There’s something so appealing about the book’s title, How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and How to Listen So Kids Will Talk. As soon as I saw the book, I knew that it would be helpful during yoga teaching. I can’t count how many times it has felt like I was talking to the walls during class…

This book has several topic-based chapters filled with advice, scenarios, quick summaries, and even cartoons. I have found many of the recommendations helpful, so here are some bits and pieces from the book and how I have used them in class.

Dealing With Feelings

A basic premise of this book is that we need to accept and respect children’s feelings. This can be done by listening quietly or acknowledging their feelings with a word or two- “Oh, I see….” You can also do this by naming the feeling for them- “That sounds upsetting/frustrating/like it hurt your feelings etc.”. Another option is to give children their wishes in a fantasy world (“I wish I could take a magic wand and create another yoga mat, but since there aren’t enough for everyone, you’ll need to share!”) The book explains that all feelings can be accepted, but actions can be limited. “I understand how angry you are that she stole the Beanie Baby, but you need to tell her that in words, not with your hands.”

Engaging A Child’s Cooperation

I am always looking for ways to get children in class to cooperate. Although the book gives many ideas that are particularly helpful for parents, the suggestion that I have used most as a teacher is to say what you are asking for in a single word. I get tired of hearing my voice explaining to the same kid over and over that they need to participate with the rest of class, go back to their mat, etc… So now, when I feel like I have repeated myself over and over to Little Johnny, I say, “John… Mat…” and I point his mat. It’s been helpful, and it has kept me from going hoarse.

Punishment Alternatives

This book also has a chapter on punishment alternatives. My favorite is giving the child a choice. “You can do yoga poses with the rest of the class or you can sit out and Take 5. You decide.” Another suggestion is to state your behavior expectations. “I expect you to walk to a mat quietly and sit in Pretzel Pose until class starts.” This has worked well for me when I am talking to the whole group instead of a single child.

Encouraging Autonomy

I particularly enjoyed the section in this book about encouraging autonomy. We have so many opportunities to do this within a yoga class. It suggests letting children make choices. (“When you grow from your seed become a flower or a tree.”) It also recommends showing respect for the child’s struggle. (“Tree Pose can be hard to balance in. Try standing next to the wall and using your arm for balance if you need to…”). Another suggested way to encourage autonomy is to keep from rushing in to answer questions. So if Susie asks a question you can say, “Hmmm… What do you think?” This also gives you a little more time to think if it is a particularly challenging or uncomfortable question.

Giving Praise and Boosting Self-Esteem

How to Talk also gives some great recommendations on giving praise and boosting self-esteem. At times I feel like I robotically say, “Good job”, after every pose in a yoga class. I didn’t realize I how often I said it until I heard a little girl in one of my classes parroting back “Good job, good job.” The book suggests to describe instead of evaluate what you see. “I see long straight spines, arms on our sides, and I don’t hear any talking. Look at these strong Mountains.” Summing up good behavior with a word is also recommended. “John, you gave some of your marbles to Susie when she ran out. Now that’s what I call sharing! I’ve even starting teaching the yamas and niyamas with this technique. “Jane, you were happy with the purple flower even though your favorite color is pink. That’s what we call santosha in yoga.”

Freeing Children From Playing Roles

The book finishes with talking about how to get children to stop playing the roles in which they have been cast (by parents, teachers, etc.) I know that I’ve come to expect certain behavior from certain kids in my class, and they do tend to play the role of the troublemaker when I think that way. How To Talk gives lots of recommendations to help free kids from these roles. One way is to show the child a new picture of themselves- “You’ve been sitting quietly in Pretzel Pose after turning in your Beanie Baby.” Another is to put a child in a situation where they can see themselves differently- “John, can you collect all the ABC Yoga cards and put them in the basket?”. The book also suggests that you let children overhear something positive about them. I try to say something positive to a parent in front of the child if I have previously had some problems with them.

How To Talk So Kids Will Listen and How To Listen So Kids Will Talk is a book that I would highly recommend for a boost in classroom management ideas. I’ve pulled a few of my favorite tidbits, but I suggest picking up a copy at your local library and reading it from cover to cover. It’s a quick read, and I think you’ll end taking notes on the summary pages to easily remember some of the words of wisdom. You might even end up using it with adults… “Honey, the garbage!”

Last month, I held a Taste of YogaKids Workshop at San Diego State University. There were a variety of people there including yoga teachers, nutritionists, therapists, and school teachers. It was such a great group of people with diverse experiences, but the thing we all had in common was the joy in sharing yoga with children.

The day started off with covering calming, quieting poses and breathing, and then moved into some more dynamic, energizing poses. We also talked about the YogaKids Elements, the part of the YogaKids program that truly sets it apart from other children’s yoga programs. After a lunch break we covered ways to integrate music, language arts, science, visual arts, storytelling, and affirmations into a yoga session. Throughout the day we covered more than fifty yoga poses specifically geared for kids!

After a guided visualization, participants were sent off relaxed and empowered to share yoga with children.

I’m always so excited to teach these workshops and share all that I have learned since I began teaching yoga to kids in 2002. What is also so inspiring, is that I always learn from the participants as well. I love the idea sharing that happens!

If you are interested in attending a future workshop, let me know at carolyn@suntomoonyoga.com or keep checking www.sdyogakids.com for updates.

Namaste,

Carolyn Clarke
www.sdyogakids.com

Found this interesting post on eco-yoga mats:

http://www.idealbite.com/tiplibrary/archives/total_poser/

I plan on buying eco yoga mats the next time I make a bulk purchase, and I thought this was a great resource with a list of sources for eco yoga mats. When I do replace my mats, I don’t want to just toss them, and it has a great link to ideas for reusing old yoga mats. The best idea for teaching was to cut up old yoga mats to make shapes and letters for kids games or stamps.  You can use cookie cutters and an xacto knife, or just freehand it! For older kids, they could make their own stamps.

Here’s a link to all sorts of cookie cutters to choose from:

http://www.cookiecutter.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=88 

Have fun!

Carolyn

www.sdyogakids.com

I can remember being a kid and thinking that the time from Halloween to Christmas seemed to take years! And now I’m realizing that I haven’t made a single post since before Halloween and now it is almost Christmas, and the time seemed like a few days!

So here are some holiday things that I’ve taught for the last few months…

Halloween- Spooky Yoga

I love Halloween yoga! Here are some things we did:

• We talked about bones  and skeletons
• Made scary faces while stretching the muscles in our faces
• Black cats- Meow!
• Pumpkin squats (Sit in squat and make a Jack o Lantern face)
• Gate pose- with lots of Squeaks
• Work as partners back to back and move arms and legs to become spiders

Thanksgiving- Thankful Yoga

There are so many wonderful things to do for Thanksgiving because being grateful for what you have in the present moment is such a huge part of yoga. I always start off a Thanksgiving class with going around the circle to ask what the kids are thankful for (”my parents”, “my cat”, “trains”, “chairs” and lots more things). Here are some other things we do:

• Strut around like Turkeys
• Make apple pies to Kira Willey’s Making Pie
• Table Pose
• Chair Pose

This year I also read I wonderful book recommended to me by another YogaKids teacher, Heather Wurtzle. The book was Thank You World by Alice McGinty.

December Holidays- Peace on Earth Yoga 

I love December and the holidays during the month. I celebrate Christmas, so many of the things that I include in the class are Christmas inspired, but we always do candle pose for the lighting of the  menorah. Here are some other things we do:

• Christmas tree decorating- Kids work with partners. One stands in tree while the other decorates the “tree” with tinsel or garlands

• Pass the present- Similar to hot potato, but when the music stops, the person holding the present comes up with a yoga pose for us all to do
• Star Pose
• Acting out carols- Like 12 Days of Christmas!

I also always talk lots about peace- we send out peace to the whole world  during December. Did you feel it?

So, I know that it is probably too late to use most of these ideas, but save them for next year!

With love and light,

Happy Holidays,

Carolyn

www.sdyogakids.com

The Peace Book by Todd Parr is a geat book to use in yoga class. I think the book is a great description of peace and all of it’s complexities- from getting along with others to finding peace with being who you are.

I asked each child to define peace, and then we read the book and acted it out in yoga poses. There are lots of pictures of animals that the kids can become. Partner poses are fun to do with this book because they promote teamwork and cooperation. It is also fun to have the kids draw peace.

We ended with chanting Om…

I recently bought a Hugg-A-Planet. It’s a giant stuffed earth. We had so much fun in yoga class with it. It was so inspiring to see each child hug it- it’s like each child could grow up to save our hurting earth… It made me feel better that the world is in these fresh new hands.

Find it on: http://www.peacetoys.com/

We also read Whole World and acted out the song with yoga poses. This book by Chris Corr and Fred Penner has great pictures and changes the emphasis from the traditional religious song of “He’s got the whole world” to “We’ve got the whole world in our hands.” This makes it more appropriate for a public school setting. A wonderful book for empowering children to take action and change the world. This book also has a CD so you can easily act out the song with yoga poses.

Namaste,

Carolyn Clarke
www.sdyogakids.com

Today we planted a garden in yoga…

I gave each child a magical pretend seed to plant in the ground. This magical seed can grow in just a few minutes!

Then each child became a seed in Child’s Pose. I gave each “seed” a spritz of water with my spray bottle, and then out came the sun and we grew and grew. Each child got a turn telling me what they grew into- here are some of the amazing things we had in our garden:

Purple Flower

Tree

Sunflower

Roses

Ava Flower

Corn plant

This magical garden was planted to the song, Inch by Inch/Garden Song from the Tajar Tracks album with DEBBIE DEBORD WITH SOL DRIVEN TRAIN AND GWYNN VALLEY CAMPERS. You can listen to it and buy it here:
http://cdbaby.com/cd/soldriventrain2

We also were different critters that you’d find in a garden-
Ladybugs, Bumblebees, Butterflies, Dragonflies, Turtles, and Birds.

If we’d had more time we could have planted actual seeds in a cup, or walked partners around in Wheelbarrow! Next time…

Serendipitous moment of the day: I was lucky enough to receive a gift of a cucumber and a bell pepper from the school’s actual backyard garden!

I saw this great post on the Daily Om today (www.dailyom.com) about ducks. What fun things to talk about while in duck pose…

“ July 23, 2007
Symbols Of Versatility
Ducks

If you are lucky enough to live in a part of the world that is also a home to ducks, you will no doubt be familiar with the image of their cute feathery bottoms sticking up in the air as their heads disappear under the surface of the water. Perhaps you’ve even taken a moment to wonder what they see in their underwater world, and if they will resurface with a fish or a water bug in their beaks. As we observe them, we see that ducks are denizens of three worlds—the world of air, the world of water, and the world of earth. As such, they have adapted themselves to be able to swim, fly, and walk, and they seek and find nourishment in more than one place. They are symbols of versatility and can inspire us to explore our own ability to adapt and find nourishment in a variety of places.

Ducks are able to float, swim, and dive into the water, fishing for food. They can walk on the ground, eating vegetation and bugs, and they fly in the air to travel long distances relatively quickly. Equipped with feet that are equally good at paddling and walking, as well as wings to fly, ducks seem comfortable in just about any natural environment. Next time you see a duck bottom, you might be inspired to examine your own ability to both float on the surface and to dive beneath it. In many traditions, water symbolizes the emotions—to duck our heads into our emotions means we are able to surrender our minds to our hearts, to go into the watery realm of feeling and see what there is to see, often coming to the surface with nourishment and treasure.

At the same time, we share the duck’s ability to get solid ground under our feet by connecting to the earth on which we live simply by walking on it. And finally, when we reside in our spirits, we fly above the mental, emotional, and material realms, free of all the ties that bind us to this earth, traveling faster and farther than we ever thought possible.”

From DailyOm.com

There are lots of things you could do with a duck theme…

Duck squats:

-Simple yoga squat saying “quack quack”

Duck walking:

-Walk in duck squat

Duck duck goose (When child walks around the circle and says “Duck”, each child becomes a duck in duck pose).

Duck books

-Duck for President by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin

And don’t forget Rubber Duckies- balance them on your heads or use them on the floor to focus on when you are balancing.

So many fun things to do with ducks! Quack Quack!

The other day I was in a hurry and didn’t have time to plan out a full, creative, and exciting lesson plan. As I ran out the door, I grabbed a bag of multi-colored pom-poms that I recently bought at the craft store.  I pulled them out at class- and they created quite a hit! I had so many of them that each child got to pick out their favorite color (they don’t usually get to do this if I don’t have enough to make everyone happy, so getting to make this choice alone was quite a hit!).  Then we put our pom-poms on the ground and blew on them to make them roll on the floor. They were so excited at how they could get their pom-pom to move.  I sometimes get so wrapped up in lesson planning, that I forget how much kids enjoy the simple things: a $2 bag of pom poms!

Yesterday I taught a fun class at a summer camp at a Montessori school. The theme was the jungle, and we had such fun romping around like animals. We read Rumble in the Jungle by Giles Andreae. This is a great children’s book about all the different animals in the jungle. We became Elephants, Chimpanzees, Zebras, Giraffes, and more. Lion was especially fun since we listened to the Lion Sleeps Tonight song.