Love is in the air, and now is the time to let your heart shine. Yes, flowers and candy are a lovely thought for adults this season, but it is also a good time to open your heart and show acceptance and compassion for others.
These heart-opening exercises are especially beneficial for kids and adults who spend the majority of their day slouched in desks at school and work or with their heads bent over screens and books. These exercises take only minutes and will help improve posture and release back and neck tension as well as create openness in your body and mind.
1. Cat to Cow Pose: Begin on your hands and knees. Next round your back and tuck your chin into your chest as if you are a cat. Then look up, arch your back and open your chest into Cow Pose. This is a great way to strengthen your spine and begin to feel your heart opening.
2. Updog Pose: Lie on your tummy. Place the palms of your hands next to your shoulders and look up. Slowly straighten your arms and open your chest. It is okay to keep arms bent as well.
3. Bridge or Wheel Pose: Kids love trying to get into Wheel Pose, but this huge heart opener is not easily accessible for all. For an easier but still effective heart opener, try Bridge Pose. Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the ground. Rest your arms alongside your body, tuck your chin into your chest, and lift your back to create a bridge.
4. Camel Pose: Take this pose slowly and feel your heart open. Get on your knees, lean back slowly, and place your hands on your lower back or ankles. Tilt your head back, open your chest, and breathe.
5. Bow Pose: Lie on your tummy, bend your knees, and lift your chest. Reach your arms back toward your toes and hold onto your feet. Let your heart shine!
Show the little ones you care about and give your own body some love by trying these 5 kid-friendly heart opening yoga exercises. These poses will help you open your own heart and mind, and by practicing them with kids you will also help them let their heart shine!
If you are like me, you like to use lots of visuals to help show the children what yoga poses look like. The Kids Yoga Challenge Pose Cards are our favorites! These yoga pose cards include 40 yoga poses and different affirmations for each pose. The kids yoga deck also includes a 15 Bonus Yoga Games to play with the cards. They come in a fun drawstring burlap bag.
Kids love yoga games! Yoga games are often a favorite part of the class as children naturally love to play games. Games are also another great way to get kids moving, build strength, follow directions, work together and practice yoga poses in fun and engaging ways.
I also love how games help break the ice with new groups and allow kids to get to know one another. Games also lead to laughter and provide opportunities to maybe step outside a comfort while working together to achieve a goal.
I like to have a repertoire of yoga games that can be played and used in a variety of situations such as varying group sizes, ages, indoor, outdoor yoga games. I also like to include games with partners, quiet and mindful games, games that bring the energy level up and games that bring the energy down.
These games could be used during a yoga class, a school setting, camps, during other kid-related activities, or a home with your children.
I do recommend having a set of yoga pose cards to when playing the games. We loveThe Kids Yoga Challenge Pose Cards and they provide a great visual for when playing yoga games.
As you dive in deeper with some of our favorite kids yoga games, please feel free to adapt for varying age levels, setting, age appropriateness, and number of children. This can be done by making a few simple adjustments.
A huge tip is that you spend no longer than 10 minutes playing a yoga game. Keep the interest level and excitement high. Always end on a high note which leaves them wanting more
The goal of yoga games is to get kids excited about practicing many different yoga poses, while they gain strength, improve balance, experience teamwork and have fun!
Put the cards and caller card in a gift bag and have a player draw a card.
The player who drew the card calls out the pose to the other players.
Players who have the pose on their card mark it off.
The player who first gets bingo shows off their four winning poses in a sequence.
To make the game more challenging, you can:
Include variations of each pose
Have players hold the pose for a certain amount of time
Add bonus squares for completing a sequence of poses or holding a difficult pose
You can play yoga pose bingo at home, in a classroom, or at a yoga studio. It’s a fun way to teach kids yoga poses, practice new poses, and build community.
Directions on How to Play 8 Diverse Yoga Poses Multicultural & Diverse Downloadable for immediate play Perfect for school, home, camps, clubs, and parties.
As a classroom teacher, I appreciate how the start of a new school year is full of new beginnings and fresh starts. ⠀The opportunities to learn, grow, and try new things doesn’t apply just for kids!
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Learn how to effectively teach yoga and mindfulness to children in our easy to follow step by step proven format.
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.
“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.
1. Cat to Cow Pose: Begin on your hands and knees. Next round your back and tuck your chin into your chest as if you are a cat. Then look up, arch your back and open your chest into Cow Pose. This is a great way to strengthen your spine and begin to feel your heart opening.
accessible for all. For an easier but still effective heart opener, try Bridge Pose. Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the ground. Rest your arms alongside your body, tuck your chin into your chest, and lift your back to create a bridge.
Find the complete Share the Love kids yoga lesson plan, in our popular Go Go Yoga for Kids: Yoga Lessons for Children book.
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.
