7 Fun Yoga Poses To Do At Home With Your Kids

On a daily basis children are encountering emotional, social, and physical challenges. Yoga is a fun way for them to learn about many things that will help their overall development.

- Sharni Quinn

By introducing yoga at an early age, you inspire your children to live an allround healthy lifestyle and support them in learning important values and life skills such as truthfulness, gratitude, balance and self discovery. Yoga is not just about stretching. By learning all the aspects of yoga, you are also inspiring healthy eating, environmental awareness, creativity, mindfulness, breathing techniques, relaxation, physical activities and emotional and social stimulation through fun and interactive postures.

After teaching yoga to the girls at Micklefield Primary School for four years and volunteering with the Earth child Project for more than five years, I can certainly see how different it is to teach yoga to children. Adults are focused on stress management, fitness or spiritual connection. However, children just want to play and be creative. Yoga for kids should be something fun and that they enjoy doing, a magical part of their day where they get to tell stories with their body and imagine they are a crow or a gorilla and move their limbs accordingly. My favourite is in Cat and Cow pose when we ‘meow’ like cats or ‘moo’ like cows!

Children also absorb much more than adults. When teaching a yoga session filled with adults you often have to repeat yourself many times before they hear you, whereas with children they will remember something you said three months ago! Yoga, and the positive messages it brings, is therefore a wonderful escape for children from ‘real’ life and other forms of exercise that primarily focus on winning or being the best.

Doing a few yoga poses at home is a beautiful way to connect with your children in a playful and interactive way.

7 FUN YOGA POSES TO EXPLORE

1. Sun Salutations