8 Fun Yoga Poses for Children

8 Fun Yoga Poses for Children

Thinking of ideas to keep the kids entertained at home can be a huge challenge. Since the schools have been shut, each day has taken a different shape for many of us. With less time and little space for parents it can be a challenge to even hop on the mat for a quick stretch & wiggle so why not let the kids join in and let your imagination run free at the same time!

Including your children in your yoga practice can be a great way to bond, and help kids find calm. Here are our top tips for engaging children in a yoga practice and at the same time perhaps even seeing your own practice in a new light. 

Partnering up with your children and introducing them to the benefits of yoga has a number of benefits. Not only is it a brilliant bonding exercise, introducing children to a dedicated, intentional yoga practice is a great way to help them switch off and unwind from their own emotional and social challenges. If you’re toying with the idea of bringing your little one onto the mat, here are a number of our favourite benefits of yoga for kids:

What are the top benefits of Yoga for kids?

  • Yoga helps to develop your child’s concentration. 

Walking your kids through the many yoga poses for children requires them to channel their focus on specific holds. If you choose to create a regular yoga routine with your child, this will help to work on their memory and concentration skills as they’ll likely pick up and memorise key children’s poses. Developing concentration skills on the mat will also translate into everyday life – helping improve your children’s focus both on and off the mat. 

  • Yoga for kids helps to regulate emotions

Children face many emotional, social and physical challenges as they grow older and, at a young age, it can be difficult to keep a tap on such emotions. Another benefit of yoga for children is that it helps them learn how to be present in the moment. Working on breathwork and helping your little one’s to develop a peaceful state of mind can help to improve your child’s emotional regulation, allowing them to recognise yoga as a way of relaxing and switching off. Teaching children how to reduce stress through yoga is a healthy way to instill important life skills at such an early stage in life. 

  • Yoga helps boost children’s self-esteem

Allowing your child to join in on your yoga practice has multiple benefits, but one of the more notable benefits is that yoga can help your child grow to become more confident and develop their sense of self-esteem. As the nature of yoga requires time and patience, once your child becomes more familiar with poses, they will naturally aim for and reach targets, such as learning how to perfect a pose or improve their balance. Achieving these goals can feel hugely rewarding and will give young children an overall sense of accomplishment. 

Tips for Children’s Yoga

  1. Choose to have fun! Create a story and use the poses to creatively improvise through the story with the little ones – getting your creative juices flowing will be just as beneficial for you as it will be for the kids
  2. Loose any attachment to the kids achieving a perfectly aligned yoga pose, let the intention of the practice be to just move with awareness
  3. Introduce sound and music to the practice to make it more engaging. Try movie soundtracks and cinematic music to really let the poses tell a story
  4. Cater for the children’s energy levels. If your little one is being short tempered perhaps the practice will involve a lot of stamping and shaking to release this energy, or if they are feeling quiet and sad perhaps some rolling on the floor with poses like Child’s Pose and Happy Baby would best fit. 
  5. Embrace being barefoot – let the kids feel their feet and hands with awareness to land back into their body 
  6. Use online resources. There are kids meditations on YouTube, check out New Horizon as well as some great Kids Yoga, check out Cosmic Kids. These are really useful if you would rather someone else teach the kids for a few moments of quiet time. 
  7. Improvise! Get creative, give poses fun names, connect through movement and enjoy that 5 minutes at the end of the practice 

A short Children’s Yoga Practice and Story

Looking for ways to incorporate top yoga poses for kids into your routine? Make it fun! Keep reading as we walk you through some of the most popular yoga poses for children and present ideas on ways you can incorporate these into a story-style yoga routine.

The Butterfly & The Treehouse 

Child’s pose 

A caterpillar in a cocoon

The pose: Simply take the knees far apart and bring the big toes together, allow the chest to fold onto the mat. 

The story: Let your little ones notice the feeling of cocooning in Child’ Pose. Bringing their attention to sensations of warmth, comfort, retreating. See if they can notice their breath moving their belly and hear their breath within this tiny cocoon. This pose is a great starting point, let your imagination run wild and bring your Child into an imaginary mystical woodland setting. 

Cobbler’s Pose

The Butterfly

The pose: From Child’s Pose come to a seat. Bring the soles of the feet together and allow the knees to make a diamond shape. 

The story: The knees can reflect a butterfly’s wings. Emerging from a caterpillar nestled in a cocoon and into a beautiful butterfly.  Let your little ones notice their seat, the middle of the butterfly and how the wings feel light and airy. Encourage them to breathe into their wings/hips so that eventually the butterfly has enough breath to rise up and fly. Allow some time for the little ones to fly around as a newly emerged butterfly. 

Tree Pose

The Tree House

The pose: Come to stillness and allow the kids to find their balance on one leg. Take the raised leg and place the sole of the foot onto the side of the standing leg. Once balanced raise both arms up to the sky. 

The story: Stay rooted like a tree through the soles of the feet. Wave from side to side and feel the wind within your branches/arms. At the top of your tree is a tree house where the butterfly is going to fly into. Notice the butterfly travelling from the feet all the way up to the fingertips to reach the treehouse. 

Downward facing dog 

The Steep Hill 

The pose: Place hands shoulder width apart and walk feet back keeping them hip width apart. Bring the seat up towards the sky and bend the knees so the hill is long with no humps. 

The story: The butterfly is at home in the tree house but it’s now time for the rest of the woodland creatures to come on up and join him. The body is now a path, a hill for the animals (squirrels, moles, rabbits and mice) to reach the treehouse. 

Wheel Pose

The Big Bridge

The pose: From Downward Facing Dog come to lay on the back. Bring the heels close to the seat with the knees facing up towards the sky. Place hands behind head with elbows up and fingers facing towards feet. Lift hips and push the floor away lifting the head up off the mat. 

The story: Continuing the path to the tree house, the woodland animals must now climb the steep bridge from the feet, all the way up the legs, past the belly, the chest and to the crown of the head. Use hands to mimic the movement for Children and encourage an awareness of the scoop and fluidity of their spine. 

Boat 

The Rainbow Slide

The pose: After Upward Facing Dog lay onto the belly, then roll onto the back. Sit up and find the seat bones, from there bring the knees into the chest. Either holding the back of the thighs or coming into a banana shape (low boat shape) 

The story: The woodland animals are almost at the treetop house to meet the butterfly. They must first roll down and up the rainbow slide. Starting from the crown of the head all the way down the path and then back up the hill to the feet. 

Triangle Pose

The Magic Ladder 

The pose: After boat pose come into downward facing dog and bring one foot in between the hands. With both legs straight, bring one hand onto a brick and the other up to the sky.

The story: This is the last bit of the journey for the animals to take to reach the tree house and meet the butterfly. Create a ladder using the bottom hand all the way to the top hand so the animals can climb, all the way up to the treehouse. They have made it!

Savasana 

Home

The pose: Come to lay onto the back with feet spread wide and palms facing up. Close the eyes. 

The Story: The animals have made it! It’s time for everyone to relax. Lay down on your back and feel at home now you are at the treehouse with the rest of the animals and the butterfly, stay here for a few moments resting until morning comes and it’s time to play. 

Yoga Clothing for Kids

Whilst you’re busy building a new yoga routine for your little ones, help them look the part with our range of yoga wear for children at Yogamatters. Exclusively designed to support your children’s yoga journey, our Yogamatters range of junior activewear introduces kids to the joys of yoga whilst providing parents with reassurances that their clothing is ethically sourced and made from natural materials. Better yet, our children’s yoga clothing collection is a junior-sized replica of our yoga clothing range for men and women, so your little ones will be able to mimic your exact routine – clothes and all! 

Take a look at our full range of Yogamatters Children’s Yoga clothing online.

 

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