Yoga is effective for body and mind fitness. It is 5000 years old and practiced by 300 million people worldwide. Doing yoga lowers your blood pressure. It also helped relieve chronic pain among 89% of people who tried it. It improves spinal bone mineral density too. Say goodbye to those back pains. If you ever feel depressed, do yoga. Facts prove that yoga makes you perky and lowers depression. A fun fact, if you do yoga every day, you can reduce 3.5 kg weight within 3 months. How amazing is that!!

Yoga for school-age children has even more benefits. You start them young and set them on their yoga journey. It provides huge benefits for their current and future self. Your children become better mentally and physically. Yoga improves memory, focus, mindfulness and reduces stress. Yoga also helps children with ADHD, improves their focus and raise their school grades.

For all this to happen, you need not join a yoga studio at this time. Many of us are a bit scared to join such public groups right now. And you are not alone in this. Over 67% of yogis do yoga from their homes. You just need a yoga mat and hook up with a good online yoga class. Did you know that yoga industry is worth $40 billion worldwide and all set to explode further! If you like to, you can also make it as a career.

Benefits of Yoga

After all those facts, let us look into the benefits of yoga. Doing yoga betters you and your children. Your children will learn important life skills and be well-balanced, both in mind and body. Given below are the benefits they get by doing yoga for school-age children.

Controls Anxiety

Yoga teaches deep breathing techniques and mindfulness. It makes the brain calmer and relaxed. By doing yoga, your children will be calmer, happy and content. Their minds will be focused and calm. They will use yoga and mindfulness to manage and control anxiety. Managing stress and anxiety is a vital life skill that will help them always.

Better Emotional Regulation

With yoga, your children can regulate their emotions in a positive way. Yoga teaches your children to be in the present moment and be calm and serene. It helps them regulate their emotions. Through slow and firm body movements, yoga teaches discipline. It also reduces impulsiveness. It provides a positive outlet for your children to use their energy. All negative and pent-up energy leaves the body this way. As a result, your children are calmer, more focused and regulate their emotions better.

Develops Self Esteem

Yoga boosts self-esteem in your children. Yoga for school-age children is easy. Your children start from easy and move on to complex yoga poses. With time, they do these yoga poses easily. Doing these tough poses, your children realize that with regular practice and will power they can achieve anything. Be it yoga, school grades, sports or anything else. It makes them self-assured and boosts their self-esteem.

Increases Awareness and Mindfulness

Yoga makes your children self-aware. Doing yoga poses, they learn about their body and grow mindfulness. Yoga also makes your children socially aware. Yoga classes are done offline or online. Either way, your children will meet new mates and get to know them. They may be the same age, older or younger. Your children will mix with them and become more outgoing. Yoga teachers also make the class a fun and positive place by including games and fun tasks. Your children mix with other children, learn how to handle them and become more socially aware.

Improves Memory

Yoga benefits mind and body. It improves focus and calms the brain. Your children become relaxed and serene. Yoga clams their nervous system. It relieves tension from the body and lowers your children’s stress levels. It also helps bring deep sleep. Your children are fresh in the day and not sleepy eyed. They learn their lessons better and recall them easily too. Doing yoga improves their memory and as a result their school grades.

Develops Strength and Flexibility

Yoga for school-age children is good for their physical health. Doing yoga keeps your children’s bodies supple and fit. It stretches the body and moves and flexes the joints. Your children become more flexible and gain strength. Yoga improves the balance and develops the core. An improved core means a strong back and body. It reduces the chances of injury too. Doing yoga will make your children fit, flexible and strong.

Simple and Fun Yoga Exercises for Kids

Yoga for children need not be serious or boring. Do these simple and fun yoga poses with your children. They enjoy doing these and become healthy in the process too.

Simple Yoga Breath Exercise

• Ask your children to take a deep breath.
• Let them hold it for a count of three.
• Ask them to breathe out with force. Just like blowing out candles on their birthday.
• Repeat five times.
• Now, move on to the next.

Flying Bird Breath

• Ask your children to stand tall.
• Their arms should be at the sides and feet hip-width apart. Just like in a standing Mountain pose.
• Ask them to imagine that they are a strong, beautiful bird, perhaps an eagle.
• Let them pretend to fly by raising their arms and joining the palms overhead. Arms should be straight too. Ask them to inhale at the same time.
• Ask them to breathe out slowly as they bring their arms down to the starting position.
• Repeat for five times. Ask them to do the poses slow and steady.

 

Yoga games

Yoga for school-age children should include games too. It makes yoga fun and engages the children better. Here are some yoga games for your children to play.

Mirror-Mirror 

• Use this yoga game as a warm-up exercise for your children. It will help improve their focus too.
• Ask one of your children to become the leader.
• The leader will pick a yoga pose and do it in front of others.
• Other children will follow and copy the pose. It is like they are looking in a mirror.
• Now change the leader with every pose.
• Every child will get a turn and be a leader.
• Besides being a fun task, it is a great learning device. It teaches your children how to follow instructions and be a leader too.

Yogi Says

• It is just like the classic “Simon says” game.
• Select one of your children as the “Yogi”.
• Your children must do the yoga poses that yogi asks them to do.
• The catch is, the leader has to say “Yogi says” before the pose.
• If the leader does not utter this, other children do not have to do this.
• Change the yogi with every pose.
• Every child will get a turn and be a leader.
• Besides being a fun task, it makes your children more focused and attentive.

3.Red Light, Green Light Yoga

• Select one of your children as the “Stoplight”.
• Let Spotlight stand at one corner of the room.
• Other children gather at the opposite corner and act like “cars”.
• The Stoplight starts the game by saying greenlight. the other children move forward by doing yoga poses. When the Stoplight says red light, other children need to stop right there in the middle of their yoga poses and stand still.
• Every child gets a turn to become a Stoplight.

 

Meditation

Yoga for school-age children also includes meditation. It is a short and simple process that children can easily do. Given below are simple meditation for your children. They can do them for a period of 30 seconds to several minutes.

Mindful Awareness Meditation

• Ask your children to sit relaxed or lie down on the yoga mat.
• Let them close their eyes.
• Ask them to listen to every single sound in the room and tell you about it later. It can be the ticking of the clock, humming of fan or a birdsong.

Kindness Meditation

• Ask your children to sit relaxed or lie down on the yoga mat.
• Let them close their eyes.
• Ask them to think about someone they love. It can be you, your partner, their siblings, pets, best friends etc.
• Ask them to imagine they are holding their loved one tight in their embrace. Tell them to think about that person with all their love and affection.

 

Conclusion

Yoga for school-age children is enriching and productive. If you plan to teach children yoga, keep these things in mind. Make it a fun class and turn it into a game. When you do animal or nature poses, ask your children to act likewise. Ask them to purr like cats in cat pose and make moo sounds in cow pose. They can roar during lion poses and stand tall like trees during tree pose. Act as a facilitator and guide your children. By doing this, you will help them learn and become a better person at the same time.

Yoga is effective for body and mind fitness. It is 5000 years old and practiced by 300 million people worldwide. Doing yoga lowers your blood pressure. It also helped relieve chronic pain among 89% of people who tried it. It improves spinal bone mineral density too. Say goodbye to those back pains. If you ever feel depressed, do yoga. Facts prove that yoga makes you perky and lowers depression. A fun fact, if you do yoga every day, you can reduce 3.5 kg weight within 3 months. How amazing is that!!

Yoga for school-age children has even more benefits. You start them young and set them on their yoga journey. It provides huge benefits for their current and future self. Your children become better mentally and physically. Yoga improves memory, focus, mindfulness and reduces stress. Yoga also helps children with ADHD, improves their focus and raise their school grades.

For all this to happen, you need not join a yoga studio at this time. Many of us are a bit scared to join such public groups right now. And you are not alone in this. Over 67% of yogis do yoga from their homes. You just need a yoga mat and hook up with a good online yoga class. Did you know that yoga industry is worth $40 billion worldwide and all set to explode further! If you like to, you can also make it as a career.

Benefits of Yoga

After all those facts, let us look into the benefits of yoga. Doing yoga betters you and your children. Your children will learn important life skills and be well-balanced, both in mind and body. Given below are the benefits they get by doing yoga for school-age children.

Controls Anxiety

Yoga teaches deep breathing techniques and mindfulness. It makes the brain calmer and relaxed. By doing yoga, your children will be calmer, happy and content. Their minds will be focused and calm. They will use yoga and mindfulness to manage and control anxiety. Managing stress and anxiety is a vital life skill that will help them always.

Better Emotional Regulation

With yoga, your children can regulate their emotions in a positive way. Yoga teaches your children to be in the present moment and be calm and serene. It helps them regulate their emotions. Through slow and firm body movements, yoga teaches discipline. It also reduces impulsiveness. It provides a positive outlet for your children to use their energy. All negative and pent-up energy leaves the body this way. As a result, your children are calmer, more focused and regulate their emotions better.

Develops Self Esteem

Yoga boosts self-esteem in your children. Yoga for school-age children is easy. Your children start from easy and move on to complex yoga poses. With time, they do these yoga poses easily. Doing these tough poses, your children realize that with regular practice and will power they can achieve anything. Be it yoga, school grades, sports or anything else. It makes them self-assured and boosts their self-esteem.

Increases Awareness and Mindfulness

Yoga makes your children self-aware. Doing yoga poses, they learn about their body and grow mindfulness. Yoga also makes your children socially aware. Yoga classes are done offline or online. Either way, your children will meet new mates and get to know them. They may be the same age, older or younger. Your children will mix with them and become more outgoing. Yoga teachers also make the class a fun and positive place by including games and fun tasks. Your children mix with other children, learn how to handle them and become more socially aware.

Improves Memory

Yoga benefits mind and body. It improves focus and calms the brain. Your children become relaxed and serene. Yoga clams their nervous system. It relieves tension from the body and lowers your children’s stress levels. It also helps bring deep sleep. Your children are fresh in the day and not sleepy eyed. They learn their lessons better and recall them easily too. Doing yoga improves their memory and as a result their school grades.

Develops Strength and Flexibility

Yoga for school-age children is good for their physical health. Doing yoga keeps your children’s bodies supple and fit. It stretches the body and moves and flexes the joints. Your children become more flexible and gain strength. Yoga improves the balance and develops the core. An improved core means a strong back and body. It reduces the chances of injury too. Doing yoga will make your children fit, flexible and strong.

Simple and Fun Yoga Exercises for Kids

Yoga for children need not be serious or boring. Do these simple and fun yoga poses with your children. They enjoy doing these and become healthy in the process too.

Simple Yoga Breath Exercise

• Ask your children to take a deep breath.
• Let them hold it for a count of three.
• Ask them to breathe out with force. Just like blowing out candles on their birthday.
• Repeat five times.
• Now, move on to the next.

Flying Bird Breath

• Ask your children to stand tall.
• Their arms should be at the sides and feet hip-width apart. Just like in a standing Mountain pose.
• Ask them to imagine that they are a strong, beautiful bird, perhaps an eagle.
• Let them pretend to fly by raising their arms and joining the palms overhead. Arms should be straight too. Ask them to inhale at the same time.
• Ask them to breathe out slowly as they bring their arms down to the starting position.
• Repeat for five times. Ask them to do the poses slow and steady.

 

Yoga games

Yoga for school-age children should include games too. It makes yoga fun and engages the children better. Here are some yoga games for your children to play.

Mirror-Mirror 

• Use this yoga game as a warm-up exercise for your children. It will help improve their focus too.
• Ask one of your children to become the leader.
• The leader will pick a yoga pose and do it in front of others.
• Other children will follow and copy the pose. It is like they are looking in a mirror.
• Now change the leader with every pose.
• Every child will get a turn and be a leader.
• Besides being a fun task, it is a great learning device. It teaches your children how to follow instructions and be a leader too.

Yogi Says

• It is just like the classic “Simon says” game.
• Select one of your children as the “Yogi”.
• Your children must do the yoga poses that yogi asks them to do.
• The catch is, the leader has to say “Yogi says” before the pose.
• If the leader does not utter this, other children do not have to do this.
• Change the yogi with every pose.
• Every child will get a turn and be a leader.
• Besides being a fun task, it makes your children more focused and attentive.

3.Red Light, Green Light Yoga

• Select one of your children as the “Stoplight”.
• Let Spotlight stand at one corner of the room.
• Other children gather at the opposite corner and act like “cars”.
• The Stoplight starts the game by saying greenlight. the other children move forward by doing yoga poses. When the Stoplight says red light, other children need to stop right there in the middle of their yoga poses and stand still.
• Every child gets a turn to become a Stoplight.

 

Meditation

Yoga for school-age children also includes meditation. It is a short and simple process that children can easily do. Given below are simple meditation for your children. They can do them for a period of 30 seconds to several minutes.

Mindful Awareness Meditation

• Ask your children to sit relaxed or lie down on the yoga mat.
• Let them close their eyes.
• Ask them to listen to every single sound in the room and tell you about it later. It can be the ticking of the clock, humming of fan or a birdsong.

Kindness Meditation

• Ask your children to sit relaxed or lie down on the yoga mat.
• Let them close their eyes.
• Ask them to think about someone they love. It can be you, your partner, their siblings, pets, best friends etc.
• Ask them to imagine they are holding their loved one tight in their embrace. Tell them to think about that person with all their love and affection.

 

Conclusion

Yoga for school-age children is enriching and productive. If you plan to teach children yoga, keep these things in mind. Make it a fun class and turn it into a game. When you do animal or nature poses, ask your children to act likewise. Ask them to purr like cats in cat pose and make moo sounds in cow pose. They can roar during lion poses and stand tall like trees during tree pose. Act as a facilitator and guide your children. By doing this, you will help them learn and become a better person at the same time.