Teaching yoga to children is a growing specialty for yoga teachers. There are a variety of training programs offering different levels of certification and specialization for teaching kids. While certification is not required by law to teach yoga, the Yoga Alliance established registration guidelines to provide continuity to kids' yoga teacher standards and education levels. Yoga Alliance offers qualified teachers the designation as a Registered Children's Yoga Teacher, or RCYT.
Requirements for Registration
To receive the designation as a Registered Children's Yoga Teacher, you first need to be a graduate of a Yoga Alliance-registered teacher training program that includes 200 or more hours of instruction. If you have the 200-hour Registered Yoga Teacher status, you can earn the kids' yoga teacher certification by either completing a Yoga Alliance-registered children's yoga program or by fulfilling certain criteria under a grandfathering clause that allows existing kids' yoga teachers to become certified.
Grandfathering Criteria
Under the grandfathering criteria, you could either have completed 25 hours or more of children's yoga teacher training and taught 150 hours of children's yoga prior to Dec. 31, 2010, or taught over 250 hours of children's yoga before Dec. 31, 2010. The Yoga Alliance requires that you apply and document all training and teaching experience to receive certification under the grandfathering criteria.
Teacher Training Program
The other route to Yoga Alliance certification is to complete a 95-hour kids' yoga teacher training program at a registered school. This type of program includes background on childhood development, teaching techniques and methodology, anatomy, yoga philosophy and ethics. You will also learn how to adapt the classic yoga postures for children. The program requires future teachers to observe and teach classes while in training. Once course work is complete, you are eligible to apply for Yoga Alliance certification.
Considerations
Yoga Allaince's standards for kids' yoga teacher training are relatively new, as of 2011. Although many kids' yoga teacher training programs exist, not all fulfill the latest standards. Before entering any training program, check to see if it is registered with Yoga Alliance. Cost is also an important consideration. Kids' yoga teacher training can be expensive, with programs ranging from $500 to $3,000, as of February 2011. After training, you can expect to earn an hourly median wage of $14.74 teaching in a health club setting, according to Onet, as of 2009.
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