Unfortunately, many of today’s children and youth do not get even the minimum amount of activity required to fully meet basic developmental demands. Our lifestyle is increasingly sedentary. Children – especially urban, western children – are much less active than they used to be, spending time in front of the television or computer and being driven everywhere in a car or bus. Add in the North American diet, and we have a growing population of children and youth who are overweight and at risk of disease.
In answer to this societal epidemic, greater emphasis on health and physical activity in the schools has become paramount. Ontario, Alberta, and BC have all introduced a Daily Physical Activity (DPA) Requirement for schools. This initiative aims to increase students’ health and fitness levels through a minimum of 30 minutes of physical activity daily. The guiding principle of this initiative recognizes the necessity for lifelong habits of physical activity and healthy lifestyles.
|
The onus now is on implementation, which makes teachers responsible for developing the habits of healthful living crucial to the proper physical, mental, and emotional development of our children. Many teachers, however, struggle with this mandate, finding it one more thing to add to their already extensive ‘to do’ list.
There are numerous resources for teacher training. In Ontario YogaUnlimited offers kids yoga training. Elsewhere Childlight Yoga, YogaEd, YogaKids, YogaBuddies, and many other organizations offer specialized training in yoga for classrooms and schools. I have taught yoga in schools, for in-service workshops, and at teacher’s conventions throughout Alberta since 2003. Here is a list of the services YIMS offers.
In addition you can download ‘The Pet Store/L’animalerie’ – a FREE yoga adventure story for teachers and parents (see right hand tool bar to enter your name & e-mail). It provides explanations of:
- What is a Yoga Adventure Story
- Why use one
- How to use this story
- Full pose descriptions
- A guided visualization
- The yoga adventure story in English and French
Truly an amazing resource! It’s as simple as reading a comic strip and will provide teachers with a complete yoga workout that takes 30 minutes and provides numerous benefits for your students.
Subscribe for e-mail updates so as not to miss future posts on meeting the DPA Requirement.
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Hi Donna,
Just enjoying your many resources and ideas. Looking forward to the Pet Store!
Hey Meaghan – Great to see you on here. Congrats with the LotusSoulGym classes. Looks great. Looking forward to the week free. Great way to celebrate Yoga Month.
Hi Donna, thanks for the link to my Ontario course. What you say is true, some teachers are scrambling to find out what to do for 30 minutes. Plus, in Toronto (maybe elsewhere too) teachers also have to teach a theme each month too. As a character development initiative – September is Respect.
I think these will make good topics for blog posts too!