The official start of summer is with the arrival of the summer solstice on June 21st. For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, this marks the longest day of the year. This is the moment when the Sun reaches the Tropic of Cancer, which is its highest point. For those who live in the Southern Hemisphere, this is the shortest day of the year and the arrival of winter. The solstice happens at the same moment for everyone, everywhere on Earth.
What makes this day even more special is that June 21st is also International Yoga Day which is recognized around the world since its inception in 2015.
What better way then to recognize both of these celebrations than with some family-friendly outdoor yoga?! Check out some of our favorite yoga poses and games!
Do you love yoga and kids? Keep the fun of International Yoga Day going all year long! Introduce the joy and fun of yoga to children while instilling the benefits they will have for life. Enrollment is now open for our Kids Yoga and Mindfulness Teacher Training! Find out more here.
It will be so much fun learning a variety of yoga games perfect for all ages!
These Yoga Games Will:
Create strength physically and mentally for kids
Promote teamwork and team building skills
Build confidence
Increase flexibility
Improve Balance and focus
Enhance creative thinking
Bring joy, laughter, and reminders not to take ourselves too seriously!
Each game include videos, directions on how to enhance and differentiate for kids with varying abilities within the games, as well as game images and lesson plans.
Age Group Characteristics & Groupings for Yoga Games
The following guidelines will help you decide which yoga games and activities are most appropriate for the children you will be working with.
Early Childhood: Ages 2-5
Children at this stage thrive on repetition and routine. This knowledge is helpful not just in their play, but in all areas of their lives. Children at this age have difficulty waiting for their turn, but they learn as it is shown and modeled.
Preschool children are just discovering all of the different ways their bodies can move around—skip, hop, gallop, shuffle, run, walk backward—making active movement games especially beneficial. Incorporating pretend and fantasy into yoga games feeds imaginations and allows for unique personalities and ideas to emerge and grow.
Keeping games short, five to seven minutes at most, and giving simple directions will keep them present and focused. They are easily distracted but they are eager to learn and will engage well with repetitive directions, movements, and play.
School Age: Ages 5-11
As kids mature, they develop longer attention spans, stronger bodies, and more control over their movements. But they also need variation, as they grow bored with anything too repetitive.
Physically, kids this age can handle additional large motor movement and poses, so incorporating more complicated games and activities will challenge them and keep them engaged. Introducing themes helps them retain information and recall it.
This age group enjoys cooperation and teamwork. Friendships are important. Children quickly learning interpersonal skills as they move through elementary, primary, and intermediate schools. They understand the concept of taking turns and often have a developing or well-formed understanding of teamwork.
“Mother’s hold their children’s hands for a short while, but their hearts, forever…” –Unknown
Celebrate Mother’s Day with these Family Fun Yoga Ideas!
Back to Back Breathing:
Back to Back Breathing is a wonderful and relaxing way to connect with your children. It also builds mindfulness. Sit tall in a comfortable position with legs crossed. Slowly rest your back gently against your partner’s back. Encourage your child to try to notice your breath. Is it shallow or deep? Fast or slow? Can they feel your back move as they breathe? This is a really sweet partner exercise for any age and feels so comforting to lean against another person like that.
Family Trees:
Stand in a circle side by side and touch palms to help balance each other. Then take one foot and place it on our leg. Bring your branches (hands) up taller. Remember to switch legs. Notice how you are all stronger when you work together!
Legs Up the Wall:
Kids and adults both love this relaxing yoga pose! Scooch up close to a wall and lie flat on your back. Slowly raise your legs straight up against the wall which makes an L shape with your body. Keeping your legs together, flex your feet. Relax your arms to the side and keep your neck in a neutral and relaxed position. Close your eyes, and take a few moments and rest in this incredible restorative pose! This can also be done as Partner Legs Up the Wall Pose.
Toega:
Toega is the perfect yoga game to play with all different ages. What exactly is Toega? It is yoga for your feet! Kids love this simple exercise and it is good for them as well. All you need are some colored pom pom balls and bare feet! It is fun and easy to play. Find out how to play here.
I have such great memories as a kid with creating May Day baskets with my sisters on the first day of May. We would fill our homemade baskets with little candies, popcorn, and flowers. We would then deliver them to our neighbors. This involved sneaking up to our neighbors’ house, placing the May Day Baskets in front of the door, ring the doorbell and run around to the side of the house to hide. We were almost always seen by our neighbors because our high pitched giggling was sure to give us away.
It was then so much fun to get back home from our deliveries and discover May Day baskets left by neighbors on our front step. It was a sure sign that the other neighborhood kids were celebrating the start of May as well.
Years later, I kept this tradition going with my own children. Although we live in a bigger city, we try to make our own little community by knowing our neighbors and surprising them with this somewhat forgotten tradition.
May is such a beautiful month filled with new growth and life. Celebrate this month and Spring with the children that you love and care about.
Are you curious about how to handle the controversy of practicing yoga in schools? What about using the word Namaste? My friend Catharine, over at Mindfulness Teachers, got to the bottom of these questions and many more in her interview. Find out the answers to these questions and much more on her First Steps to Teaching Yoga to Kids Series.
Brand New! Go Go Yoga for Kids E-Store: Find all of your favorite Kids Yoga Lesson Plans and Resources. Receive your purchase immediately.
Kids yoga is a non-competitive activity that allows them to have fun and exist outside of the daily stresses of life. It helps children learn about themselves by being present and mindful in their bodies.
When I teach kids yoga, the emphasis is on creativity and having fun as they pretend to be a cat, tree, superhero, or wherever the poses and their imaginations lead them. While learning the yoga basics they are also discovering how the poses make them feel.
Through yoga, children will experience body awareness, empowerment, and ways to slow down and be in the moment, all in a safe and fun environment. Each new year and stage of development brings with it a unique excitement and challenge.
Check out some of our favorite yoga poses and games!
Kids and adults both love this relaxing yoga pose! Scooch up close to a wall and lie flat on your back. Slowly raise your legs straight up against the wall which makes an L shape with your body. Keeping your legs together, flex your feet. Relax your arms to the side and keep your neck in a neutral and relaxed position. Close your eyes, and take a few moments and rest in this incredible restorative pose! This can also be done as Partner Legs Up the Wall Pose.
