Not going back to school this semester? You could be! If you’ve been dreaming about bringing yoga to kids, this could very well be your wake up call and the next step to take you there. We’re extra excited to announce this giveaway because 1) many YD readers have inquired about how to work with kids, and 2) we keep reading great stories of how yoga can improve the lives of kids from being a healthy exercise to being an emotional coping technique to building better cognitive skills. This is no little feat, and we have oodles of gratitude for the facilitators and teachers out there putting in the hard work with the kiddles so that all of our futures may be brighter.
WIN: The folks at Yogi Beans are offering a “bring a buddy” scholarship for October’s 25-hour kids yoga teacher training. This means you and a friend/colleague/partner in yoga will both get to participate in the fun and educational training for the cost of one tuition, essentially a 2-for-1, half scholarship each. The total cost for the 25-hr training is $750, which you can split however you like, though halfsies is a always good way to go.*
Course highlights include:
- Child–appropriate Pranayama (breathing exercises), asanas (poses), and meditation.
- Focus and concentration games and activities.
- How to make yoga philosophy accessible to a child.
- Incorporating stories and songs into your class.
- Sequencing class for ages 2 to 10.
- Disciplinary techniques.
- Practice teaching and feedback.
- Teaching techniques for parent and child classes.
Training: YOGI BEANS TEACHER TRAINING
Location: Yogi Beans Studio, 1018 Lexington Avenue, 2nd Floor (@73rd street)
Dates: 10/12/2013 (SAT) – 10/14/2013 (MON)
Length: 25 Hours
Time: SAT & SUN 9:00am – 6:00pm; MON 10:00am – 5:00pm
Read what people have to say about the training. Check out Yogi Beans on facebook and twitter @yogibeans.
Note: We do apologize for the regional constraints of this one, but Yogi Beans is located on NYC’s Upper East Side and unless you can teleport, you’ll have to be physically in the area to participate. Yogi Beans does have satellite trainings if you’re interested in checking them out or requesting they hold one in your area.
TO ENTER: Let’s take a trip down smriti lane and go way back to when you were a kid. What was your favorite thing to do? Your favorite game, activity, yoga(ish) pose? Share with us in the comments! Then tell us a little bit about why you’d like to teach kids yoga. That’s it!
Please submit your entries by 11:59pm Sunday, September 22. A winner will be chosen at random and announced soon after!
*In the event that your can’t make it, you will still receive a half scholarship.
UPDATE: Congrats to Samantha! Thank you all so much for sharing your fun kids stories and passion for teaching. We hope this might help inspire you to keep going and make it happen!
——
Earlier…
- Kids Yoga…In Juvenile Detention
- Baby Yoga is Adorable and Relaxing, Even When It’s Not
- Meditation Effects on Education (Infographic)
- Yoga, ‘It Just Makes My Day’ – Matthew, Age 6
My favorite activities as a kid were playing school, dancing, and being at the beach. I loved to stand on my head, and I still do! I would love to learn strategies for teaching kids yoga because I can see myself sharing it at the studios where I teach and even with my own kids at home. I love adding new tools to my yoga teacher’s toolbox — I bet I’ll find ways to incorporate the fun of kid yoga into my adult classes!
when I was little, being deaf, I wasnt able to understand the music, yet I was completely mesmerized by the beauty of dance. I just started off dancing all over, even on rollerskates, Always tried to give performance to the neighbors in my backyard. I was so full of imagination! Being deaf didnt stop me from be able to pursue the dancing as I grew up! Im almost done with yoga teacher training, and already started teaching free yoga classes to deaf kids with special needs. It burns my passion to learn more of proper tools to teach deaf kids the right way with yoga! I want them to be able to use their imagination through yoga and to teach them, being deaf doesnt mean they cant be who they desire to be! My favorite yoga pose is… DANCER! <3
My favorite thing to do as a kid was help my Nonna in the kitchen! I was her favorite assistant when it came to making homemade sauce and fresh homemade pasta!
When I was little, dancers pose and deaf mans pose were my favorite! I would love the tools to teach yoga to children because I find it so imperative that we teach children ways to channel their stress, anxieties, fears, and any other emotions in a positive and healthy way. We truly can erase violence from an entire generation if we could reach out to even just every 8 year old and teach them simple meditation. How nice would that be!
At nearly 42 years old, I grabbed my mat and headed out to Open Sky Yoga Center in Rochester, NY to study with Francois Raoult, and become a yoga teacher. I had only been “practicing” yoga for about 6 years, after moving to Naples, NY, but I learned at Open Arms that I had been “practicing” yoga my entire life, beginning at a very young age.
I vividly recall my Aunt Jean, now 91, laughing and encouraging me to “try more” as I easily moved my body as a young girl, putting my legs/ feet behind my head in Yoganidrasana, then Eka Pada Sirasana, Ruchikasana, Durvasana, Natarajasana…and so on.
At 42, I am still pretty open and am working toward re-living these poses as an adult. But if not, I would love to encourage more young bodies in my community to find themselves in yoga they way I did, even though it took me half my life to realize it!
Hi!
I feel like I am still a child at heart. When I was younger I loved to play in my tree house and grow stuff in my parents backyard. I remember spending alot of time lying down in the grass , looking at the movement and dancing of the clouds. It made me feel very present. (and still does!)
In a couple of years I will move out of the city and build an earthship with my boyfriend (substainable house!) and I want to start an alternative daycare which would involve yoga!! I love kids and I love yoga, teaching is what I want to do with my life. Children are so inspiring and they teach us so much.
Thank you for this giveaway, it is very generous !
Louiselle
My world was my playground. I grew up in the 60’s in rural Pa. I would lay for hours in the grass and watch, insects at eye level, and dream. I would take long walks in the forest and listen to the babbling creek, observe the fungus growing on the trees, (and yes catch poison Ivy rash every year lol) My imagination would spark new games to play with the neighborhood kids. When I was a teen, I was the favorite babysitter, we would play tree tag and wiffle ball.
Today I practice yoga outside, I could not think of a better place to be. I would love to teach kids how not to become” combined with stress”. How to outdistance, outsmart, and outthink stress with mindfulness and yoga. You are only one breath away from freedom.
when I was a kid, I always like standing on my head. When I started yoga, it was a friendly reminder that standing on my head was actually enjoyable. I would have loved to have yoga in my life as a kid and it’s exciting to be able to potentially be a part of that.to understand or begin to understand inner peace as a child I would be fantastic. Even though I’m in California, I would fly to New York in a heartbeat to be a part of this great movement.
When I close my eyes and think back to my childhood activities, one of the best memories I have is my grandmother teaching my sisters and I how to double dutch! I couldn’t wait to teach my friends. Once we got our rhythm, we could jump for hours. I recently taught a yoga class where a mom asked if her 10-year old daughter could also take class. It completely sparked me! I love looking at life through the eyes of a young person, I never want to lose that feeling. Thank you <3
As a child I loved to play school and watch the clouds in the sky! I also loved to be upside down, I am not sure why, I just did! You would think I would be better at inversions. I am currently a junior high math teacher and a yoga teacher outside of Chicago. I work in a low socio-economic school district with generational poverty. The kids I teach are wonderful but have few experiences beyond the town we live in. Violence is a common event in their everyday life. I would like to provide them with yoga tools to bring peace to their life to hopefully helping one break the cycle they may be stuck in.
When I was a kid all I wanted to do was dance! I asked my mother to sign me up for every class, every style- and I was that kid in the front row that just shined. I was fearless. There was nothing I wouldn’t try. The rush Igot waiting in the wings for my music to start kept me coming back for more. The music moved me- beats and rhythms took me somewhere else- as I grew I realized that I couldn’t make a career out of dance and that is when I found yoga- and realized pretty quick that THIS would be with me my whole life. I want to teach kids the gift of movement- of delving into the self, of discovering their truth, and of just learning to BE. I can’t image what it is like being a kid these days- teaching them yoga can help them to change to whole world!
As i child, i loved exploring and jumping of the furniture. When 6:00pm hits, i make my way back home looking like i just jumped inside a big garbage dumpster. My favorite thing to do as a child was collect plants, tiny little things that look like berries, gumamela flowers and make a giant stew out of it with my clay pot set of bowls. I ask my grandfather to light a tiny fire so I can start cooking! It was the best! I felt like i was a grown up and my cooking was the greatest! I then proceed to gather my other bowls so i can start serving my family. They loved it!
A child’s imagination is so vast. It’s lovely to see that they know they can be whoever they want to be with the proper encouragement. Having the tools of yoga at such a young age is a big advantage because it teaches children that no matter what happens, everything will always be ok. 🙂
I grew up in a very small, completely rural community. My childhood consisted of playing sports (I was a competitive figure skater, in a town that was crazy about hockey) or being outside – which either meant playing with friends, getting lost in the woods/exploring nature, or learning skills that are applicable to country living but not so much in an urban environment. It was an idyllic setting where you never locked your doors, children were safe to go about as they pleased and consequently I developed an immense sense of freedom and respect for nature. There was no judgement and no reason to feel self conscious, which was an amazing way to grow up because as a child, I had incredible confidence and believed that I was truly capable of anything. My parents divorced as I approached my teen years and my family ended up moving to a more urban environment and lower socioeconomic housing. It was the first time in my life I was ever judged by my peers, for circumstances that were beyond my control. I was bulled for being different and had no outlet for help, which had a disastrous impact on my self confidence and self esteem. I discovered yoga many years after that experience and it has completely and utterly changed my life and thinking. I can only wonder what impact it may have had on my tween self if I would have had access to it.
Many thanks for this amazing giveaway opportunity!
I loved to draw when I was younger, my imagination would go wild — it was like meditation for me.
I love teaching kids because they are so open to the experience. They soak up everything from the form of the pose to the stories behind them. My favorite thing to see is when they can start to harness their energy and then be able to chill in savasana or mediate. It’s really an honor to teach children.
It would be a dream to be able to bring kids yoga to Rincon, Puerto Rico. The children that live in this quirky surf town are some of the most free spirited beings I’ve ever encountered. As a woman with no kids and no strong desire to have kids but absolutely love taking care of others, this would be a great opportunity to bring something of value to the community. Like most, my favorite things to do growing up were playing, dancing and just being outside exploring. My sister who is 8 years older than I took me under her wing and I was her sidekick for most of my life. After I recently took an Acro Yoga workshop, she sent me a picture of us doing “Super Woman!” and it brought tears to my eyes. It’s important for a child to find an adult they can trust and openly communicate with other than their parents. Being an Aunt to 4 nieces and nephews and an “Aunt or Tia” to several others, this training would be an invaluable experience.
I often pull the Damara card out of the Goddess Guidance Deck. About Damara: A Celtic fertility goddess whose name means “gentle”, Damara helps to bring peace and harmony to families and within households. She helps children maintain their youthful innocence and faith. Damara is happy to guide you with respect to the best way to help children – yours or someone else’s.
Today’s card signifies our children and the best way to guide them and nurture them. You are a natural protector and helping and guiding children resonates with you. It also signifies the child within all of us. Have you been working too hard, or taking things too seriously lately? Have you forgotten what it’s like to laugh at the little things? It’s time to spend some quiet time outdoors in nature, take off your shoes and walk in the grass barefoot..just like children love to do. Reconnect with your inner child and breathe in the air around you, close your eyes and ground yourself. Don’t forget to take time to stop and smell the flowers! This card also signifies adoption, child bearing, and parenting.
When i was a kid I loved art in every medium. Drawing, painting, ceramics, sculpture, photography, reading, you name it. However what I didn’t love was moving. Because I didn’t excel at athletics the first time I tried, I was convinced that anything physical was not for me. In middle school my parents promised me an easle if I made high honor roll (is that still a thing?) and gym was the only thing that kept me off every marking period!
It took 15 years after high school for me to summon the courage to go to my first yoga class (group excercise, NOOOO), but here I am 2 years later about to finish my first teacher training, teaching once a week and having the best relationship with my body and myself in my life. I only wish I had found yoga sooner!
Seane Corne said “find your wound and you find your work”. When I heard that I knew that my work was to make others, especially children before they start to develop the insecurities that can plague us for years and years, feel more comfortable and downright great in their own skin through yoga!
Namaste and thanks for this wonderful opportunity!
You could always find me upside down as a child. Doing handstands, cartwheels, hanging from tree branches…I even used to {okay, sometimes still do!} watch TV upside down on the couch. Being inverted is one of the most intense forms of input to your sensory system, yet for me it was – and still is – very, very calming.
I think that’s why I enjoy yoga so much. It allows me the opportunity to give my body what it needs and I walk away ready for life!
One of most favorite thing about my childhood was playing outside – climbing trees, playing hide and seek with the neighbors, riding my bike up and down the driveway until dusk. I loved going to my childhood best friend’s house and playing in her hay barn and taking epic adventures around her entire farm. My other favorite things were arts and crafts – drawing, painting, sculptures, macaroni art, everything. As a yoga teacher who has worked with children my entire life and even taught children’s fitness classes, I would love to tie together children and yoga. Children are so pure and non-judgemental, and there is so much violence and negativity out there in the world today, I would love to pass on a message of peace and compassion to today’s children. It would be wonderful to teach them relaxation techniques and how to cope with this life so we can make the world a better place.
As a child, my favorite thing to do was dance! I would put on my tap shoes and dance around the house, or create ballets in the backyard, twirling and swaying in the wind. Children have this innate carefree spirit, which is one of the reasons I love being a teacher. As adults we tend to get so wrapped up in our own lives, that we lose sight of our carefree spirits, yoga has helped me to welcome this back. I am a pre-primary Montessori teacher and currently enrolled in a 200hr yoga teacher training program. My ultimate goal is create a yoga program at my school to introduce and cultivate a love of healthy living my school and share my love of yoga. This scholarship would help me take one giant step closer to that goal! Thank you!
My favorite thing to do as a kid was help my Nonna in the kitchen! I was her favorite assistant when it came to making homemade sauce and fresh pasta! I really believe that cooking and creating at a young age gave me the confidence that I use in my everyday aI am really looking forward to taking my yoga teaching to the the level and working towards making a positive impact on children. I really feel that with everything going on in our world today it would be most beneficial to teach them at an early age the importance of self confidence and finding their inner peace during difficult situations and conflicts in life.
As a child in rural North Louisiana, I loved to ride my bike outside and create stories. Mystery stories, adventure stories, travel stories, you name it… I must have composed volumes in my head. I love those memories. I still love to read, to write, to ride bikes (with a son in the kid-seat and a son riding beside me!), and spend time outside. Some things never change!
Why I want to teach kids yoga? Life lessons. To learn as a child the therapeutic and healing nature of thoughtful movement, the health of the body and spirit, and to live and breathe in the moment is a gift. For a woman with a super active kid who needs to learn to express emotions instead of acting out in frustration, to know how to best teach him the lessons I have learned in my yoga practice that make sense to his four-year-old-kid brain seems as if it would help him more than all the therapists or medications money can buy.
Oh yeah – kids make me laugh and smile with their own brand of wit and wisdom and make me feel like that kid on the bike again. To teach yoga to as many kids as I can find classes for would be simply FUN!
When I was a kid I was often running around at local parks, on the baseball diamond doing wide-legged forward folds in the outfield or in the gymnastics gym doing all sorts of maneuvers–back bends and handstands being personal favorites.
The point is, I was never allowed too much TV or any video games whatsoever, and I see that as a perpetual problem with today’s kids… I would love to become certified in children’s yoga so I could begin teaching classes at my local studio to get kids’ bums off the couch like when I grew up!
I just taught yoga to my son’s 1st grade class for an hour one afternoon. All 23 of them paid attention and even stayed in shavasana for a whole 3 minutes! When they got up and went back to class they were calm, happy and ready to learn. ALL kids should have the opportunity to do yoga DAILY, especially before school. I’d like to bring yoga to elementary schools all across the country. This class would be a great start!
When I was a kid I liked to do many things. I especially loved to read and play with friends at school and home as well as the neighbor kids in a game of baseball in the vacant lot on our drive or hide-and-seek and a host of other games. I always loved school and decided in third grade to become a teacher/librarian which is what I have done for the past 30+ years. I did not have access to yoga classes as a child and came to it in adulthood and plan to do it till I die. I would love to become trained to teach the many benefits in all ways to children so they can know them at a young age and hopefully remain practicing yogis all their own lives! I have been trying to get classes going locally this past summer and still. We are in a rural area where we need the education about yoga and the practice itself. I would use this winning scholarship to the fullest extent in this way in two area counties at least and would promote it online too. Thank you for allowing me to apply. -Namaste!
As a child my favorite thing was feeling the wind in my hair roller skating down the street or riding my bike through the neighborhood. Even though the wind isn’t through my hair in yoga, it is yoga that gives me that feeling of freedom and joy I had as a child – when every fiber of your body is content, happy, at peace. I love sharing yoga with children and teens and giving them a place and tools to free themselves from the increased stress in their lives. I’ve started volunteering at a homeless shelter with kids & teens & they respond beautifully to yoga and I would love to have more tools to offer them. Namaste!
I was a mermaid, buoyantly twisting and bending my body in the weightless ocean. Sometimes my ocean was a pool. I defied gravity here. I was Pocahontas in the trees – acutely aware of my distance from the ground yet grounded, swaying on branches as I was breathing along with them, dancing to the wind and taking in the stunning silence. I found peace here. These were small moments that have lasted a life time, and in yoga I tap back into them and there is magic everywhere, in every exploratory stretch.
I want to share this magic. I want every child who is having a hard time or not to know that they are safe, cared for, and they are free to explore and imagine.
May peace flow within and through out~ As present as the breath.
<3
My favorite game as a child was hide and go seek. I used to be able to hide in the smallest of places and no one would ever find me. I grew up dancing and doing gymnastics, so I was always very flexible. When I was a kid my favorite yoga poses were: wheel, splits, and shoulder stand. I am studying to be a sign language interpreter so when I’m finished I can fluently teach Yoga to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. Currently I have a Hatha Yoga certification and a Visual and Gesture Yoga certification (to teach the Deaf and Hard of Hearing). I want to teach yoga to children because I want to one day have my own studio and offer children’s yoga along with other Yoga classes, but to also go to Deaf schools and teach the children Yoga during recess. Yoga is my passion and ASL is a love. The only other comment I read was by Sarah Hawkins and I think we should both win because our intentions are the same 🙂 I am also Reiki level II certified and one day hope to become a Reiki Master so I can share the energy with other people. I do not seek for monetary pleasures in this life. My favorite Yoga pose now is Warrior II.
I loved being outdoors as a kid—riding a bike, carousing about the flood wall behind my house, just sitting under trees and staring into the shifting light. Childhood was also the only time I could do a handstand, or so it seems today. Grass, gravel, carpet, gym flooring; it didn’t matter where my hands were, I could get my feet over my head and stay that way. Oh, to be young…
As I grew up, I lost not only the ability to do a handstand, but the ability to be alone and okay with having myself as a companion. I am an only child and found that unnameable peace that nature offers, a peace I gradually could no longer find at home, or in school, or with friends. It was the start of depression when the hours outdoors gradually turned into hours in front of the TV. I came back to that peace, so slowly, through my practice of yoga. I came back to that childhood ease of being by myself, and the confidence in who I am that makes it comfortable, desirable even, to be with people, to be part of a community.
I don’t know if practicing yoga as a kid would have made the ride into adulthood a little less… mentally ill. But whatever the root of my depression is, the practice chips away at it. As an adult, my practice pulls me out of isolation—during a difficult pregnancy, getting out for yoga was all I could do to cope with the nausea that otherwise kept me couch-bound. Now, I practice yoga with my toddler, and I lead informal classes for moms, dads and toddlers in my community. Well, it’s not ‘my’ community. We—babies, moms, toddler, dads, grandparents and babysitters, even—have created this community.
So much of what we do today, how we grow up and how we relate to others, can drive us apart. I want to attend this training to learn more about how I can create a space for connection, to our personal inner world and to the outer world at large; I’d like especially to share this knowledge with children.
Childhood is a time when habits form that guide us throughout the rest of our lives; if we use the practice of yoga to create a habit of mindfulness and seeking to see the goodness and oneness within ourselves and without, our experiences as individuals, communities, and cultures will becomes less and less fractured. Even in the face of adversity, we’ll see unity everywhere we look.
I grew up in the city of Philly .. so when I was a kid, my favorite things to do were …
riding bikes around the blocks with all of the kids
place wiffle ball on the corner
monkey around on the playground equipment
play legos 🙂
hmm .. all this sounds fun. I think I know what my sunday funday is going to look like 🙂
When I was younger, I loved cheering for our local mini football team and performing and creating dance routines for the team! I loved seeing the team move together as a whole, build pyramids, and perform stunts. As an adult, I’ve worked with kids who have behavioral, emotional, and academic concerns. This past summer, I worked with a group who got to experience yoga for the first time- to see how much they loved practicing yoga, how focused they became, and how quietly they could become during meditation and savasana was amazing!!! It really demonstrated the true power of yoga- especially for children! I would love the opportunity to pass on that peace to more children, as a teacher!
Growing up I tried every sport available, but my heart always stuck with soccer. I loved the idea of playing as a team and learning new ways to move my feet everyday. Though I still play soccer, I find myself needing yoga for the bonding friendships and learning new things about my body everyday. As an elementary teacher I see the stresses that are put on children academically, socially, and athletically. I have used meditation in my class with success and would love to win this scholarship so my best friend and I could help children outside of the school day.
When I was a little girl one of my favorite activities to do was to put on a singing and dancing show for my stuffed animals. I would make a routine to one of my favorite songs (usually The Spice Girls) and preform it for all my toys, and Barbies. I remember my last pose to my performance was always a point to the crowd and a loud YEAH! I was a very active little girl that loved using my body to make any activity fun. If it wasn’t singing and dancing for my stuffed animals, it was being outside and exploring nature with my sister. Combining my love for physical activity, yoga, as well as my passion for children and helping develop there upbringing would be put to much positive use with the tool of teaching them yoga. It is something that has changed my life so drastically that I would love to have that same influence on others, especially our youth.
My favorite thing to do when I as a kid was to be on my family’s farm helping my Grandma!