by Shirley Glaze

Created on: July 21, 2008

Children can greatly benefit from yoga. It provides an opportunity for children to establish confidence, learn discipline, and become more flexible. But how do you get a child to enjoy such a disciplined exercise? The answer is to make yoga fun. Adults can make yoga fun for children by using careful and creative planning.

Prepare for Yoga
Spend time teaching the children about the importance of yoga. Take the children with you while you are getting supplies for the yoga practice. Allow the children to pick out their own mats or exercise clothes to get them excited about yoga.

Have a Fun Environment
You can take children to a gym that is child friendly or you can create a fun environment within the comfort of your home. In either environment make sure to vary the texture of pillows, mats, and towels to appeal to the touch of children. Create a fun ambiance by using music, different colored lights, and bright equipment.

Establish a Routine
Yoga is founded on the principle of learning discipline. As with any activity, children need to identify a specific day and time to do yoga. Pick specific activities to do in the beginning, middle, and end of your practice. For instance, begin your session with deep breathing, tell a story in the middle of your session as you introduce new poses, and end your session with deep stretching. Once children learn the routine you can broaden their abilities by choosing more difficult poses or holding stretches for a longer period of time.

Limit the Practice
The length of the practice needs to be determined by the age and attention span of the children. If the children are relatively young, then you may consider having a ten or fifteen minute practice. If the children are older, you may have a twenty-minute practice.

Format of Yoga
Young children are usually introduced to yoga by storytelling. This is one of the best ways to engage children because it uses something familiar to introduce something new. You can also change the names of the poses to resemble the names of animals. If you do, you can then encourage the children to act out the sounds of the animals. Once children have learned some poses allow them to play a role in leading the practice. In the beginning do not focus on the technicalities of the pose. Just allow the children to have fun. Remember that repetition is the key so always review old poses.

Provide Praise
Watch the children for the opportunity to praise them. When a child correctly completes a pose immediately offer praise. Use a reward system to encourage children to complete a certain number of sessions.

Always Participate
Children love to engage in activities with adults. Always practice close to the children so that they feel involved. If there are other parents or adults watching, encourage them to participate as well. It may be a good idea to them in a circle. This allows all children to feel like they are participating.

Have a Healthy Snack
After the yoga practice take time to have a snack and reflect on the session. Ask the child his favorite pose. Make the child feel a part of the process by asking for any suggestions to improve the session.

Final Tips
Be consistent in your approach to yoga.
Try to be patient. Children are not fully coordinated and may take longer to learn to balance.
Be open and encourage the children to ask questions or to ask for help.
Allow children to have a few minutes of free time at the end of practice. This gives them something to look forward to and an opportunity to show what they have learned.
Don't be afraid to show joy. Children are more likely to identify with people who are happy.
Above all else, have fun!

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