After setting up the gazebo with the help of my husband, and dropping off all I needed for the afternoon Kids Yoga session, I went to teach my Saturday morning Yoga class in Epsom . Replaying in my mind
the plan for the kids Yoga, reciting the rhymes would often result in the instructions for the left and right leg or arm got mixed up more than usual during the Saturday Yoga class. Breathe! Yes, slowly, through and out of the nose. The unknown was bringing a tiny bit of stress in everything. Will I remember the rhymes? Will the kids enjoy the session? Will there be sufficient time for everything that I had planned? I kept repeating to myself: “Absolutely, everything will be fine.”
As I got back to the Summer Garden Party of Friends of Sutton Ecology Centre around midday, I set up once more: singing bowls, Hoberman Spheres, tokens, register, scarves, Award certificates, ‘goodie’ bags with colouring, etc
Well, after 6 sessions, this is what happened:
- Singing bowls were extremely popular with the kids – I soon realised that they wanted to play them, not listen to me playing them – so I let them. Luckily, I had cymbals (or Tingsha bells) too and invited the children to share and take it in turn to play each. Yes, there was a lot of noise, and my role? Instruct to stop and start the sounds like an orchestra director (LOL!)
- Hoberman spheres and breathing went down well – the colours are captivating!
- Breathe through the scarf and ‘see’ the breath proved to be a good example for the kids and kept them occupied for a record 20 seconds!
- Kids liked to guess the shape of poses and link them to the animals found in the garden; next time, I need to find a ‘fox’ pose, and for birds, I improvised a Warrior 3 pose!
- Waving the colourful scarves, spinning, lifting the arms and dancing around? Could have done more!
- All engaged in 'stump the feet, shrug the shoulders, drop the chin and clap the hands'
- Kids like to be awarded – all those who stayed until the end of the session, got a goodie bag (colouring, tracing, etc), a certificate that they proudly showed to their parents. The Awards available? Super Yogi, Cheerful Yogi, Smiley Yogi, Happy Yogi, Chatty Yogi
- The bees sound is more of a ‘bbzzzz’ than a ‘hummm’ for kids, so bee breathing (Brahmari) got modified somewhat!
- Kids have buckets of energy - They jump (no, I mean, really jump!) at the Frog🦗 pose – looks so easy… After the 4th session, I must admit, my ‘jumps’ had a lot to be desired…I put it down to being too hot (😅)
- All kids loved the butterfly pose🦋, but some drew the line to the snake pose 🐍(oh dear!) so the hissing breathing was hit and miss.
I had a lot of fun and hope that all kids engaged and enjoyed themselves in all the activities available at the Summer Garden Party. There was a Nature Discovery Trail too; lots of children and their families took the Trail and some came back or came by to proudly show me their participation stickers!
After 3 hours of sessions, I sat down with 2 slices of Choco Rocky Road and a huge lemon drizzle cake - a moment of reflection! It was a good day!😄
Photo by courtesy of Kelly-Anne Pignatelly
If your nursery, pre-school or school would like to have some kids Yoga sessions, please get in touch. If you would like to have a family Yoga session, I can do private sessions.
I am certified to teach Yoga to children and teens, fully insured and I have enhanced DBS.
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