’t hurt to have a class full of kids shout YOGAAAAAAAAA every time you walk in to the room.
We would love to win this – I’ve been eying this for a while. 🙂 My daughter loves yoga, but we need some new inspiration for practicing together at home. Now that I think about it, so do I!
everytime i do an accidental summersault!
At the end of my gentle yoga CD, the instructor has me curl into a ball on my side. It’s hard not to suck my thumb 😉
jax