Yoga for Children

My question is in two parts. I'm looking for more reference material for teaching children, and there appears to be very little available out there. Any personal experience would be helpful as well.

To carry that further, I am attempting to share Yoga with a seven year old girl who has Sensory Integration Dysfunction. Any ideas on how to approach this particular condition would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you and Namaste, Margaret

ANSWERS:

From Susan Hayes, 1999 AYTT graduate
susan@mountaintopyoga.com.

Margaret,

Take Nitai's course on "Sharing Yoga with Children" when it is offered again next summer at The Expanding Light. It is a great class, and you get lots of good written material as part of the class. You can probably contact Nitai through Ananda, somehow; he lives in the Village and is the founder of and runs the Living Wisdom school there.

I have taught at weekly Kids Yoga class since Sept. 2001, when I finished Nitai's course. It is fun, and hard. The kids range in age from 6 to 10. At Gyandev's suggestion, I started serving them a snack beforehand (a healthy one), and charging extra for it, because it's an after school class. They were famished when they came, and they ate Hostess cupcakes, etc. that their parents had packed for them; and so, they were BOUNCING OFF THE WALLS! (Well, they do that sometimes, anyway.)

Vary the content from week to week: start with the SCL exercises; do Simple Simon Says yoga; Zoo yoga (all animal names and sounds); hot potato yoga (tossing a beanbag around and whoever catches it has to teach a pose); The Yoga Garden Game (a board game that's available for you to purchase; I can give you that info).

Don't expect things to go your way. Be flexible. Sometimes, play music with them (have instruments for them to play). Or, let them leap over bolsters, in a gymkhana/obstacle course format, if they're really restless and won't do what you ask them to do.

In terms of the asanas, hold poses for MAX 10 seconds each. Let the kids count out loud with you. Teach them how to candle-gaze, or do Hong sau, for a minute or two, to help them develop focus. Kids can't hold their breath for more than a count of 4, because their lungs are so small. And, they complain bitterly about how much some of the poses hurt; others, they can do like yoga masters because they are so flexible (like, supta vajrasana).

At the boutique at the EL, Mary Weber sells a guided visualization audiocassette by Toby, from the Living Wisdom School in the village. You can use that to help them with deep relaxation. Or, read them a story during savasana (or immediately afterwards, when they're nice and quiet). In Nitai's course, we learned that the stories should be inspirational. There are a few books containing those for sale in the boutique, too (Hindu myths).

Joy Drake and Kathy Tyler make a deck of Angel Cards that can be bought in most bookstores; the kids love to pick a card at the end of the class. You can make them sit cross-legged, and meditate on an angel coming down and alighting on their shoulder, before they open their eyes and pick a card. Anything that gets them in a meditative mode is GOOD!

Interest in the class waxes and wanes. Keep it down to one hour, or you will be DEAD.

Let me know if I can be of help in any other way. Love, Susan

From Susan Brochin, YTT Summer 2000
srbrochin@attbi.com

I have been teaching yoga to kids for a while. Nitai at the Village has a great class "Teaching Yoga to Children" offered each summer and has an e-mail. Believe it or not, there is a Complete Idiot's Guide to Yoga for Kids which is excellent. Also, another book by Khalsa something like Fly Like a Butterfly, which is geared to younger kids.

I am not at all familiar with the condition you described, but e-mail me directly and we can talk. I have had almost 20 years in the public schools and have been teaching yoga for three.

From Jo Marenberg, Yellow Springs, OH, AYTT, Spring, 2002

Hi Margaret,

Most of the material I've found on teaching yoga to children is geared toward younger children. I don't know what age you are teaching, but you might want to take a look at the following books:

Yoga for Children by Steller Weller
Fly Like a Butterfly by Shakta Kaur Khalsa (This one incorporates stories with the poses)
Yoga for Children by Mary Stewart and Kathy Phillips
Two Flower Breaths by Sally Cheney

You can get the first three from Amazon.com. I think the last one is self-published. I bought it from the Epic Book Shop in Yellow Springs, OH for $12.95. Their phone number is 937-767-7997. It was written for yoga teachers,

There are also a couple of videotapes you might consider: YogaKids with Marcia Wening (ages 3-6-) and Yoga Fitness for Kids with Leah kalish (ages 7-12). I think Marcia's video is the better one.

Namaste,
Jo

From Anaya Farrell, AYTT Winter 2002

Hello Margaret. I have no suggestions for a hatha yoga approach - but I felt moved to respond. A friend of mine is a teacher of Grades Two and Three, and has been working with a six-year old child who was born with no eyes, and who has many other challenges, including a condition which fits what you describe. She has had incredible - almost miraculous - success with him using Brain Gym. She uses Brain Gym in the classroom as well and has found it is an amazing tool. You can gain information about it via the Internet.

Blessings - Anaya

From Le'ema Kathleen Graham, AYTT 2002

Dear Margaret:

I have taught Yoga for Children for many years. My favorite resource books are:

Imagine That, A Child's Guide to Yoga by Kenneth K. Cohen
Yoga for Children by Mary Stewart and Kathy Phillips. Good Luck!

Namaste'
Le'ema