Kids Are Yogis Too

First I have to say that I do not hold a special certification for teaching kids. I am, however, a certified Yoga teacher, and I was introduced to yoga when I was in middle school, at the age of 13.

Since I loved yoga as a kid, I think my nephews and nieces really connected with me on that level. I remember how silly, fun, strange, different, and yet at the same time familiar and natural yoga felt when I was a kid.

I was visiting my nieces and nephews (ages 6 - 14). A Saturday morning and we were set on going to the see Harry Potter later on, but other then perhaps a hike, no other

activity was firmly planned. My sister said, "Why not teach the kids yoga". I had 4 extra yoga mats in the back of my car (who knew?) and we just set them out on my sister's deck. My sister had a regular excerise mat and that was the fifth one. They all took the class: Rocco 6, Zoe 8, Christopher 10, Kristian 13, and Alex 14; 3 Boys, and 2 girls.

I usually teach Bikram Yoga -- a hot style of yoga in 105-115 degrees, indoors. Only one nephew, Christopher, 10, had tried that before. And he was happy that instead we were outdoors, but I could tell he was secretly proud, and there was a gleeful bragging to his re-counting of his previous yoga class, "It was so hot in there -- I never sweat so much!" So, with that we set-up on my sister's deck, and I didn't even realize it until I saw the video, but Chase (the family dog) was in and out of the class -- he was so relaxed and part of the whole thing that his weaving in and out didn't stop the yoga--how's that for focus!

I was psyched that they wanted to do it. But I had never taught kids yoga before, so I said, "Ok, we'll do just a half hour!"

We began with breathing on the floor -- showing them how the belly rises and ribs expand as they inhale, and how their bellies drop on the exhale. We got on our feet and did Pranayama breathing, 3 rounds of sun salutations, awkward pose, bow-pulling pose (a.k.a. Dancer's pose), Tulandasana (balancing stick), then triangle (Astanga-style), standing seperate leg stretching, triangle (Bikram-stlye), seperate head to knee--can you keep up (we were heading towards the half-hour, so I asked, "Do you want to calm things down and get to the floor, or do you want more challenging poses?" -- They all wanted more:) I was thrilled -- they were much more willing then I had imagined. They got the yoga. My brother-in law and my sister, where snapping up pictures and taking video...(Video to be posted soon!) They really wanted more, so we did a lot. Since they were going strong... warrior one, and ok, back to the center of the mat for Tree Pose and Toe stand. The Floor series: pigeon, cobra, full locust, camel, rabbit, head to knee, hand-to-feet and finger stand, upward wind relieving pose -- are you tired yet? At that point they wanted to show me postures and strecthes they had learned from their other activities. It was already much more then half an hour's time -- but who was counting...we were seeing an evening showing of Harry Potter: we had all afternoon. We went on for a bit more!

What I learned: kids have natural focus, they have an easy connection to their breath. Their playfulness lends itself to learning. They understand focus, and they understand breathing. They are in the moment, and in the end they indeed started to show me poses and stretches that were similar to yoga, but that they had learned in a variety of other activities like: little league, gymnastics, soccer practice, swimming practice-- okay, I do have physical nephews, but this required stillness! Rocco, my youngest nephew of 6 was the first to show us--what he called "Cat Pose"-- it was downward dog, with a variation-- you lift one foot off and bring that foot's toes to heel of the opposite foot and help stretch the heel down towards the floor -- one way to help get those heels down in downward dog! After that, I asked the other kids if they could show me other poses: we went into Table pose from gymnastics--what we call Bridge pose, and then I showed them what we call Table pose...finally after who knows how long -- we closed the class Bikram style with breathing in fixed-firm pose, otherwise known as skull-cleansing breath! But Rocco wanted to sit in Lotus while doing it--who can refuse such an eager 6-yr old yogi? So there it ended, my first kid's class: grateful to my nieces and nephews for showing me the way.

The next day we were all at the Tennis Club's Pool, and little Rocco asked me if I could do some yoga with him--wanted a private. So I set him up on a beach towel and we went through 4 or 5 poses -- during this private lesson, I noticed this little-one was holding his breath during triangle --, "Breath," I said, and he did. "Good, very good." And again he wanted to sit in lotus pose, so he did. I showed him lifting lotus -- and he did it. "That is an advanced pose," I tell him. And he says, "I'm going back to play." "Okay, Roccito you did great."

The biggest compliment I got was from my brother in-law, a highly respected teacher of grades k-12, with over 20 years of experience. Afterwards he asked me, something along the lines, "Is that the class you normally teach kids?" "No, I've never taught kids before." "Oh, you seemed like you do this all the time".