“The seeds sown in childhood put down deep roots.” - Stephen King
Yoga is a well-known healthy activity that is practiced all over the world. The modern trend is to believe that yoga is only for adults who can recognize that they are absorbing benefits from yoga with each practice.
However, kids can also enjoy just as many benefits as adults!
Whether your child is a baby, toddler, school-age, or adolescent, there is a type of yoga they will likely enjoy.
Getting your child started with yoga is easy once you know where and how to look for classes. Read on to know how you can set your child up with a healthy habit for life!
Why Children Should Practice Yoga
Yoga offers so many benefits for kids of all ages. Just like any activity, it is an opportunity for your child to grow more confident and learn new skills.
The practice of yoga is extremely good for health, and the experience that comes with being a participant provides even more benefits!
Physical Health
We often encourage children to participate in sports, play outdoors, and do other activities that move the body and exert physical energy. And for good reason! Developing a habit of being sedentary in childhood is hard to break later on, which can lead to all kinds of diseases linked to inactivity.
With yoga specifically, your child can reap the benefits of typical physical activity and build acute body awareness at the same time. Yoga poses require mindful and precise movements, which increases coordination throughout the entire body.
Other physical yoga benefits for children include:
- Spacial awareness
- Increased lung and circulatory system function
- Boosted metabolism
- Increased mobility and flexibility
- Increased strength
- Better sleep and sleep patterns
- Body awareness, especially through periods of growth
Find kid's yoga courses near you.
Mental Health
Although kids may not have a lot of things we consider to be stressors in life, they still have a lot of stress to deal with. The act of learning how to be a human is a stressful experience!
It can take a long time for an adult to learn valuable mental skills like acceptance, reframing, pausing, reflection, and more, which causes unnecessary difficulty in their life. Practicing these skills at a young age is valuable beyond measure.
In addition to emotional mental health, yoga also increases logical mental health. How does yoga help kids concentrate? Firstly, yoga is an activity that is done without a screen (or, if there is a screen, it’s a yoga video). This already has mental benefits because yoga takes place in the real world, instead of the virtual world; the practice of yoga is tangible.
Second, it takes concentration to hold a balancing pose, or focus on the breath, or sink into a seated pose or mudra. Even a short amount of focused concentration boosts the ability to concentrate longer later on.
Last, physical activity increases brain health, which helps kids switch from task to task and focus on one thing at a time.
Some of the other mental benefits of yoga are:
- Ability to self-analyze thoughts and emotions
- Learn to express difficult emotions in a healthy way
- Ability to overcome depressive thoughts
- Self-soothing
- Increased compassion for self and others
- Increased optimism, calmness, joy, and gratitude
- Increased confidence
Social Benefits
Yoga is often practiced as a social activity in group classes. The little yogi has interaction with other students, the yoga teacher, and any other staff involved in running the facility.
Even if your child practices only solo classes, their social skills can improve.
Many of the social benefits are byproducts of the mental and physical health benefits mentioned above. So, your child can build better relationships with just about everyone they meet, not just people in their yoga class!
The social skills boosted by yoga include:
- Empathy and compassion
- Increased listening, concentration, and comprehension
- Increased confidence
- Ability to gracefully handle confrontation or difficult situations
The Best Styles of Yoga for Children
There are many different styles of yoga for kids to choose from. Some styles are more suited for adults and adolescents, but with practice and maturity, may be suitable for younger kids as well.
You also have many choices of programs to choose from!
Yoga for Young Children
For babies and toddlers, you can find classes that allow partner yoga for parents and children to practice together. This allows you to make sure your child is comfortable and safe while they get exposed to the world of yoga! This “style” of yoga can be classified as gentle and should be specifically tailored for the experience of parent and baby.
When your child is a little older, around 6-7, they might be able to attend classes on their own. In this case, you may be able to find classes that are specifically kid’s or children’s yoga. It should include fun games and interactivity that encourage learning about yoga in a way that engages kids.
Specific styles of yoga to try, beyond children’s yoga, are
- Hatha
- Gentle
- Iyengar
"All kidding aside, if everyone did yoga, we would have world peace." — Rory Freedman
Yoga for Older Children
If your child is mature, or really interested in being serious with yoga, you may be able to find a beginner’s class that will allow their attendance. They just need to make sure to be non-disruptive, and may still require your supervision.
After the age of 10, you have some more options, as your child may have the maturity to be able to attend a beginner’s class. They will likely be too old to be in a kid’s class, so the only option would be a class that also has adults.
Beyond a beginner’s general class, the best styles of yoga for kids are
- Ashtanga
- Hatha
- Iyengar
These styles don’t move too quickly, so they’re great for students still learning the poses. The fastest-moving class is Ashtanga during Surya Namaskar, but that is a repeated set of movements that is always the same, so your child can learn it quickly.
No matter which style of class you and your child choose, you can be sure that there is an immense benefit to yoga exercises for kids.
How to Get Your Child Started with Yoga
You know why your child should practice yoga, and you want them to start classes, but you aren’t sure if your child will be interested in learning yoga. It makes sense to gauge your child’s interest before spending time, money, and effort on an activity!
You can introduce your child to yoga to see if they have any inclinations to participate.
Try basic yoga poses at home, or try checking out free videos on YouTube. If your child shows interest, that’s a good bet to enroll them in a class as the next step!
Intro to Kid’s Yoga Poses
Perhaps the easier portion of yoga to introduce your child to, asana is a very interactive practice.
Keep your child interested in the poses by making them exciting and fun. Using your imagination and playing games is a surefire way to maintain their interest!
Some of the best yoga poses for kids include:
- Vrksasana
- Ardha Padmasana or Padmasana
- Bhujangasana
- Ardha Hanumanasana or Hanumanasana
- Malasana
- Trikonasana
- Adho Mukha Svanasana
- Urdhva Mukha Svanasana
- Sarvangasana / Salamba Sarvangasana
- Halasana
Not only do these poses offer an interesting way to move the body, you can also pretend to be an animal or another object while doing many of them. Since young kids are extremely flexible, they will have little to no problem with many of the poses, and will find it fun that they can stretch and twist!
"Yoga is not about touching your toes, it’s about what you learn on the way down." — Jigar Gor
For older kids, it’s more appropriate to practice yoga poses with less pizazz and focus more on the asana as a practice, not a game. There are more complicated poses that older kids who have more control over their bodies might be able to practice.
For older kids, good beginning poses are:
- Ashta Chandrasana
- Ardha Chandrasana
- Chaturanga Dandasana
- Phalakasana and Phalakasana I
- Natarajasana
- Paripurna Navasana
- Garudasana
- Eka Pada Rajakapotasana I & II
- Sirsasana II
For kids of all ages, there are plenty of YouTube videos you can check out for free that give a great intro to yoga.
Find yoga courses near Hyderabad.
Intro to Kid’s Meditation
Convincing kids to sit still and meditate might sound like an impossible task, but it’s not!
After physical exertion, like asana, your child may be more ready to sit calmly for a few moments of contemplation. Even if they just breathe a few deep breaths, they are building their meditation practice little by little.
It can be really helpful to have a fun guided meditation to give your little one, so they have something to focus on while meditating. A simple short story about feeling grass, looking at stars or saying “I love you” their favorite relative can be the just right amount of concentration in a short amount of time.
For older kids, it might be possible to introduce other types of meditation, since they can be more cognisant of being contemplative. In addition to sitting and clearing the mind, they can try coloring or drawing, taking a walk, chanting mantras, cooking, or another hobby as a form of meditation. One simply needs to remain mindful while doing it!
The Cost of Yoga Classes for Kids
Depending on where you decide to enroll your child, the cost of yoga classes can vary quite a lot.
For group classes, prices can range typically between INR500-INR1000 per child per class. Some of these classes will also include a parent if they are a parent-child class. In that case, the class is usually the same price, but half the time.
You can find group classes online or in person by searching the internet, local papers, through youth programs or schools, and word-of-mouth.
For a private class, you can expect to pay between INR500-INR1200, depending on the experience of the teacher and whether the class is online or in-person.
You can find private classes online and in person the same way as you can find group classes. The added advantage of private classes is that it is often easier to find a teacher because there are more teachers who can teach privately, independent from a studio! Search based on your location, budget, schedule, and other needs on Superprof.
If you are interested in having your child attend a yoga camp, you can expect to pay between INR6,000-INR20,000 depending on if the camp is day-only or overnight, where the camp is, and how many days it runs for.
No matter what your child’s journey into yoga looks like, the most important thing is that they start. Yoga offers so many benefits for an entire lifetime.
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