The other night, Zephyr picked the book “The Very Busy Spider” by Eric Carle as one of the books for me to read him before bed. I have used many of the Eric Carle books for yoga, but this one I hadn’t used in a really long time. Zephyr and I thought it would make the perfect kids yoga class for his preschool class where I was teaching the next day. It also fits in perfectly with all the gardening and beautiful almost summer weather around here. It also gave me an excuse to teach the kids how beneficial spiders are for our yards and to just leave them and let them do their thing- eating all the pests like flies and mosquitoes! It was a great lesson, but not without a few moans and groans from the Kindergartners I taught later that day- there is LOTS of web spinning… Read More »
Ahhhhh….Relaxation
Savasana comes from the word Sava in Sanskrit which means corpse, and Asana is posture or seat. Corpse pose is another name for what I call relaxation or the “do nothing” pose. I just prefer not to call it corpse pose so relaxation is my term of choice. The benefit to this pose in yoga is to rejuvenate the body, mind and spirit. Savasana allows your body a chance to regroup, reset and process information at the end of a yoga class. It is when the strengthening, stretching, balancing, focusing, twisting all take effect. Your body is allowed time to let go of everything it was working on and holding on to. I love telling kids that this is one time in your whole day where you don’t have to do a thing. You get to just lie there and DO NOTHING. I like to use relaxation for a practice of mindfulness. We can listen to… Read More »
Sleepytime Yoga: Ideas for a Calmer, More Peaceful Bedtime
Bedtime can be a really tough time for both parents and kids. My 3 1/2 yr old will do everything he can to delay getting in bed. As soon as he gets out of the bath, he has to run around the apartment naked. I have to practically beg him to get his pajamas on. “Are you going to pick out your pajamas, or should I?” Once the pajamas are on, then he decides he needs a specific toy from another room, wants to get his milk himself, oh and then where is his bunny named Clouds? Then the hiding games begin. “Are you going to pick out your books, or should I?” I ask these questions because if I do the wrong thing *gasp* then a meltdown is inevitable. With 3 yr olds, it can happen at any moment, for any reason. I try to ask first with the… Read More »
