Challenging, Exciting, Rewarding
Ishy is 8 years old, she is my niece. She loves extra curricular activities. I wonder what kind of workshop she’s into this time. She said “Yoga”. Yoga for pre-school children? Well yes, it is adapted for pre-schoolers. My cousin (mother of Ishy) said it develops body awareness, language, good listening skills, cooperation and powers of observation. It also teaches pre-school children about nature, their environment and inspires their imaginations. It prepares them for breathing techniques used in yoga. For pre-schoolers this is an ideal time to begin yoga practice. Yoga for school aged children balances quiet and active poses with game playing, singing, storytelling, drawing, simple breath meditations and rest. They say that children can easily follow the teachers instructions by learning the names of different body parts, their locations and function. As they learn the names of the postures and movements they develop a yoga vocabulary. They can use their yoga poses to play games, take on the qualities of different animals or use their imaginations to make stories about animals on the farm etc. Yoga for children is challenging, exciting and rewarding. I am really encouraged by the positive results, both physical and emotional as I observed with my niece who take yoga regularly. No wonder why she never missed a single session every Saturdays even she had a whole week of school. I am also excited to enroll my son to yoga workshops or classes soon.