Teaching Yoga After Retirement: 8 Ways to Work with Children
Explore 8 ways of teaching yoga after retirement and use your experience as an educator to bring yoga and mindfulness to children in your community.
Are you close to retirement or have you recently retired from a career in education and wondering how you could continue teaching yoga and mindfulness to children?
Or maybe you’re thinking about leaving your education role and creating your own children’s yoga business.
You are definitely not alone.
There’s a mighty force of women in our Kids Yoga Stories community who are in this exact season of life, wondering what their next chapter might look like. We hear from women in this stage of life all the time.
Some are starting children’s yoga businesses, others are volunteering in their communities, and some want to continue working in schools, but in a completely different capacity. And others are simply exploring what might be possible.
The one thing they have in common is a deep passion for supporting the health and children’ well-being. After decades of working with children, you’ve seen firsthand how much they need practical tools to help navigate challenges like regulation, stress, anxiety, and focus. And retirement doesn’t necessarily mean you’re finished with that work. It might just mean you get to do it differently.
Here are eight ways you could use your years of experience in education, along with your love of yoga and mindfulness, as you step into your next chapter.
Retiring from Education? 8 Ways of Teaching Yoga to Children in Your Next Chapter
1. Teach Yoga in Your School Before You Retire
If you’re still working in a school, this can be a wonderful way to test out your ideas before retirement.
You might begin by teaching yoga and mindfulness to your own students or offering sessions to other classes in your school or preschool. It gives you a chance to experiment with what works, build your confidence, and discover what kind of program you might eventually want to offer.
Resource: See how Stephanie, a preschool teacher and School Yoga Program alum, taught yoga to the children in her preschool
2. Start an After-School Yoga or Mindfulness Club
One of the advantages of spending years working in education is that you’ve already established yourself as a trusted educator in your community. That can make it much easier to approach after-school coordinators with an idea.
An after-school yoga or mindfulness club can support families who need extended care while also giving children a much-needed soft landing after a busy school day.
Resource: See how JaTorra, a former elementary school teacher and School Yoga Program alum, created an after-school mindfulness club. She shares how she got started, how she structures an hour-long class, and what she has learned along the way.
Or listen on Apple Podcasts:
3. Create a Mindfulness Club During the School Day
Your program doesn’t necessarily have to happen after school.
A group of teachers in New Hampshire used what they learned in the School Yoga Program to create a before-school yoga and mindfulness club for students who needed a calm place to begin their day before all the stimulation of school began.
Another idea comes from Cassandra, our Kids Yoga Stories Community Manager, a former teacher assistant, and a School Yoga Program alum. She hosted a mindfulness club during recess.
There are so many opportunities to think creatively about where these practices could fit into an existing school day.
Resource: Read how Cassandra set up her mindfulness club
4. Offer Children’s Yoga Classes in Your Community
Schools aren’t the only place where you can teach.
Our community members have suggested approaching libraries, wellness centers, yoga studios, community centers, town recreation departments, festivals, and other local organizations about offering children’s yoga classes.
Some of your first classes might be free or low cost so families can get to know you and your teaching style. Over time, these opportunities can often lead to paid classes, referrals, and other teaching opportunities.
Resource: Mimi shares tons of practical ideas for starting a successful children’s yoga business
5. Offer 10-Minute Mindfulness Sessions During the School Day
Not every program needs to be a full yoga class.
You could approach your former school, or other schools in your area, about offering short 10-minute mindfulness sessions during the school day. These sessions can give classroom teachers a short break while giving students practical coping skills and help them get ready to learn throughout their day.
You might work with one grade level, several classrooms, or even an entire school, depending on how much time you would like to commit. Your program could also run for a set number of weeks rather than throughout the entire school year.
Resource: See how Abigail, a children’s mindfulness teacher, runs her short mindfulness sessions in schools
Or listen on Apple Podcasts:
6. Return to School as a Children’s Yoga Educator
This is one of my favorite possibilities because we’ve seen teachers in our community actually make it happen.
Some educators begin teaching yoga to students while they’re still employed at their school or preschool. Then, as they prepare for retirement, they put together a proposal to return to the school in a completely different capacity, solely as a children’s yoga and mindfulness educator.
Instead of managing a classroom and all the responsibilities that come with being a full-time teacher, you might come in to teach twenty- or thirty-minute yoga and mindfulness classes throughout the school day.
Several teachers have created proposals for exactly this kind of role as part of their School Yoga Program work.
7. Offer Yoga Storytime
For those of you who are obsessed with picture books, like I am, this can be such a fun and rewarding way to continue working with children.
We have teachers in our community who offer storytimes in libraries and schools with a yoga, mindfulness, or SEL focus. You can read a picture book together and weave in yoga poses, breathing exercises, movement, mindfulness, or conversations about the themes in the story.
Resource: Here’s a list of mindfulness books for children, along with suggested activities you can pair with them
8. Teach at a Summer Camp
Summer camps are another great place to explore.
You could reach out to local camps to see if they’re interested in hiring you as a children’s yoga teacher or bringing you in as a contractor to teach yoga and mindfulness sessions on a regular basis.
You might teach once a week, run a special workshop, or even create your own summer yoga camp.
Resource: Listen to Emily, a children’s yoga teacher, share her ideas and experience integrating yoga and mindfulness into summer camps
Or read/listen here:
Your Next Chapter Might Look Completely Different
After decades in education, you bring something incredibly valuable to this work. You already understand children. You understand schools. You understand classroom dynamics, behavior, families, administrators, and the realities of working with groups of children.
You’re not starting over. You’re taking everything you’ve learned throughout your career and finding a new way to use it. Maybe that means teaching one yoga class a week at your local library. Maybe it means creating an after-school mindfulness club. Maybe it means going back into schools as a paid children’s yoga educator. Or maybe it means building an entire children’s yoga business.
Your next chapter doesn’t have to look like anyone else’s.
Download Your Free Find Funding for School Yoga Programs Guidebook
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Would You Like Support Creating Your Own Program?
If you’re reading these ideas and thinking, Yes, but how do I actually turn my experience and ideas into a program? that’s exactly the kind of work we do together in the School Yoga Program.
The School Yoga Program is an interactive six-week experience where you create your own customized yoga and mindfulness program based on your experience, your goals, and the needs of the community you want to serve.
We run the program twice a year—in the spring and fall—and you’ll be surrounded by other educators, therapists, and children’s yoga teachers who are figuring out their own version of this work, too.
Learn more about the School Yoga Program:
You can also explore our Funding Mini-Course here:
After spending so many years caring for, teaching, and supporting children, retirement can be an opportunity to decide which parts of that work you want to carry forward and which parts you’re ready to leave behind.
And perhaps that’s one of the gifts of this next chapter. You get to choose.
SAVE THIS FOR LATER
