Yoga for kids

Raising healthy, happy children is the goal of all parents. The path is unmapped and difficult to navigate. Parents face an overwhelming number of choices when it comes to their children’s activities, and the pressure most feel to choose just the right balance is enormous.

Many of us want our children to gain the benefits of the wonderful wealth of information that has come to us from the East. That there are now options such as kids’ yoga in schools, kindergartens and after-school-care centres shows just how deeply Eastern philosophies have been absorbed into our everyday lives in the West. The likelihood of children exploring them is more a question of time than opportunity.

There is, however, a great deal of misinformation about yoga in general, particularly about children’s yoga, which can provide so much of what parents are looking for in their offspring’s activities. Below are the five most common myths:

Myth 1: Kids’ yoga is an adult class taught to children

Children have very high energy levels, short attention spans and completely different learning styles compared with those of adults. Therefore, teaching yoga to children means the classes need to be specially designed to keep them interested and physically challenged, and to engage their imagination and creativity. Children are constantly in motion, so their yoga, too, should be dynamic.

Attention span is the biggest challenge, especially with young children, so it’s important to make yoga exciting. Teaching children an adult yoga class will work for about five minutes and then they will be bored stiff. The contemplative and focused approached to yoga that adults find enriching is precisely what makes children restless and bored. This is why at a kids’ yoga class you will see games, stories, music, singing, toys, books and any number of age-appropriate props integrated into the class to keep the children interested and further stimulate their insatiable minds.

Many traditional yoga poses imitate nature. Poses with names like downward dog, cobra, cat, mountain and tree make it easy to get children to explore yoga, as they imitate and embody each pose. Naturally, children will bark like dogs as they lift their puppy dog tails coming into downward dog. When coming into cobra pose, almost by instinct they will hiss like snakes. And, while flexing their spines in cat pose, they will meow and purr excitedly.

This doesn’t mean kids’ yoga is always wild and exciting or that the classes are unstructured. The dynamic moving activities will be balanced with stillness and silence, but always in a child-friendly way. This is easy to achieve with many of the traditional poses, too: coming into child’s pose (aka mouse pose), for example, children will hold the pose, all the while being “as quiet as a mouse”.

The classes begin and end just like any adult class, first moving through a series of poses and concluding with a relaxation practice. Many of the classes also include a breathing exercise whereby children discover the joy of taking a deep breath. They may blow on feathers or bubble blowers and have fun while exploring the breath.

Although taught playfully, the basic principles of yoga are still the same, but presented in a way children can relate to and understand, all within the context of having fun and being lighthearted.

Myth 2: Kids’ yoga is not for every child; they need to be flexible and athletic

It’s a commonly held belief that all children are flexible, but this is not so. We all come into the world with an enormous degree of bodily mobility and flexibility, but even children of preschool age show a markedly different range of flexibility and, by the time they begin and continue through school, the physical variation is vast. This is true also of their athleticism: some have a natural sporting ability and others don’t. However, this need not prevent them experiencing and enjoying yoga.

One of yoga’s greatest blessings is it can be practised by anybody, regardless of shape, size or physical ability. Yoga is one of the very few non-competitive physical activities. This allows opportunity for all body types and for the yoga to be tailored to each individual rather than the individual tailoring themselves to fit in or else miss out.

In yoga practice the child is never wrong. They are not ever trying to “perfect” a pose. The way one person does a pose is the perfect way for them. As there is no emphasis on perfection of performance, the children begin to see they are perfect just the way they are and are encouraged to explore and be themselves, which has a positive impact on their self esteem.

Children also feel a sense of accomplishment and pride as they learn new yoga poses or master challenging poses. A child may begin their first class reaching towards their toes coming into a forward bend but come nowhere near their toes. After a number of weeks, though, they may reach forward and suddenly realise they can now touch their toes. For them it’s a remarkable achievement but they are never pushed to work harder at it or told they need to touch their toes or compete with their peers. They are gently and gradually worked within their own limitations.

More often, shyness is the biggest hurdle in a class, but once the children realise this class is not competitive, with no winners and no losers, the barriers soon come down. It’s wonderful to see a young child really come out of their shell and engage fully in the activities. Partner and group work is especially helpful in getting shy children interacting with their peers.

Myth 3: Kids’ yoga does not cater for all age groups

Children are natural yogis. If you have ever seen a baby or small child sleeping, you don’t need to question how child’s pose got its name. Have you ever seen a child lie on their belly and push up, lifting their head and chest off the floor, assuming the traditional cobra pose?

Anyone can practise and benefit from yoga. Babies and infants can be gently moved into variations of simple poses and children as young as three can be taught to enjoy the benefits of yoga in structured classes. A child is ready to begin a yoga class when they can follow simple instructions and control their basic motor skills.

Yoga is tailored to each age group, taking into account their differing needs, which means a three-year-old and a 10-year-old will be just as engaged yet their classes will be quite different. Children are very curious about yoga, especially if they see their parents practising.

In younger children, the focus is on having a positive experience as they are guided through gentle but playful yoga routines. Yoga for such small children is a very sensory experience. Stimulation of all the senses is vital to their enjoyment and participation in yoga practice.

As the children grow, their can be taken through a greater range of movement and their physical strength increases, so their yoga routines can become more robust and complex.

During each stage of childhood, yoga practice is constantly adapted so it can grow with them. As the children mature, the yoga play changes into something resembling a more traditional class, as they begin to take on more physically challenging poses while never losing the playfulness and lightness.

Yoga for children in all age groups is focused on the exploration of themselves and the world around them and is designed to sustain their curiosity about this ancient practice. No one is too young — or too old — to practise yoga.