yoga mats : Children too find yoga eases stress
A child's busy schedule can sometimes be as stressful as it is exciting, but some of the younger set are finding an outlet that will help relieve that stress -- albeit one that adds another item to the agenda.
Yoga, which involves stretch poses, meditation and breathing techniques, is being added to after-school activities such as soccer, basketball, piano and gymnastics.
Increasingly, yoga studios are offering classes for youngsters, and dance studios and community centres are organizing regular workshops. There are even several yoga studios in New York devoted entirely to teaching children -- some as young as three.
For instructors, taking the main elements of the practice and making them appeal to children is as much fun for them as for their students.
"With adults, you're not going to say 'Jump around on all fours and say ribbit, ribbit,' but with kids you would," said Anna-Lisa Boye, a Vancouver-based instructor.
She admits that while it's a challenge to keep kids focused, there are tricks to engage them.
For her youngest students, aged three to five, she'll place a stuffed animal on their belly and get them to watch it move up and down, thus raising awareness of their breathing.
The result is a calming effect on children that parents can't help but notice.
Myia Norman of Toronto initially sent daughters Carly, 6, and Madeline, 9, to yoga because it was offered through their dance studio and it was an activity they could do together.
Now that classes are over for the season, she's noticed a significant change in her girls' behaviour.
"It has to have a profound effect on you," she said. "They practise their breathing and there's that peacefulness. And they connect with one another."
Her girls have become so enthusiastic that they've started saving for their own yoga mats.
Sherry LeBlanc, co-founder of Yoga 4 Kids in Toronto, has been teaching children for the past eight years. She's busier than ever, teaching full time in day-cares, private schools, dance studios and clubs.
She says yoga's trendiness has helped create interest from all ages, but children's yoga is another way to keep young people healthy.
Norman's nine-year-old daughter, Madeline Schwind, enjoys the non-competitive nature of yoga.
"I just feel like I can do it," she said. "I don't have to beat someone else in doing it or that someone else is going to win or something. I just know that I can do it."
While yoga is meant to bring inner peace, many adults are still overly aware of their performance. Not so with the younger set.
"With kids, they just go with the flow and if they're doing a pose and they fart, it just happens, where adults are more (embarrassed)," Boye said.
By CP
Yoga, which involves stretch poses, meditation and breathing techniques, is being added to after-school activities such as soccer, basketball, piano and gymnastics.
Increasingly, yoga studios are offering classes for youngsters, and dance studios and community centres are organizing regular workshops. There are even several yoga studios in New York devoted entirely to teaching children -- some as young as three.
For instructors, taking the main elements of the practice and making them appeal to children is as much fun for them as for their students.
"With adults, you're not going to say 'Jump around on all fours and say ribbit, ribbit,' but with kids you would," said Anna-Lisa Boye, a Vancouver-based instructor.
She admits that while it's a challenge to keep kids focused, there are tricks to engage them.
For her youngest students, aged three to five, she'll place a stuffed animal on their belly and get them to watch it move up and down, thus raising awareness of their breathing.
The result is a calming effect on children that parents can't help but notice.
Myia Norman of Toronto initially sent daughters Carly, 6, and Madeline, 9, to yoga because it was offered through their dance studio and it was an activity they could do together.
Now that classes are over for the season, she's noticed a significant change in her girls' behaviour.
"It has to have a profound effect on you," she said. "They practise their breathing and there's that peacefulness. And they connect with one another."
Her girls have become so enthusiastic that they've started saving for their own yoga mats.
Sherry LeBlanc, co-founder of Yoga 4 Kids in Toronto, has been teaching children for the past eight years. She's busier than ever, teaching full time in day-cares, private schools, dance studios and clubs.
She says yoga's trendiness has helped create interest from all ages, but children's yoga is another way to keep young people healthy.
Norman's nine-year-old daughter, Madeline Schwind, enjoys the non-competitive nature of yoga.
"I just feel like I can do it," she said. "I don't have to beat someone else in doing it or that someone else is going to win or something. I just know that I can do it."
While yoga is meant to bring inner peace, many adults are still overly aware of their performance. Not so with the younger set.
"With kids, they just go with the flow and if they're doing a pose and they fart, it just happens, where adults are more (embarrassed)," Boye said.
By CP
