Children gain many of the same benefits from yoga that adults do. Marsha Wenig, kids yoga teacher and creator of Yoga Kids education, emphasizes that children can suffer from the stress of busy lives and the pressures of school. Along with helping children learn how to relax, yoga also offers them numerous other benefits. Whether you teach kids yoga or want your children to learn it, find yoga classes which appeal to kids through games, animal poses and fun music.
Body Awareness
Children have to learn coordination, balance and body awareness through trial and error. PBS Kids highlights that yoga teaches children how to move smoothly and how to feel what is going on in their bodies. Through balancing on one leg or through poses such as triangle, kids learn to use their muscles to help them balance more efficiently and easily.
Self-esteem
On Virtual Pediatric Hospital, Donna D'Alessandro, M.D. and Lindsay Huth, B.A. express that exercise can help build a child's self-esteem. Kids get to develop their balance, strength, coordination, and flexibility through yoga. When children learn new skills it boosts their confidence and independence. Yoga games, which allow children to express their creativity, can also grow a child's confidence.
Strength
Yoga uses all of the major muscle groups. Children can try strengthening poses, such as plank or boat, to help build their strength. Make sure that classes remain playful and fun, though. Yoga is a time to let go, rather than to be competitive about strength. For example, focus on the fact that arm balance poses are fun and might look silly to a child, which makes the strength aspect of it secondary.
Flexibility
Children often enjoy the challenges of stretching yoga poses, which develop flexibility. While kids test their flexibility, it is also a time for them to learn about being compassionate to themselves. They learn when to back down from a stretch if their body is not ready for it. If they push too hard, their muscles tighten up. By working a yoga pose over several yoga classes, they learn to stretch themselves more patiently and compassionately. Through this, they learn not just flexibility of the body, but of the mind, as well.
Relaxation
Instructor Marsha Wenig says that yoga gives children tools to help them relax more easily. When kids spend time with their creativity in animal poses, learn to balance, stretch and challenge their strength in a compassionate way, they find it easier to relax by the end of class. Relaxation gives them a break from their busy lives. The simple breathing exercises involved with yoga help children relax, as well. Focusing on their breath and the simplicity of the moment, helps them get their minds off of everything else.
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