10 Important Principles to be able to Teach Children under 3

Vegetables are good for you, but what will you do if you don’t have teeth to chew them? Blend it, juice it, stew it, maybe make a soup… Yoga is good for you, for everyone, but it must be made digestible to the individuals in your class.

I have been teaching yoga for more than 30 years now. For the first 10 years I thought that yoga would simply not work for children younger than 3… after a lot of experiments and many amusing “failures” I have discovered a few simple secrets to make those classes engaging and fun, and for the past decade teaching children aged walking to 3 has been my very favorites to teach!


Put the following points into practice with your little yogis and be amazed at their success!

1.  MAKE IT VISUAL

This is the most essential point to remember!

At this age, they have just started to walk, and are slowly learning how to talk.  They find it challenging to connect between the name of an Animal, how it looks like, what sounds it makes, what it does, where does it lives etc.  So using imagination or just saying the names of the yoga animals will not give them the support they need to keep their attention engaged throughout the class.

To have a successful class with this age group, you must present all the poses in a visual or concrete way.  You can go to the zoo or the pet store or the farm or the park… but EVERYTHING EVERYTHING EVERYTHING HAS TO BE VISUAL!  

Here are some suggestions for making your yoga visual:

a.  Poses with a Plush Toy – Collect dolls of animals you wish to do their poses during the class and let the kids pick up one animal at a time for all to do yoga with. I have the children randomly pick the yoga animals from a Magic Sack I made; it makes it easy to plan and do the exact poses I wish to teach. 

b.  Hand Puppets – Puppets are always more interesting than the teacher, and therefore are an easy way to keep the children’s attention. Pull out the puppets one at a time and let it teach the children how to do the pose and even tell interesting facts about itself.

 

c.  Animal Masks – As you wear them, you become that yoga animal and lead your flock or herd through poses that are connected to that animal and it’s environment.

d.  Stamps of Animals/Objects – As each kid gets stamped, we all do the pose together. Not more then 3 stamps per kid though!  Parents don’t like getting their kids back covered with ink.

 

e.  Picture Book – As you turn the pages and each animal or object is being discovered, you all do the poses together. Raise the book up and make sure that everyone can see the pictures! 

f.  Yoga Story Time with a Book – Choose an age appropriate storybook that has lots of animals or objects featured in it and make it into a whole yoga class.  As you read the story, do the animals and objects in the book all together with your bodies. Yoga Story Time is a great idea for classes in libraries choosing a different book every week!

g.  Poses with stickers – To start with, you can do the poses that are on the stickers you give the kids, or poses of animals that are in the same colors as the stickers.  You can then proceed to use the stickers as a toll to guide the kids to move different body parts into the poses.  

For example you can ask the kids to put the stickers on their knees while in butterfly pose and then ask them to bring the stickers up and down to move their knees.  If you all put the stickers on your feet, you can ask the children to reach to the stickers to touch their feet, or to bring one sticker up in the air in order to lift a leg up in a pose.

h.  Yoga Card – They are visual… you can hide them under the kids yoga mats and have them discover them one at a time to do the poses, you can play the matching card games, or do a yoga freeze dance where they need to turn over a card and do that pose when the music pauses.

2.  TALK LESS; SING MORE

Talking is overrated in yoga. And besides that it is not always easy to understand when you are so young, it is also boring. Songs are different though; they are fun and engaging, and they are an awesome tool to help kids stay longer in a pose.

So if you can, sing instead of talking! Try to find a song for every single pose. You can invent your own on the spot if you need to. The kids will not know if you can’t carry a tune ;-)

Do the Sun Dance with a song, or find songs that have a lot of animals in them, like Old MacDonald Had a Farm, to do lots of poses through.  Turn regular songs into yoga songs: “if you’re happy and you know it be a Tree/Frog/Dog…” or make a yoga hokey-pokey song of “bring you dog/warrior pose in…”

3.  BE VOCAL

Make a lot Sound Effects – Most animals and objects make a sound… use it to keep the kids engaged!

4.  REPETITION

Do fewer poses but repeat them A LOT!  

Kids of this age group learn through repetition.  You know how little kids like the same story read to them every night, or watch the same movie a million times?  That’s how they learn at this age.  

You can ask them toward the end of the class “which animals did we meet today?” And as they say what they remember, proceed to do all of those poses again with them!  

It is also a good idea to always start the class in the same way; it will condition their bodies and their minds to be ready for the yoga class.

5.  DON’T INSIST ON ANYTHING

Work with the energy of the kids and flow with their needs and wishes or they will simply cry (which is OK too).  Be patient, they learn even if they just watch.  

Be flexible with what you have planned for the class, and flow with what happens instead of fighting.  Let the class be fun and silly!  This is more like a “yoga playgroup” than a yoga class.  

Don’t over stretch the class; when it’s done it’s done, if you see that they had enough, move toward a short relaxation.  45 Minutes is usually a good time frame for this age group, but don’t look at the clock; look at the kids.

6.  TO DO MORE YOGA, DO YOGA TOGETHER

Children of this age can’t balance on one leg by themselves – But they can definitely do it holding a hand with a friend or a parent or the teacher… or even with the help of the wall.

This class is always successful as a kids only class, but if you organize the class to be with parental participation the kids will be able to do even more and for longer! 

7.  DEMONSTRATE AND PRACTICE WITH THE KIDS

They learn by imitating not through explanations – Demonstrate and do everything with them and avoid complicated instructions like “scoop your tailbone in” and similar grownup yoga jumble mumble.

To do the Cat/Cow for example I say “look at your bellybutton” while demonstrating the Cat Pose and “look up” for the Cow Pose. Be creative!

8.  PROP UP YOUR YOGA

Use lots of props – It will help the kids stay longer in the poses, explore movement and breathing, interact more with each other, and even relax for longer.

Hula Hoops, balls, parachutes, bells, pin wheals, bubbles… it can all be used to do more yoga!

9.  PLAY PLAY PLAY… BUT ALWAYS LEAVE SOME SPACE FOR QUIET TIME

Quiet time and relaxation are an important element of yoga and are a part of every class. But again, you must fit the practice to the age group of the kids. 

Their imagination is still undeveloped; so use very little guided imagery, and more foot massage, tactile props like soft feathers or bubbles bursting on their skin or big scarves brushing over them, relaxing sounds like a Tibetan Medicine Bowl ringing over their belly, or a short story.

10.  SUCCESS BUILDS SUCCESS

Take the time to research and learn about this age group’s abilities and motor skills. It will help you avoid poses that are bound to be too challenging and focus more on the skills that these children can easily gain.

For example, kids of this age don’t have perception of behind, so you will find that they can’t roll forward and back but only from side to side.  And poses like plow, shoulder stand and camel where they need to bring their body backward will not be possible for them.  

Start with simple poses and games. Being successful and being praised for it will help these children to build a strong foundation for their yoga practice and will make them LOVE IT!

 

Want to learn how to share yoga and mindfulness with your children at home or with your students at school?

Join one of our Rainbow Kids Yoga Teacher Trainings today! Click here to sign up!

 

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