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Yoga for kids is as beneficial as yoga for adults. In addition to being a fun activity, it can arm your children with essential life skills and make them healthier, wiser, and successful individuals.
With the passage of time, yoga for kids has become an increasingly popular practice in U.S. The fact is that little else can outdo the physical and mental health benefits of this exercise for school-age children. From improving strength, balance, aerobic capacity to endurance, it can work wonders.
I encourage you to adopt practices that will boost your child’s mental and physical capacity in the best way.
If you haven’t considered yoga for kids yet, perhaps this article will convince you why you need to consider it seriously for your child’s wellbeing. Keep reading below!
Yoga for Kids - Its Tremendous Impact
Mindfulness and yoga for kids have proved that both the mental and physical health of school-going children improve vastly. Even a vast research body concluded through extensive scientific research that yoga can help boost academic performance, memory, focus, and self-esteem.
Moreover, with all the incredible transformations it brings in a child, yoga also positively impacts the classroom behavior of children. Besides, we all suffer from varying levels of stress, even children.
From the pressure of good grades to keeping up with challenging subjects, things can get pretty stressful for children too.
Thus, yoga for kids is one fine outlet for releasing stress and reducing anxiety in the little ones too.
Yoga for Kindergartners
When it comes to yoga for kids, we refer to kids of all ages from toddlers to adolescents. Most people tend to associate yoga and working with adults only. However, yoga for kindergartners is not new to many. In fact, it seems to be increasingly growing in popularity among kindergarten schools and parents.
What’s interesting about kids’ yoga is that you will find them doing yoga poses since infancy. Most of the yoga for kindergartners is just poses that kids have been practicing all the time while playing on the bed or in the playground.
As soon as your child starts doing yoga, you will notice how the yoga postures are just natural poses for children.
Yoga for kindergartners has some really amazing benefits for kids including positive effects on their physical, emotional, and mental health. Below are a few kids' yoga poses along with their individual benefits.
Not to forget, yoga for kindergartners will also be quite fun for your offspring and get them ready for a good nap.
The Tree Pose
Kindergarten students are mostly around the age of 4 to 5 years old. This suggests that they have finally mastered walking and running and are full of energy that needs to be expended.
I suggest that yoga for kindergartners always begins with the tree pose as it is one that will grab and maintain your child’s interest in yoga and healthy physical activities.
This is because this yoga pose involves the usage of arms and legs and is most likely to make your child feel like an adult. Children love to mimic older people and since they have recently learned to walk and run, it is the best pose to start with.
Through this yoga pose, they will find another way of using their arms and legs.
To teach the tree pose to your kid, start by holding out their hand and instructing them to lift their leg up so that it touches the other leg.
You can continue to offer help to hold their hand until they are finally able to balance their body on their own. Then, they can lift their foot up without holding your hand.
The tree pose is helpful to strengthen the thigh, torso, and shoulder muscles. It also strengthens the muscles of the abdomen, ankle and calves.
Downward Facing Dog
If you are looking for fun yoga for kindergartners, this pose is just it. Not only do kindergartners find it fun, but it is also an easy one so kids do not tend to back out after a few tries.
What makes this pose so fun is that children can have a new view of looking at their surroundings through this pose.
You may have already noticed that children of this age are all about exploring new things. They love to look through the windows, through toilet paper rolls, and what not.
The downward facing dog pose just gives them another way to look at the world around them.
The correct way to do this yoga for kindergartners pose is to get on your hands and knees. The hands should be slightly in front of the shoulders with knees directly below the hips.
The pose is slightly complicated for little kids so it is best to let them experiment and adjust on their own terms.
The downward facing dog pose is good for strengthening the hamstrings, calves, hands, and wrists of your little one. Not only this, but it also strengthens the entire back and shoulder girdle.
Mountain Pose
The mountain pose is the simplest yoga pose for kindergartners. However, it is not any less fun than any other yoga pose. Why? Because children love the ‘clapping’ element in anything and everything.
It gives them a sense of celebration and so no child is going to be bored of the mountain yoga pose.
This pose simply involves the act of standing up with the arms either at the side or over the head. To make it fun for young yoga learners, you can encourage the kids to raise their arms above their hands and clap.
This pose is even more fun if done with more kindergartners or even as part of family yoga.
The mountain pose is a great one when it comes to benefits. This yoga pose helps to create and maintain a good posture. It also strengthens the legs, thighs, knees, ankles and the lower back.
Legs up the Wall
This is another fun pose as it involves kids lying down with their legs against the wall. What makes it so exciting for kids is that they are finally allowed to get closer to a wall.
Most parents have it as a rule in their homes that nobody is allowed to touch the walls with their feet.
When you introduce this yoga pose to your child, they are most likely going to look at you with wonder and excitement in their eyes. Moreover, it is also another of the poses that allow your child to look at their surroundings from a different perspective.
All this pose requires you to do is to put your feet up the wall. You can also encourage your child to stretch out their legs wide against the wall
This is an easy yoga pose for kids that has many benefits for your baby. Legs up the wall pose fall under the umbrella of restorative poses so it helps to relax the mind and body.
It will help to soothe the feet and legs, and back of your baby and get rid of any pain or tiredness they may have from playing too much. Not only this, it will also increase blood circulation.
Happy Baby Pose
This is for you if your child is not the one to stay still for long periods of time and runs away from the idea of doing yoga. You do not have to ask your kid to especially come for yoga.
You can start off by the happy pose on your bed in the morning or on the floor during playtime during the day.
This pose is the simplest to do and we are sure that it will result in a lot of morning giggles. Most kids already love to explore their feet while they’re on their back. All you have to do is ask your kid to lie down on their back and hold their legs.
They will have the most fun if you or other siblings accompany them. To make it more fun, you can add other elements like nursery rhymes.
The pose is great to help relieve any backache. It also strengthens the chest, shoulders, and outer hips. Not only this, it is best for kindergartners as it also lengthens the spine.
What Research Says
We have growing evidence from research studies that yoga for kids can help with ADHD (Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) too. This exercise form has proved it can improve core ADHD symptoms, which include inattentiveness, impulsivity, and hyperactivity.
This is perhaps the primary reason why a vast number of schools now incorporate yoga for kids as part of the curriculum. You will find mindfulness and yoga as a concrete part of most physical education programs now.
Moreover, there is a wide range of yoga studios specifically for kids across the country. From being interactive to playful, yoga is tremendously beneficial for children and even parents.
Proven Benefits
Today, not only are adults more aware of the ever-constant healing potential of yoga, but also the school-going children. The body and mind practice regime is rampant among the kids and frankly, we’re very happy about this awareness.
If health and fitness become a priority at a young age, it will guarantee better health for the lifetime. Besides, you can’t deny the charm of having active little yogis right in your home. They’d make the cutest sight of all and you wouldn’t want to stop admiring them in their charming poses.
Moreover, even better are the many health benefits as well as an entertainment resource you will give the children with yoga. If you’re not sure of it yet, here are all proven benefits I know of yoga for kids:
1. Fun and Relaxation Together
We’re living in a highly stressful world and unfortunately, it’s no different for kids at school. While we can’t control the pressures and challenges they have to face there, what we can do is to give them an outlet at home.
Can there be any better option than yoga for kids? Absolutely not and the kids would not only relax but also have fun in this exercise. The online yoga world has come up with amazing sequences, such as the Frozen yoga theme for Elsa’s fans and something for dinosaur lovers too.
Here’s a Tidbit: A Malaysian research team conducted an eight-week study program for third-graders, in which they made them practice yoga. By the end of the research, the results showed the participants had developed excellent stress-management techniques. Imagine, if third graders become competent stress managers, what a sorted life they will live as adults!
2. Great Way of Instilling Mindfulness and Body Awareness
You know, nothing can make a person more self-assured than being aware of their own body. It increases their confidence and self-esteem. Yoga includes a variety of poses that helps the little ones acquaint themselves with their bodies in a thorough and wholesome way.
It also brings fluidity to their muscles and helps them identify the movements they’re capable of doing.
3. Maximizes Attention Span
School is full of concentration, attention, and focus requirements. But many children struggle to concentrate, what with so many new concepts and tricky details to learn.
Yoga for kids comes to the rescue here too. It proved in another study to help improve the focus and attention span of children rather effectively. The study included a group of little participants with attention problems.
The researchers concluded that not only yoga helps the participants drastically improve their attention span but also found the practice enjoyable.
4. Improves Balance
How we all love athletic, lithe, and well-balanced children! The fact is that yoga for kids improves balance significantly too. Another research conducted twelve-week research with fourth and fifth-grade participants.
The research aimed to check whether or not yoga improves physical and mental health and consequentially balance. At the end of the research, there was no difference in the perception of the well-being of participants. But something even more wonderful happened.
The study proved there were major improvements in the balance of the participants against the comparison group. Hence, you cannot doubt the significant boost your child’s balance will get with yoga. You wouldn’t have a lethargic, clumsy, or weak kid at all if he/she practices yoga regularly.
5. Emotional Regulation
Expressing does not come easily to everyone, most especially in the case of children. They’re fragile beings while in school and sometimes it can be hard for them to process emotions.
But what happens if we neglect this factor and let negativity, uncertainty and other emotions pile up?
It can rob them of their confidence and their peace of mind. As a result, the little ones will not be as successful academically and socially as they deserve to be. Hence, you can save them from all with yoga for kids.
Yes, this exercise helps the little ones learn how to be present at the moment, how to relax and how to express themselves. It helps them channel emotions and let go of what they suppress inside.
With regular yoga sessions, they can successfully reach a much peaceful peace of mind. All of this keeps improving emotion regulation.
6. Strengthens the Body
Part of the reason why adults so eagerly take up yoga is because of the body strengthening benefit. Imagine if you could do the same for your children at an early age. They’d grow up to be remarkably strong and agile adults.
There is clinical evidence to this fact too. During a small study that included seven to nine-year-olds, twelve weeks of yoga resulted in improved strength. However, you can only ensure lifelong strong bodies if you make your children keep up with yoga regularly.
7. Mental Wellbeing
Yoga for kids can help in numerous ways, which is crucial, now that concerns for mental health are growing alarmingly. A few years back, a team of researchers from around the world studied the benefits of yoga for well-being.
They observed the body of evidence and concluded that regular practice does indeed improve mental health.
This is a major advantage for all parents whose children suffer from depression. In fact, it is also extremely helpful in giving your children armor for coping up with the daily stresses of life.
Media consumption has created much of it and while we cannot protect children from that, we can, however, ensure they stay mentally sound.
8. Reduces Impulsivity while Teaching Discipline
Yoga for kids is one of the best physical outlets that help them express themselves freely. With this practice, you can reduce difficult classroom behaviors. The yoga exercises help children clear their minds as they perfect their poses, which is equivalent to inner cleansing.
9. Increased Self-Esteem
Children can be low on self-esteem, especially when they fail to perform as well as their classmates. There’s always fierce competition within schools, from sports to grades and everything in between.
If you don’t take proactive measures to tackle this, it could ruin your child’s self-esteem for life.
Thankfully, yoga for kids is a tremendous way of boosting the little one’s self-esteem. While they pitch efforts to perfect their pose and improve flexibility and balance, they also develop a feeling of self-empowerment.
More Benefits
Increase strength | Improves immune system | Manage anxiety | Builds muscle strength |
Better flexibility | Correct breathing | Improves memory | Remove attachment from electronic devices |
Coordination | Improves posture | Balance improvement | Relieves stress |
Prevention of flat feet | Increases self-esteem | Introduces to meditations | Increases positivity |
Conclusion
Yoga for kids is supremely beneficial for the physical and mental health of young beings. They’re as vulnerable to life’s pressures and stressful challenges as we adults are. In fact, children are often in a weaker position because at tender ages they are unable to express themselves better.
With yoga, they can find tremendous mental and physical balance. It will help boost their attention, their muscle strength, their bodies, and their overall wellbeing. If you would like to try to do yoga with your kids join my weekly yoga stories to feel these incredible benefits yourself.
