We all know that yoga and meditation is great for everyone for so many reasons, and wouldn’t it be even better if we can pass that onto our children, I thought? I promptly took a course in Children’s Yoga and feeling very confident offered to run an after school club at my own children’s school. The whole time I am thinking this is madness, I don’t really know the first thing about teaching children (which even then I realised is a lot more involved than it sounds) let alone teaching them how to stop and just breathe. But, much like Kronk in The Emperors New Groove, I also had this other guy on my shoulder saying ‘Yes, but this is so important! These are life skills that are largely missed in this day and age.’
I am now three terms into this venture and it has been the most challenging thing I think I’ve ever done. It turns out despite having three of my own, I do not have a natural affinity with kids but I was determined and more than anything I wanted these children to get something out of it. Something positive. But its quite difficult to get fifteen 8-10 year olds to concentrate and relax on a Friday afternoon so I found my taught vision of ‘Yoga for Kids’ gradually evolving. I had to figure out what these children needed at that specific point in the day (and of course this also changes week by week). Generally they really do enjoy doing some actual yoga for about 15mins at the very beginning after the register is taken back to the school office. Generally we practice ‘Hello Sun’ and ‘Hello Moon’ (which they have pretty much down pat now). I even heard a few of them say that they practice this at home sometimes which is a major tick for me and a goal I consider thoroughly achieved.
But after that it tends to descend into chaos. The excitement of being in the lunch hall for something that isn’t lunch, assembly or singing means a big indoor space to run around in. Now, I am not for a second going to force the children into anything they don’t want to do, that is completely against the whole idea but there’s excitable chaos and then there’s dangerous chaos where fights happen and people get injured. So my lesson plan had to change. I had to re-evaluate what yoga not only meant to me but what it means to children today. I came to the conclusion that this yoga had to be wild. This yoga had to be adaptable and fluid and most of all fun. This yoga had to provide stimulation for those who were up for it, mindfulness and space for those who weren’t. I also needed a bit of guidance on how to handle KS2 children. Thankfully, the school and the teachers are nothing short of wonderful and approachable and I received some outstanding advice that was a real game changer for me.
So now, the hour long after school club goes a bit like this: We practice the ‘Hello Sun and Hello Moon’ sequence and then they drift off, there is a section for mindfulness activities (like mandala colouring and pasta threading), a space to just relax and chat with friends and if there are those who want to be active we might to play games like yoga musical statues or an interactive story. And this isn’t all, we keep it loosy goosy. If the weather is nice we might take the school tablets outside and mindfully photograph nature or go on a little walk around the field to see what we can notice about the changing seasons. Sometimes we mindfully eat chocolate and fruit or practice all of the balancing postures on high benches (because what is yoga without an element of danger?).
This way I feel that the class is manageable and I can go around the different groups and interact with all the children individually. I want them all to be heard and listened to, (because it’s hard being a kid these days) this was another thing that was really important to me to incorporate into the session. And so this is Wilding Yoga for Kids. It’s still very much a working progress, I am learning something new every week! But I feel like all the right compromises have been made so far. This yoga looks nothing like the zen images I was being shown when I did the training course but maybe that’s not what Children’s yoga really is – and I think everyone is ok with that.
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