When my daughter Hannah was diagnosed with hemiparesis, which is a mild case of cerebral palsy, I wondered: What can I do to help her? How active should she be? And how can I not be overprotective of Hannah, especially when she goes off to school?

The answer seemed to be involving my daughter in as many activities as I could. As a result, Hannah was signed up for swimming, gym and music classes all by her first birthday. My daughter also had eight hours of physical and occupational therapy each week.

The brain is so plastic. And how active I remained with Hannah’s treatment before she turned 24 months would impact how successful her recovery would be. I was on a mission.

Then I found yoga. When a class with a few participants got cancelled, I hired the instructor to lead the lessons out of my home. At 15 months, Hannah started to crawl by incorporating the rocking table and downward dog poses in her movements. At 20 months, Hannah progressed to trying poses such as mountain, squats and elevator. Every day Hannah would get the movements more and more.

I saw such a difference in my daughter’s development that we asked the instructor to come over three times per week. Meanwhile, Hannah continued to take her usual classes and have her weekly eight hours of therapy sessions. But the yoga instruction was unique in that it was playful and enjoyable for Hannah, prompting her to consider her time with the instructor as a playdate.

When the instructor chose to pursue other interests, it encouraged me to become certified. I first took a teacher training course at a Manhattan studio for children’s yoga, followed by training and certification working with children with special needs.

The best part of the training? Not only did I learn more about Hannah’s yoga practice and how it enabled her to become increasingly aware of her body and personal space, but I was able to share this with other families, as well. Inspired by this journey, I opened a yoga studio for children on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. This led me to share the benefits of yoga for children in more than five locations throughout New York City.

Four Exercises to Develop Body & Mind

Cross the mid-line. Crossing the mid-line enhances brain development. An example of this is to sit with your child, having him or her rub one’s hands together. Once the child’s hands get warm, have the child cross hands and touch opposite shoulders. This allows the child to cross the mid-line and make new neurological pathways for further brain development. Motivate your child to do this over and over again in novel ways, such as by crossing over to touch one’s knees, toes and ears.

Use the eyes. As your child grows, he or she looks at things in new ways. Once the child begins to look at books and track words, the child’s depth perception develops. While this occurs, it is crucial for your child to build the muscles behind the eyes. One method of doing this is by moving a toy the child likes in different directions, asking the child to follow the toy with his or her eyes. Another method is snapping your fingers up and down and then right to left, while your child trails the movements. Either way, have your child watch the object move at least ten times in each direction. This helps build the little muscles supporting the child’s eyes and lessens the chances for glasses.

Do core poses. As all of a person’s limbs are extensions from the core of the body, it’s essential to develop the core. Building a strong core enables a child to balance oneself both physically and mentally. Poses that support the core are the dolphin pose and boat pose. Do these and other poses with your children, allowing you each to build your strength and bond.

Sing a song. While singing to a child can help the young yogini accomplish a difficult pose, it can be especially encouraging for children who are late talkers. If for any reason you find your child not communicating, find a book that you know the child enjoys and sing each word in the story. Take the time to sing the words one by one and change your tone, emphasizing that a new word is being sung. Soon your child will be doing poses in utter relaxation, not even realizing a stronger core will result and likely a better grasp of language.

Kami Evans, the founder and an instructor at Elahi Yoga, became a certified children’s yoga instructor through Karma Kids Yoga and a certified yoga instructor for kids with special needs through Every Kids Yoga, which are both located in Manhattan. Working with her daughter and seeing remarkable improvements through yoga exercise has inspired Evans to continue with the practice and help other children to gain self-confidence and have fun through yoga. Visit www.elahiyoga.com or call (800)584-7940 to learn more about Elahi Yoga. 

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Star Pose

Hello, I’m Donna with Yogainmyschool.comand today I’m here with my niece, Nadia. Nadia and I are going to show you how to do star pose. So if you’ve ever wondering what you can do with pre-school children and yoga here is a great activity.

Let’s make a five pointed star with our bodies. First extend your legs nice and wide. Then reach your arms out. Now twinkle your fingers. Next twinkle your toes. And can you sing Twinkle Little Star with me?

Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are,

Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky,

Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are.

That was perfect, thank you so much.

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guest post by Jim Gillen

Because breathing patterns have such a profound effect on our general health and mental states, breath awareness is at the heart of almost all yoga practices. Breathing interacts with and affects the cardiovascular, neurological, gastrointestinal and muscular systems. It also has general effects on sleep patterns, memory, energy levels and concentration.

Watch a baby at rest, and you’ll see a good example of healthy breathing. The pattern is relaxed, slow and wavelike. Every bone, muscle and organ moves with each breath. Unhealthy breathing, by contrast, is rigid or inappropriate to the situation and often exhibits excess muscle tension.

While abnormal breathing patterns vary, they’re often high in the chest, overly fast and shallow. Often, there’s no pause at the end of the exhalation. There may even be breath-holding or gulping. Such habits reinforce feelings of tension, agitation and anxiousness. By contrast, a healthy breathing pattern elicits a relaxation response, shifting the nervous system from fight-or-flight mode to a state of relaxed alertness.

One of our favorite ways of teaching and encouraging children to breathe healthfully is by using a Hoberman breathing sphere – a popular children’s toy that’s basically a geodesic dome made of jointed segments. By lightly pushing or pulling it on opposite sides, you can make it expand or contract, accordion-style. The movement serves as a visual model for the type of breathing we want the kids to imitate by helping them see and synchronize their breath with movement.

How to Use A Hoberman Sphere

The teacher or other supervising adult may lead the group or – something we like to do – encourage one of the kids to lead, establishing the breathing rhythm. As the leader slowly expands the sphere, all inhale deeply and slowly through the nose, from the belly. The leader then pauses, emulating the short, natural pause that happens at the “top” and “bottom” of each healthy breath. As the leader contracts the sphere, all exhale through the nose just as slowly.

This efficient diaphragmatic breath is like watching the waves at the beach, with each breath swelling up from abdomen to chest and back down again.

The expansion-contraction cycle may be repeated as many times as necessary, but we find 5-10 cycles to be effective for helping the group calm and focus through this simple breath work.

Rhythm and slowness are two keys to using a breathing sphere effectively. By  consciously  slowing  our  breath, especially the exhalation, we can  facilitate the relaxation response even more and develop some control over how our nervous system responds to our environment.

In the classroom and school environments such breath work lends itself readily to focus and mindfulness, preparing students to learn. Speeding thoughts slow. The body as a whole relaxes. Body and mind become centered, grounded. Thus, many teachers, counselors and administrators start their classes off by leading students in breathing with a sphere. Some schools have even used these breathing practices at assemblies or over the school intercom to calm and focus their students.

With the powerful visual representation of a healthy breath, no other words or descriptions are necessary. This tool can be effectively used by teachers who have no yoga experience and is particularly useful for second language learners, visual learners and children who struggle with anxiety and self regulation.

Synchronized breathing in a group exercise is also useful for developing a sense of community and safety as the group’s energy coalesces by breathing together. Simply, we are affected by each other’s breathing patterns. Conversely, it’s hard to relax and concentrate when we are around stressful breathing patterns. And when teachers learn, practice, and model healthy breathing, their classes become calmer and more productive, with corresponding benefits to everyone’s health and well-being.

Jim Gillen, RYT-500, is the cofounder of Yoga Calm, director of Still Moving Yoga in Portland, Oregon, and co-author of numerous education articles and Yoga Calm for Children: Educating Heart, Mind, and Body

Breathing spheres are available through the Yoga Calm Store.

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—Kalidasa

Photo of Sunrise at Ulsoor Lake, Bangalore by Swami Stream

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This object lessons uses spaghetti, a favourite food for most kids, to demonstrate the difference between what the body feels like when stressed and worried, and what it feels like when relaxed and calm.

Cooked Spaghetti

Hi, this is Donna from Yogainmyschool. Today we’re going to talk about spaghetti.

Here is a piece of raw spaghetti. How does it feel? Strong, stiff and hard. Now here is a piece of cooked spaghetti. And how does that piece of spaghetti feel? It’s kind of flexible and bendable. It moves all over.

Do you know what it feels like to be tense and worried and scared? It kind of feels like a piece of uncooked spaghetti. How does it feel to be relaxed and calm and peaceful. It kind of feels like this piece of cooked spaghetti.

Can you tell the difference with your body? Let’s try and make our bodies stiff like a piece of raw spagetti. Can you make your hands stiff, your shoulders and your face even. And now relax and become like a piece of cooked pasta, warm and soft. Isn’t that lovely.

So anytime that you are feeling stiff and scared, and worried. I want you to take a few deep breaths and change into a piece of cooked spaghetti.

Hopefully that will teach you an easy mindfulness technique for changing your concern into calm relaxation. Thank you very much.

For more information on yoga for kids and mindfulness activities please visit Yogainmyschool.com. Namaste.

photo by Identity Photogr@phy

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Air Walk

Hello this is Donna from Yogainmyschool and I’m here today to show you how to do the breathing exercise Air Walk.

First thing you need to do is lay on the ground. Next bring your hands above your head.

Now, what you’ll do is raise your right hand and your left leg as you inhale. Exhale, lower them to the ground.

Inhale, raise your left arm and right leg. Exhale, down they go. Inhaling and exhaling with your own rhythm of your breath. Reaching the leg high in the air, bringing it up to the hand. You’ve got to use some core muscles to do this.

This exercise regulates the breath, helps children to learn how to work with the breath and move with the breath. It also helps to balance the brain as it joins the right and left hemispheres by crossing the body. You can continue to do this for a few moments. And then when you’re done you can simply bring your hands back to your back to your side and rest in corpse pose.

For more information about yoga for kids please visit Yogainmyschool.com. Thank you and have a wonderful day.

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One at a time, each player adds their stick to a central design which can be either abstract or specific (house, animal, etc). It takes concentration and cooperation to carefully place each stick into an ever evolving larger picture. This activity also develops the pincer grasp and fine motor control essential to learning how to write.

Meditation Activities for Kids: Stick Art

Stick Art is a fun art combined with meditation activity.

To do this activity you need a number of sticks. In this case we’re using multicoloured Bendaroos because they help us to make circles.

The idea here is that each person participating takes a turn to put down one stick. They do it silently, without verbal communication.

This activity helps to develop the pincer grasp which is a fundamental grasp needed for writing. So if you have a child who is struggling with their writing abilities, or has poor penmanship, this is a really great game to help them develop better writing skills.

And you can kind of discern what these ladies are working toward as they do their Stick Art. Sometimes its an abstract picture. In this case we have a gentleman with really funky hair.

So thank you ladies for showing us how to do Stick Art.

Make sure you subscribe into your RSS reader or e-mail inbox so as not to miss any of the amazing tips and suggestions for teaching kids yoga in fun and creative ways.

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With that in mind I’ve started to readjust bedtime to more closely reflect a school night. Knowing that it takes about two weeks for any routine to become part of daily life this process begins now so that we are ready the night before that first day back to class.

Here are some yoga tips to creating a bedtime routine that will lead to a restful sleep for children and parents alike.

1. Reduce Stimulus – Children need a winding down period before hitting the hay. In order to maximize a restful sleep begin about an hour before bed to reduce sensory stimulus. In yoga this is called pratyahara (the 5th limb of Yoga according to the Yoga Sutras by Patañjali). Take away video games, turn the TV off, lower the lights, introduce soothing music or the blessed sound of silence. The body will transition from activity to inactivity beautifully when given time to adjust and flow smoothly into relaxation.�
   

   ragdoll pose

    

2. Connect – Taking time to connect with your mind and body is essential to health and wellness even for little ones. Encourage your children to do some restorative yoga poses such as child’s pose, ragdoll, hero’s pose and gentle twists to get the kinks out and reduce muscular strains and stresses from the day’s activities. Also, be sure to take time to connect with one another. Read a story together, chat about the day, share your lives, concerns, hopes and simply enjoy one an-other’s company.
3. Establish a Routine – Children thrive on predictability and structure. In yogic terms this is called tapas (self-discipline). Establish an order of events (1. cleanup, 2. bedtime snack, 3. brush teeth, 4. yoga b4 bed, 5. read together, etc.). Create a chart with easy to follow graphics. This is helpful for all children whenever they are learning a routine, but especially for pre-schoolers and those with special needs.
4. Be Content – Practice santosha (contentment) one of the yoga niyamas (observances) by learning to be happy with who you are, where you are, and with what you have. Encourage the attitude of what you have is enough and that there is satisfaction and happiness to be found in each day. Five Good Moments is a simple gratitude game you can play daily with your children to develop a thankful heart and mind.
5. Practice Pranayama – Yogic breathing techniques are extremely effective at reducing stress and anxiety which often hit children as they are laying in bed waiting to fall asleep.  Swimming Stuffies and Take 5 are wonderful breathing exercises that help connect the mind and body. Even very young children can develop breath awareness and practice these safe and simple techniques before drifting off to sleep.

Be sure to allow sufficient time (about an hour) in order not to rush your children as they transition from the day’s activities to calm relaxation. Speak in a calm tone of voice and provide 2-5 minute warnings whenever an activity will change (”In five minutes you’ll need to put away your toys and get into PJ’s.”). Most importantly love your children. Use the time before bed to demonstrate daily how important they are to you.

Remember it takes time to create a routine and fine tune it to your personal needs. Stick with it and you will create a better sleep environment, manage stress and anxiety, as well as calm and nurture yourself and your loved ones.

Another article with great yoga inspired ideas is Bedtime Bliss on the Kids Yoga Resource.

Photo by flickrized

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Ever wonder how to get your preschooler to slow down for five minutes and take a deep breath?

Swimming Stuffies shows you how using a stuffed animal as a prop can promote deep, calm, relaxed belly breathing. This technique uses a favourite stuffed animal, placed on the belly.

The goal is to have the child use their belly breathing to lift the stuffed animal on an inhale and lower it on an exhale. This action makes the stuffy appear to swim in the waves of the breath. This technique is extremely effective with pre-school and special needs children and is included in the book Once Upon a Pose.

Swimming Stuffies: Pranayama for Kids

This is Greer demonstrating swimming stuffies, a lovely tool for teaching children how to inhale and exhale with belly breathing.

So she is laying in corpse pose and we’ve placed a stuffed cow on her tummy. As she takes a deep inhale the cow will rise. As she exhales the down descends. She slows her breath and allows the cow to ride the waves, to swim in the ocean of breath. Its very calming and relaxing, and a wonderful tool to use to teach children how to belly breathe.

Enjoy swimming stuffies with your kids today. Namaste.

Be sure to check out the other great kids yoga videos on YogaInMySchoolTVon YouTube and let me know what you think.

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