Celebrations and Farewell

This was another eventful week, as we celebrated Avaneesh's birthday on Monday and then with a heavy heart said farewell to Pearce, who will be going back to Australia.  We will miss you Pearce!

To celebrate Avaneesh's special day we went through yoga poses corresponding to the letters in his name.  We had fun trying out new poses like valley and nectar pose and practicing some older ones such as Alive, Elephant and Snake.  We also did the warrior series of poses that help us feel strong, bold and brave:)  During our Wednesday class, we revisited some of the poses from the What I can See I Can be book, and then we went on an imaginary jungle adventure.  I had brought in a special song for them and we used the words in the song to cue us into many fun yoga animal poses.  We also worked on some partner poses; this week we tried out back to back mirror.  This activity, develops breath and body awareness, as they try and sync their movement and breath.  

The older kids welcomed Tomas back and are grateful that he is feeling better.  We are working on incorporating mini flow routines at the start of every class.  The Monday class flow routine incorporated various plank positions, ask you child to show you their favourite plank.  Here are some pictures of them doing their favourite plank pose and some of them getting creative and trying to do a partner side plank.

The older kids also had a lot of fun exploring partner poses, this week, we did seated twists, back to back mirror, forest of trees and straddle. We have also been working on various gratitude exercises, ask your child to show you how to play the "Orange you grateful" game.  

I am grateful that I can share the joy of Yoga with kids and for their smiles and enthusiasm that makes teaching Yoga so much fun!

Home Activity: As a family establish your own routine to practice gratefulness, studies prove that when we express gratitude it creates a lasting sense of happiness. Here is one such article that explains how, and offers ways you can incorporate this philosophy in your life.

http://www.foodrevolution.org/blog/gratitude/

Imagination, Affirmations and Mindful Movements

This was a fun week, with the younger kids I focused on developing breath awareness and using the What I can See, I Can Be book as a visual guide for our yoga poses.   It was so much fun using our imagination and turning ourself into a still mountain, then a volcano, a tree, a dog, a snake, a mouse, a kite, a boat and a peaceful meadow.  I am very proud to see our young yogis give it their best and smile while holding their poses:)  As a special treat on Wednesday, we also had time to play a fun game Duck Duck goose with a Yoga twist.  We ended our classes with relaxation where they usually center their breath and calm their minds by colouring one of the poses they learned in class and then transitioning into quiet relaxation either lying down or sitting in easy pose.  On Monday, we sang along to a positive affirmation song and felt beautiful, bountiful and blissful at the end of it.  Affirmations are a great way to instill positive thoughts in a child, and work on building their sense of self, and what better way than songs to affirm these positive thoughts!

Hissing like Snakes!

The older kids continue to challenge themselves with short yoga flows while building body awareness. Last week, we talked about 2 types of bones in our leg (tibia and femur) and this week I introduced 2 bones in our arms (ulna and humerus).  Understanding our anatomy, allows the kids to start connecting with various parts of their body as they perform each pose, and thereby embark upon the journey of mind and body connection.
They have also been shown various partner poses; I find these work very well in helping them build awareness of another person and also fostering the spirit of co-operation.  Below are some pictures taken from a previous class showing partner downward dog pose.  Ask your child to show you some of the back-to back poses we learned in class this week.

Partner Downward Dog

Announcement:  On Wednesday, we welcomed Mrs. L, a Yoga teacher and a colleague of mine, who will be joining us occasionally during our Yoga classes.

Yoga at Home:  During class, I have introduced the idea of using our breath, to let go of worries or not so good thoughts.  Trying this out at bedtime works very well, ask your child to lie down on their backs, think about a worry they may have had as they inhale and release that worry as they exhale.
With the older kids we are using visualization and have been filling each worry into a balloon and then releasing the balloon and letting go of our worry.  I usually ask the kids to make a long "haah" sound as they exhale their worries/release their balloon.  With the younger kids I ask them to go into mouse pose and exhale the worries that are trapped in their head into the earth.  Feel free to give any of these methods a try and please do share your experiences on my blog.

New session and new friends

Today, we started our November session and it was a pleasure to see everyone and also welcome some new friends to our class.  We also welcomed our friend Mr. Bonesy, who will be educating the kids on various bones in our body and thereby helping them become aware of the different bones we end up using during various yoga poses.

With the younger kids we played the name game and practised various poses that started with the first letter in their name.  We certainly had a lot of fun doing our poses and each child felt very special at the end of our game.

With the older kids, I introduced the femur and tibia and we reminded ourselves of positioning both these bones safely when doing our poses.  I challenged them with a Yoga flow routine and I was so happy to see how well they are progressing.  Tomas shared how he used his breath to calm himself down, when he went trick or treating and saw something that scared him.  Always grateful to see kids take their learnings from Yoga and put them into action.

Suggested Activity:  Increase your child's awareness of their body, by identifying some of the commonly used bones, clavicle, tibia etc and make it into a game.  Shout out an activity such as walking and then your child would list the bones they use to perform that.

Ninja Stars- A Balancing Tool

We have been talking a lot about super heroes in our classes and are working on strengthening our super powers by practicing Yoga.

In October, I had shared a fun super hero tool that can be used at home and in my class to develop balance.   I brought in a craft I had made at home with my boys called, "Ninja Star."  Most of the kids loved using Ninja Star!   Ask your child to show you how to use it and make it a family event to see how long each of you can hold a balancing pose with Ninja Star on your foot.

For those who would like to make one with their family, I have posted the directions here so feel free to give it a try:)

Challenging ourself with new Poses

We had another action packed class on Monday trying out some new poses, and I was so happy to watch all the kids gave these new poses a try with a "Can DO" attitude.  

I introduced a new breathing technique called "Bunny Breath,"  where we take a few (we have started with 3) rapid breaths in a row through our nose, and then exhale out through our mouth with a long, smooth sigh.  This breathing technique helps boost their energy and clear their minds;  ask your child to teach you this fun and energizing breath:)

The kids were introduced to bow, plank and camel pose today, and admidst the excitement, I managed to take a few pictures of a few of them giving it their best shot.  With the older kids we played unscramble the word with our Yoga Alphabet cards and the kids had fun unscrambling the word           " Peace," while doing the poses that corresponded to the letters.

P: Plank

E: Elephant

A: Alive

C: Camel

E: Elephant, group pose

We are also working on holding our poses longer at least 3 full breaths in each pose for the younger kids and about 4-5 full breaths with the older ones.

The class ended with relaxation and us being grateful for the special people we have in our lives:)

Suggested Activity:  Play a game of unscramble the word with your family and come up with a Yoga pose to correspond with each chosen letter.  Get creative and come up names for the poses and use this time to connect, laugh and be active with each other.