I love using stuffed animals too it helps those of us who are visual people too. I like to try to balance stuffy on the kids as their doing a pose. It gets the kids to hold the poses too.

One thing about stuffed animals they take a little more care to clean than plastic. I usually end up hand washing them so I’m not carrying germs from one class to another. Have you ever tried machine washing?

We always used beanie babies for balancing activities. Most of the four-legged types will lay very easily on their bellies on top of a child’s head during standing poses or races, on one’s back during the walking cat game, or on a kid’s belly during savasana or belly breathing.

It’s great fun for the kids to choose the animal they want, or be surprised by reaching into a bag full of surprise animal toys.

I wish I were a kid again!