Kids can benefit from the fitness, flexibility and focus offered by yoga. Moreover, yoga is fun and easily adapted to suit kids. Many of the yoga poses you may already know have kid-friendly names, such as cat-cow, downward-facing dog and dead bug. Introduce your kids to yoga by starting with a few simple poses and easy-to-understand explanations that will help them visualize the pose.
Breathing Poses
Several yoga postures for kids focus specifically on breathing. These poses can be used as part of a longer yoga workout or on their own to help your child become calm and focused. Try the take-five pose to help your child pay attention to his breathing. Have him sit cross-legged and raise one finger with each breath, then lower one with each breath. Adapt corpse pose for your children by having them lie on their backs, palms up. Place a rubber duck or another small toy on the child's stomach and allow her to watch the toy move as she breathes in and out, suggests iVillage.com.
Standing Poses
Kids can do many traditional standing yoga poses, including mountain and tree poses. They may find yoga more fun if you incorporate storytelling. Have your child stand up tall and reach toward the sky like a mountain, then ground himself in the earth as a tree. Some children may enjoy jumping from standing pose to standing pose with jumping jacks, adding an energetic element to their yoga practice, according to Anmol Mehta, a certified kids yoga teacher. Challenge the child's balance with flamingo pose, having him stand on one foot with his arms extended wide and his leg stretched behind him.
Floor Poses
The movement and stretching in classic yoga poses such as downward-facing dog are just as beneficial for children as adults. Children may easily understand the pose if you describe it as a playful puppy or stretching like a dog, suggests "Yoga Journal." You can also have your child grab and hug his knees as he rolls from side to side or have him grab his ankles and roll forward and back. Your child can stretch her hips and pelvis in "Spider-Man" pose by balancing on one hand with her legs bent behind her, or she can get moving by transitioning from downward-facing dog to walking like a bear on her hands and feet.
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