Do you exercise regularly? Do you explain to your child(ren) the important of an exercise routine? Life pulls us in many directions, sometimes all at once, and it’s difficult to find the time to exercise. In a recent post, we suggested including exercise into your daily routine. However, it’s more important than ever to raise children’s awareness to exercise. It not only promotes good health, but it also helps with mental health and creates confidence. Introducing yoga is a great way to get children interested in exercise because it’s simple to do and inexpensive. With a yoga mat and a flexible lesson plan, you can create your own yoga for kids class and gratitude practice for kids.
Table of Contents
- What are simple yoga poses for children?
- Keep yoga for kids interesting!
- BONUS Yoga for Kids Tips:
- Other yoga poses easy for children:
What are simple yoga poses for children?
Over the last few months, I’ve introduced yoga into my daily routine. If my daughter, Angelina-Skye, is around, she likes to join me and I act as her yoga teacher. Not only have I seen a difference within myself, I’ve noticed some in her too! Below I’ve listed 10 easy yoga poses for children to learn. With these suggestions, your children will learn to love yoga and incorporate mindfulness into their home life regularly. The first 5 are my recommendations and the last 5 are Angelina-Skye’s. Keep reading to find out what made the list!
1.) Lotus Pose
The lotus pose is a great way to introduce yoga to children, since they sit cross-legged regularly. Benefits include warming up the back and hips. It brings awareness to the mind, body, and spirit. Which is helpful for introducing breath awareness or mindful meditation. It’s also a calming way to end any yoga session. With this very simple pose, it’ll be easier for them to focus on proper diaphragmatic breathing, which reduces anxiety.
2.) Forward Fold
The forward fold, also known as a forward bend, is the most common yoga pose, but also one of the best yoga practices. It’s easy to teach and is easily adaptable for all ages! This pose has many benefits for child development, such as stretching the back muscles and the legs. This is another great pose for promoting body awareness and improve focus.
3.) Warrior I
The Warrior Pose is a very empowering yoga practice. It’s great for children, because they’re already very active and use their muscles frequently. When doing this yoga pose, it teaches them about a strong and steady stance. It also works on balance, which is useful in many other activities such as sports or dancing! It also allows them to tap into their creative expression but remain gentle on their little bodies.
4.) Butterfly
It’s important to have a positive experience when teaching yoga to kids. A way to ensure healthy yoga experience is to introduce new poses that are similar and familiar to each other. The butterfly pose is great for this, because it’s very similar to the sitting position that children already use. Use this pose to help transition them into other position while focusing on breathing techniques to calm their mind at the same time! While taking deep breaths in through their nose and out through their mouth, they can focus on feeling grounded or centered.
5.) Child’s Pose
Of course, it says it in the name! Child’s pose one of my favorites too! It’s easy to do and once you settle in, you might not want to unravel! Physical benefits include a calming effect on the body and mind. It’s also great for relaxation, at the end of yoga session or practice before bedtime!
Keep yoga for kids interesting!
A common mistake most adults make is not making sure your child doesn’t lose interest. Let them choose their own practice. Introduce popular articles (this one!) of other children practicing yoga and let them decide which ones seem like fun to do. This will make introducing yoga super sweet and easy. It will also ensure positive communication between you and your children. Here are the five my daughter choose.
6.) Mountain Pose
The mountain pose is probably one of the yoga poses that most children are familiar with, since it’s also called the “standing up” yoga pose. It helps them to focus on their breathing, which calms their minds before starting any activity, including yoga! We can adapt this simple yoga pose to different levels of fitness, so please adjust to what’s comfortable for them.
7.) Cobra
The Cobra pose, fun and easy! Another great tip is to include animal sounds in your practice. When your child is practicing their breathing in this pose, have them hiss like a cobra on the exhale. It’ll make yoga fun while introducing them to a new yoga tradition too.
8.) Tree Pose
Who doesn’t love a good tree pose? The tree yoga pose is a great introductory position to teach young kids! It’s easy for them, because it has so many variations or modifications their parents can do with them. This yoga pose also works on balance while increasing concentration and focus skills too!
9.) Bridge Pose
Fun to do and helps great with stretching. Even when stretching, it is important to make sure your child is breathing consciously through all the poses. Although they are simple exercises, improper breathing can make it more difficult and they’ll be more sore in the morning! Focusing on breathing will also help remain in the present moment.
10.) Downward Dog
The yoga pose that started it all! The downward dog is a great yoga practice because it strengthens the body while also improving their balance. It’s easy to teach and fun too! Your child will feel empowered by this yoga session, which can be very important for self-esteem.
BONUS Yoga for Kids Tips:
As usual, I wanted to include bonus tips. However, these are some to keep in mind when introducing kids to yoga. Practice yoga in a safe environment. Provide a calm and relaxing environment so they are distraction free. Also, create a specific “yoga time” to ensure proper routine skills. Teach yoga with kindness; the best way for them to learn yoga is to have patience and remain open-minded. Praise them for a good job. Kids yoga is not just about doing proper yoga practices; yoga provides not only physical benefits. If it improves focus and self-love, then their mental health is thriving, too.
Other yoga poses easy for children:
Well, there you go. These yoga poses are just simple examples of yoga for kids that you can do at home with your child(ren). Once you’re ready to introduce more, consider introducing other yoga poses like, the Swan pose, Warrior II and sun salutations. Yoga is great because it doesn’t require much equipment and time commitment. Children will benefit maybe even more than us! What are some of your favorite yoga poses? Which do your children recommend? Let us know below in the comments section!
