Class #101 Yoga for Kids 3:55 p.m. (Stacey)

Consider this bonus coverage since Yoga for Kids wasn’t on the schedule when I started the quest – still, I wanted to check it out and do a quick write up about it. Stacey Swanson who teaches a regular yoga class on Thursday at noon, recently received her certification to teach yoga to children and she pitched the idea for this class to see if it would fly.

The class is geared for young kids ages 5 – 12 and is a complement to the Zumba for Kids class that takes place on Tuesday/Thursday in the afternoon. Today was the fourth installment of YFK’s. Stacey mentioned that the kids were pretty wild at the first class and she wondered what she had gotten herself into. Each week since, however, the wee ones have gotten quieter and more attentive while obviously enjoying the class.

Today there are about 12 children in class along with four adults (Stacey, her husband Dana, Martha Plaster - training to be a sub – and me). The class works for kids because of the cleverness of the teaching. Instead of traditional names for poses – Stacey offers something more inventive and fun, for instance, instead of cat/cow pose (see pic) we do ‘moo’, ‘meow’, making the sounds as we take the pose. It’s pretty cute.

Cat pose (in cow the head comes up and the back dips down)

Some other poses include – ‘elephant’ – where our arms become the trunk as we bend over to ‘drink’ and then rise up to spray water into the sky. Then there’s the ‘hot air balloon’ where our breath is the fire that lifts our basket (body) off the ground as we float around the room. Another one, perhaps my favorite, is the ‘peanut better sandwich’, which even has it’s own song to accompany the pose. In this technique we sit on the floor, our legs straight out in front of us, reach our arms up high to grab some peanut butter, then we slather it all over our body before bending forward to ‘make a sandwich’.

Peanut butter sandwich

In the traditional final resting pose – Stacey puts a small rubber ducky on everyone’s belly so they can watch it rise and fall with the breath. It’s a simple awareness exercise about noticing our breath, which is an integral part of practicing yoga.

Stacey Swanson

The class is only thirty minutes long so it’s over before I know it, seeming short to me but perfect for the kids. If you’re looking for a fun way to introduce your children the world of yoga (and a little exercise to boot) this class is worth checking out.