Teaching to kids was not something I used to do often in my past but my current position of teacher in a primary school in Thailand permits me to have a weekly yoga club with some of the students.
How many of them? just between 30 and 40 Woooow, you gonna think what a mess!
I was thinking the same at first but as soon as I realize how much energy the kids have and how much they can focus it to be great practitioners, the things became easier for me. Just a couple of advices I can give you about my experience :
– Be yourself don’t try to be a clown, or a youth educator, you’re still a yoga teacher, you’re just practicing with young souls who have by the way very flexible bodies!
– Have a headline for the class, and keep going weekly with the same skeleton by example :
opening of the class > breathing > Sun salutations > Postures > Games > closing of the class
– Keep a place for improvisation from time to time, interaction with children can brings this kind of situation.
– Depending of how long you have to teach them, keep at least some time for breathing exercises (brahmari by example) and asanas practice because even if they are kids you’re teaching yoga, and your duty out of making them have a fun time is still to spread the essence of yoga (good breathing, good exercise, good relaxation…) but in an entertaining and coloured way than it suits to them 😉
In their education and mainly inside a school like where I teach right now, I believe than Yoga can help the kids to be more focus in what they are doing, “be here and now!”, yoga can be for sure a firestarter in their scholarship, sharing with them some good values, they will keep with them during all their life:
– with Accroyoga we can develop relationship to others, teamwork…
– with breathing exercises we can increase concentration capacities, how to be focus in what i am doing now.
– with relaxation and meditation we help them to manage their stress, their fears.
From my experience I could say I was scare at first of the timing of the class, “should I have enough stuff for one hour?” , but finally I was so much ok, and my supervisor comes to tell me to stop the class because I was overtiming, continuing to play and practice with them like a kid!
Believe me, many things can be done during a yoga class with kids, just use your imagination you can pick also some examples of kids yoga classes from youtube to give you a bit of inspiration if you need it but first use your feelings to develop your own teaching and most important let the child inside you going out! make it more funny! They have so much to offer and you also so thats a great sharing of energy for both and a great opportunity by educating them to make this world a better place.
OM shanti!
