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Step 1
First before you can teach children to do yoga, you need to make sure that you either understand it yourself or provide them with proper instruction with a video or class. There are many excellent videos geared for children on the market today. See below for a link to a few of the videos that my family and I have enjoyed.
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Step 2
Once you begin to understand the art of yoga yourself and you are introducing it to your children you need to make time for it in your routine. Yoga can help children relax and unwind from a long, busy day so before bedtime is an ideal time to do a yoga workout with your children.
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Step 3
Limit the poses that you do with children to ones that are at their level. This is one reason that a video is helpful, it will introduce the proper poses for their age and experience. There are many poses that children really enjoy and can do well such as Tree Pose and Child's Pose. Make sure that you are watching your children for signs of struggling and if that is the case, you may need to simplify things for them.However, keep in mind that it will take some time for kids to get the hang of the poses and be comfortable performing them. Many poses will take some practice and some development in their balance and concentration before they can master them.
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Step 4
Use a stuffed animal or picture as a focus point for children when they are doing balancing poses such as the tree pose. Teach them that if they focus on this object it will help them do the pose better with less wiggling.
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Step 5
Use many of the yoga breathing exercises with children to help them learn to manage stress, anxiety, and anger. These are great disciplines to teach children, not only will help their overall physical health but will also teach them to remain in control of their emotions. Remind children to use them throughout the day when you see them get upset or angry, you will notice that before long you will not have to remind them, they will simply do it on their own.
Comments
amylaine said
on 8/1/2008 Great info