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Kids Yoga: Yoga Books & Videos
for Children
Yoga for
Kids & Teens, Kids Yoga Books and Videos by
Marianne Woods Cirone, M.S, R.Y.T., Certified Yoga Teacher
The
popularity of the new book, Babar's Yoga for Elephants
by Laurent
de Brunhoff suggests the spillover of yoga's popularity to the youngest
generation. Yoga for children is a relatively new area of yoga which
is becoming popular as yoga practitioners want to share the benefits with
their children and schools begin to realize the benefits for their
students. However, this is an area where some yoga professionals believe that
yoga practice is perfect for children while others believe that it is not
appropriate for them. A wide range of opinions can usually be found
on any given topic, and yoga is no exception. Certain types of yoga, such as
ashtanga, were originally
developed for adolescent males in order to channel their abundant energy,
but programs for children today primarily focus on being gentle, safe, and
fun and/or therapeutic. |
YogaKids™ which makes classical yoga fun and accessible for children
through video or classes. Yoga
Kids by Marsha Wenig is a video geared
toward three-to-ten-year olds which shows twenty different poses.
This video is very popular with parents and children. In addition to
the video, Marsha has developed a network of Yoga Kids programs across the
country where children can take yoga classes. The Yoga Kids classes
can be found by going to their website:
www.yogakids.com. They also provide information about becoming a
"CYKF" or Certified Yoga Kids Facilitator. Another video that
parents have recommended is
Yoga Fitness for Kids Ages 7-12
(shown at right).
There are several books available on yoga for kids, as shown below.
Books can be a convenient resource for more indepth information on
yoga and poses for children.
Yoga for Children, by Mary Stewart and Kathy Phillips features over
100 color photos and simple explanations to guide children into a gentle
yoga practice. Yoga has been said to not only improve children's
fitness, good posture and flexibility, but also their ability to
concentrate and focus. Some experts suggest the use of yoga to improve
ADD and AD/HD as well as a variety of other conditions. Yoga for
Children is easy to follow and makes the introduction to the practice both
fun and practical. Childhood is the perfect time to introduce
children to the lifelong benefits of yoga and this book is a user-friendly
resource.
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More Yoga
Books for Kids
A well-liked book
on hatha yoga for kids is I Can't Believe It's Yoga for Kids
by
Lisa Trivell and Peter Field Peck (photographer). Trivell is
a highly qualified exercise and yoga instructor with clients that
include Lorne Michaels (of Saturday Night Live) and Paul Simon.
This book provides many photographs of children in various poses.
Children's
Book of Yoga: Games & Exercises Mimic Plants & Animals & Objects
(shown right) by Thia Luby won a national award for one of the
best children's books of 1998 from the School Library Journal. It is
visually beautiful with large color photographs. The Children's
Book of Yoga (shown right) contains six complete, entertaining
yoga workouts for children ages three to 12 with instructions for teachers and
parents. Baby Om
(shown left) is a great first book
for mothers after the birth of their baby, when they
are ready to begin doing yoga and want to share time
with their baby as well. New mothers have
raved about the beautiful illustrations and
excellent instructions in this book. (For more on
yoga for expectant mothers, click on
Yoga for Pregnancy.)
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Shakta Kaur Khalsa, author of several
books on yoga has written Fly Like a Butterfly: Yoga for Children,
a book which is highly recommended by
readers. The book contains 184 black and white pictures showing poses such
as the bear walk, the spider and the fish pose, plus breathing and
relaxation techniques tailored for the special needs of the
younger yoga audience. There is a separate section of the
book explaining
benefits of various poses. Another book that associates the
poses with animals is Like a Fish in Water: Yoga for Children
by Isabel Koch, a brightly colored book (shown right)
showing more than 20 poses. The illustrations are vivid and
charming, showing the various animals for which many of the yoga
poses have been named, making the introduction to yoga both fun
and memorable for the children.
Yoga for Child with Special
Needs
There
are also programs such as Yoga for the Special Child (tm) in
Evanston, IL, which specializes in teaching parents and teachers to use
yoga for children with Down Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, autism, AD/HD and
learning disabilities. These classes
tend to be therapeutic adaptations of
classical yoga. Other programs for children can be found by checking with yoga centers, park districts and hospitals. For those who wish to
learn the skills needed to teach yoga to special children, there are
teacher's training classes, books and
videos available. Classes are taught in Evanston and at Yogaville
(Integral Yoga) in Virginia by Sonia Sumar. Sumar's
Yogaville website bio reads, "Sonia Sumar taught Yoga
in Brazil for more than twenty-five years and is internationally
renowned for her pioneering work with special children. She began
experimenting with Yoga as an early intervention therapy after her
second daughter, Roberta, was born with Downes Syndrome in 1972.
Over the years, Roberta was able to achieve near-normal tests
results in school and to function socially and physically on a par
with other children her age. These same methods later became the
cornerstone of Sonia's Yoga therapy system. She has traveled
extensively, conducting workshops and training programs throughout
the United States, Portugal and South America. She is also the
author of a book entitled Yoga for the Special Child,
shown above.
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