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Teaching Yogasanas & Meditation To Kids

How to teach yoga and meditation for children

Yoga is an ancient holistic science and art of living that is being practiced for thousands of years now. The popularity of Yoga and meditation for children is increasing day by day, considering the amount of stress kids are being put through, nowadays.  They are being taught before and after school, during lunch time programs, in special education classes, at home before dinner and in daycare centers. Yoga and meditation for children blends postures, dynamic movements, breathing exercises and meditation into a holistic and integrated program of education, physical fitness and social and self-awareness.

There are 3 broad age groups that you will have to consider when teaching Yoga and meditation to children

1. Children below the age of 8
2. Kids between the age of 8 and puberty
3. Post-pubertal teens

Yoga and meditation techniques for children are specially designed to help them relax and focus better during school and you have to use different techniques and teaching aids from those used on adults. This is done so that they are able to concentrate and memorize more effectively. This is why, when teaching Yoga and meditation to children you use lots of birds and animal poses as well as plenty of stories. Besides, for children you use more of the dynamic techniques, rather than the static. Finally, you start by teaching children open eyed and dynamic meditation techniques, such as walking meditation, skipping, jumping and running meditation.

Kids are vivacious, lively, energetic and very animated. You have to learn to use and channelize their energies in the right direction or they tend to get bored and lose interest in the programs. Good meditation techniques for children encourage them to be themselves, concentrate on greater self-awareness, techniques that will help them face life with greater belief in themselves, their friends, superiors and surroundings. Yoga and meditation adapted for pre-school children, cultivates in them greater body awareness, language, better listening skills, powers of observation and cooperation.  It teaches them respect for nature and all creatures and their environment and inspires their active imaginations.

Teaching Yoga and meditation to children can be a challenging, yet exciting and rewarding endeavor. But you must choose the right techniques, those that will foster their overall growth and development. Yoga instructors constantly report how encouraged the feel by the positive results, physically, mentally and emotionally, that they see in children who take their practices seriously. Kids’ innate joy, spontaneity and natural wisdom and innocence are a great inspiration and you end up having lots of fun. Nowadays, Yoga and meditation for children is specially developed to teach kids of all ages and abilities, from preschoolers to teens.

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