Why Do You Love Teaching Yoga to Children?

This “passion” post is part of our monthly theme at Kids Yoga Stories.  I have been reflecting on the love of teaching yoga to children.

Our family is creating a yoga practice together, making it up as we go along.  At home.  In the park.  At the airport.  Wherever we go, there’s our yoga practice.  A few minutes a day.  Really simple.

It’s not perfect.  Of course, we wish that we could practice more often.  But we do the best we can, in the hopes of creating a yoga-friendly lifestyle with our daughter.

An inhale-exhale with arms outstretched, an elephant pose at the zoo, picking up garbage on the street, sitting quietly together with eyes closed, or a few poses before bedtime are some of the things we do together.

Why I love teaching yoga to our toddler: 

• increases her language development through actions, until she is ready to talk

• practices something active at home, that doesn’t involve the screen

• embraces her self expression as she imitates her natural surroundings

• gives her a sense of pride and accomplishment doing something that comes naturally

• provides us with an activity that we practice together, a sacred time to connect and bond

• enables us to speak in English and Spanish

• helps to promote a lifelong, active, healthy lifestyle that we can do together

• channels her energy into something positive and helps to calm her mind and body

• builds a platform for us to talk about the guiding principles of yoga (character education) when she is older

• improves her balance, strength, and flexibility

• builds connections to her environment in a fun, active way

• gives us a chance to bring children’s books alive by acting them out

• helps her to unwind at the end of the day and invite sleep

Why kids yoga teachers love teaching yoga to children: