My experiences with children.

I often read Let’s Go Exploring to kindergarten children. Children enthusiastically attempt the yoga poses and some great body shapes are made. None exactly like the pictures in the book, but that’s the beauty of kids yoga! We just want to support their gross motor abilities such as strength, co-ordination, motor planning and body awareness, the actual shape really doesn’t matter. At the end of the story I encourage them to lie down like a star. The meditation sessions vary from asking them to place their hands on their belly and focus on their breath, in and out or listening to the guided meditation, music or singing bowl. Sometimes I place a wishing stone on their forehead or belly which encourages them to lie still so it won’t fall off. We often then spend time outdoors completing the scavenger hunts. One session we had trouble finding spiders so decided to go on a spider hunt making up our own words to ‘We’re Going On A Bear Hunt’ and going through obstacles in the playground; grass, sand, logs, bushes, tanbark etc.

I read Bare Feet story to a group of kindergarten children recently. The end of the story asks children if they would like to remove their shoes and socks and try walking around in bare feet. I received many enthusiastic and positive responses and the whole group began removing their shoes and socks. I then placed my home made tactile mats (see resource photo) in a circle and selected four children at a time to walk over the mats as we sang Tic Tac Toe. When the rhyme stopped, the children stopped on a disc and were asked to describe how it felt. Some wonderful adjectives were used; bumpy, scratchy, tickly, ouchy, cold, hard, smooth for example. Research now says that increasing a child’s vocabulary before they start school can impact upon academic performance. So this was a great literacy, sensory and social(waiting, taking turns, listening, walking as a group) experience. The mats were placed out again on the grass while outside which many children continued to use. This was also a great opportunity to practice removing and putting on shoes and socks.