Yoga with kiddos at home

I believe that yoga is not exclusively to practice in a yoga studio, so I will talk about how we can enjoy yoga at home and I will share some books that I think are really helpful for parents to do yoga with their kids.

Trust yourself

If you have taken a yoga class, you know about yoga postures. Maybe you are not an expert, or you don’t know the names of the poses in Sanskrit, or you don’t do postures perfectly. But the only way to become better at something is to practice. Therefore, I highly recommend practicing yoga in a funny way with the kids at home. It doesn’t matter if you know a lot of yoga or not. You can start with very simple poses that you feel confortable with.  For example: During mornings you can do few sun salutations with your favorite music, as a morning routine with your kiddos. Another way could be doing yoga poses with your kids in afternoons before or after the homework. There are very good books with games and activities for doing this. Also, you can adapt almost any game that your kids like doing into yoga poses.

Books:

Yoga Games for Children by Daniel Bersma

The Yoga Zoo Adventure by Helen Purperhart

Itsy Bitsy Yoga for Toddlers and Prescholers by Helen Garabedian

Trust yourself and your yoga practice; trust what you learn in your yoga class. These books are really helpful tools to do yoga with your kids at home or in any place that you want to have a great time.

Respect    

Yoga flows naturally in kids, sometimes they don’t do the perfect postures but actually we never do a perfect posture at the beginning. So, we should keep in mind that this is not a proper yoga class; it is only practicing yoga in a beautiful environment with family. That’s why I recommend respecting kids while they are doing yoga, unless you feel that your kid could be hurt.  Of course, you can show them how to do the pose but if the kids are doing the best that they can, criticizing them could hurt their self-esteem or trigger rejection of yoga. Yoga cards are excellent sources for the kids, so they can see how the posture is and imitate it. On the other hand if your kids are taking yoga classes you also could respect what they have learned. Also you can learn from them.

Flash cards and games:

Yoga Pretzels (yoga cards) by Tara Guber, Lea Kalish, Sophie Fatus

Yoga Planet (yoga cards) by Tara Guber, Lea Kalish

Yogi Card Game by Upside Down game

Memoyoga by Upside down game

Relaxation

Kids love relaxation! Really, who doesn’t?  There are some techniques to relax; the most common that we practice in yoga is the last part of the class, when we lie down on the floor for few minutes.  We can do this simple activity at home; we can add relaxing music, incenses, candles, and essential oils. We don’t need to pay an expensive spa to relax, we can create a specific moment to relax at home, maybe after the shower or before the nap or before we fall asleep.   Also, massage is a great way to relax.  Breathing is another way to relax, the books and the yoga cards that I mentioned before also contain relaxation activities and breathing techniques. Another book with beautiful relaxation techiniques is Ready..Set..R.E.L.A.X. by Allen and Klein.