Tips for parents – How do I start practicing yoga with my kid?
Top advice from our RGYM family: Make it fun, Make it short, Do it together.
☀ Find a moment in the day that works for you and your child. (Morning? Right before bed?)
☀ You can start by giving a mandala to colour to get your child to focus and slow down.
☀ You could play some relaxing music in the background to create a more relaxed atmosphere or listen to some yoga/meditation/mindfulness apps to guide you through a 5 or 10 minutes session.
☀ Lay down and place a favourite stuffed animal on your child’s belly. Have them take a deep breath in and watch their buddy rise up, up, up and then down, down, down as they breathe. Just 3-5 minutes of conscious breathing can shift our energy, mood and outlook.
☀ Get your RGYM poster out (complimentary when you buy a RGYM yoga kit) and start going through poses with your child. Do not go through all of them but try to focus on few. Remember that what matters most is for your child to have fun and to be safe. At this stage, our aim is to give kids a positive experience of yoga. Our task is to make kids feel brave and strong in Warrior Pose or free to fly in Crow Pose. We are teaching them the basic idea of the yoga, so keep it joyful and simple. Check our lovely yoga and mindfulness posters here.
☀ We also highly recommend to check our suggestions for yoga games as an ice breaker too. Remember to make your yoga session fun with the kids, the objective is to start enjoying their mat time and being right here, in the moment.
☀ Use kid friendly positive feedback like ‘Well done’, ‘Look how flexible you are’,"You've made some impressive progress", "I love how you do the Cobra pose"... You might want to read our article about resilient and positive things to say to your kids.
☀ Print out our RGYM reward when they complete a 8-weeks yoga challenge, kids love rewards (complimentary printable with our kids yoga mat packs) or you can create your own award chart.