From Eva Lina
Hi,
I also just started teaching yoga to children. The idea occurred after two years of teaching dance to children... However, my suggestions are : a lot of play! I write a short story before each session. Each story includes different animals, trees, tea pots (for triangle pose),...But I also include some other movements, like waving the hands, "flying" around the room... Before we start doing yoga, I just let them move, run, jump....I think they need some kind of movement before they feel comfortable enough to stand, sit or lie still for a few seconds...
At the beginning of the class I tell the children to lie down and pretend to be sound asleep in their bed...or pretend they are the sea and their tummies are waves that go up and down as the wind blows...Or I make up something else...In the meantime I read them the story and then ask them to tell me what they remembered from the story...Then we go through the story together and we try to act out all the things...For example, we are riding the bike to the mountain where we meet the cat, and then later on we meet a dog...we sit on a chair and drink tea from the tea pot...lie on the grass and watch the gasshoppers, crocodiles... Something like that. I even ask them to make up their own story (which is more appropriate for children over 6 years of age).... However, I try to make them use their imagination and creativity, and never force them to do anything they don't want to do. On occasion we did some origami and used the "masterpieces" for breathing techniques...On another occasion I handed them sheets of paper and some crayons and asked them to draw me their favorite animal and later they had to imitate all the animals from the drawings which was a little hard because I was never sure if the dog I saw on the drawing wasn't a crocodile in the child's imagination...
There was a 5 year old boy who came to my class and he was so full of energy that he made other kids jump and run all around the studio...I felt like Arnold Schwarzeneger in "The Kindergarten Cop" movie... So, I tried to give him an important role - he was a leader monkey who had to take other monkeys on a trip from one end of the room to the other...this seemed to work. He felt important and it was easier to "control" him....
There is another thing that I am not sure if I'm right about, but anyway...I don't correct the poses the children do...At least not too much. I realized that they do the same pose differently each time...So I just let them imitate me as best as they can.
These are just some of my tips. I hope you can find any of it useful for your class.
Blessings from Slovenia!
Eva Lina
hali.lina@gmail.com
