Teaching Children Yoga

A basic routine or simple exercises work best with children, when teaching them the exercises in Yoga. Since children have a short attention span and also tend to get bored easily of a set routine, it is important to bring in elements of fun and surprise when attempting to relax them through yoga.

Yoga is highly instrumental in treating children with hyperactive or attention-deficit issues. Yoga helps maneuver hyperactive impulses in children a positive manner. Some important poses that work well with such children include the warrior pose and the tree pose. These yoga postures help instill calmness, self-assurance and balance in the child. In order to get children to perform these exercises, you should try to make them understand what the posture implies. For example while trying to teach the warrior pose; you could try making the child think and act like a warrior. Make the child to enact the pose by acting out as strong, confident and bold like a warrior. It is also important that you inculcate team spirit by making children work out the poses together. Interacting with other children on the poses, helps children to develop team skills, trust and also foster bonding between one another. Try making the children to imitate the motions and sounds of the yoga poses as if they were among natural settings. For example, when you teach them the lion pose of the Sinhasana, they will enjoy acting out the behavior of a lion.

Sometimes it can get quite difficult to get children to relax. One technique you can try in your yoga routine for children in the method of visualization in relaxation. You can try making the child focus on belly breathing or perhaps to listening to relaxing music with their eyes closed. Getting the child to imagine is important to make them relax. For example, you can ask the child to imagine or visualize that they are building sand castles on the beach, or playing their favorite game, or performing a hobby or activity that they enjoy. To make children enjoy the relaxation session, you could encourage them to share their visual experiences with one another.

There are enormous benefits to be derived from yoga. In the physical sense yoga heightens their flexibility, durability, skillfulness, and consciousness. In addition, their intentness and sense of composure and tranquility develops.

Entice children with engaging movements and action behavior when performing yoga poses.  Young children especially enjoy the concept of stories with animal poses.  It is important that you reach out to them using your out-of-the-box thinking and cheerful humor.