Music serenades our lives, adding significance to moments, people, and events, connecting us to our experiences, emotions, memories and dreams. Truly the soul has an innate love of music. In addition, sounds have a profound influence on our cognitive functioning, motor skills, emotional development, behavior and social skills. There is scarcely a single function of the human body which is not affected by musical tones.
Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything. ~Plato
Using music in a children’s yoga class is a wonderful way to allow them to develop their bodies and minds. From simple nursery rhymes to custom written kids yoga scores, children will respond positively to melodies and movement.
Benefits of Music in Kids Yoga Class
Music:
- connects and brings people together, helping us interact one with another
- engages our emotions and has a powerful impact on mood and energy levels
- teaches rhythm, timing, orientation and coordination
- focuses the mind and increases concentration
- develops language and speech skills
- improves listening skills and phonetic awareness
- encourages creativity and self expression
- enhances overall health and a sense of well-being
- increases intelligence and brain connectivity
Best of all kids don’t really care is you can sing or not. So let lose, crank up the tunes, sing a favourite song and dance like no-one’s watching.
For inspiration check out these samples of using music in a kids yoga class: Star Pose, Bug Yoga (spider pose), Shark Attack. Or fill your mp3 player with catchy tunes and enjoy these musically inspired yoga games: Freeze Dance and Musical Mats.
Some valuable resources for your kids yoga class include:
- I Grow withYoga: Yoga Songs for Children – by Childlight Yoga
- Come Play Yoga – by Karma Kids Yoga
- Dance for the Sun – by Kira Willey
- Musical Yoga Adventures – by Suzi Frank and Linda Lara
- Stress Free Kids – music CDs for relaxation by Lori Light
For more information on music in kids yoga visit The Magic of Music on the Kids Yoga Resource.
Wow – all my favorite CDs for kids yoga routines! Thanks for featuring I Grow With Yoga as well
I should also mention that I’m thrilled you highlighted Musical Yoga Adventures. Linda Lara, a Certified ChildLight Yoga Instructor, is actually coming to our studio in Dover, NH (Boston region) to present an entire day on creating kids yoga routines to music on April 10th! We welcome anyone who’d like to come – going to be such fun: http://www.childlightyoga.com/ChildLight_Yoga_Teacher_Trainings_s/55.htm
Awhile back we wrote a post called ‘Magic of Music’ that is certainly related and might be of interest to your readers as well: http://www.thekidsyogaresource.com/2010/02/the-magic-of-music.html
Thanks as always for posting about relevant topics for Kids yoga!
Love this post, Donna;) Yes, music can be a vital part of harmonious yoga classes. I love using classical music and Indian ragas for the wee ones.
When we made the Shanti Gen DVD, it was so much fun witnessing my rocker hubby dip into his peaceful nature to create the tracks for the sequences. Here’s a link to one of them performed live at our launch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BD2wibGpkA
Thanks for the constant inspiration, Donna;)
Thank you for your great thoughts on the combination of music with yoga, and for listing my Musical Yoga Adventures CD. I am very excited to be presenting a workshop at the ChildLight Yoga studio in Dover, NH on April 10, 2011.It is called Kids’ Yoga Routines, and we will be discovering infinite possibilities for putting music together with yoga poses.This class will focus on routines for kids, ages 3-12, and will show adults how to facilitate the creation of routines, as well as getting kids to create them also.
I believe that if kids have a favorite song, and they can make up a yoga routine to go along with it,they will be more likely to stay with yoga as a lifelong practice!
hello, very nice article, about music in yoga, thanks for your work