YogaKids International - Articles - Educational opportunities go beyond the three R's - October 17, 2004

marsha wenig helping a YogaKids with a pose

Marsha Wenig, the founder of YogaKids, helps kids realize that yoga is more then yawn-worthy stretches.

It wasn't all that long ago that yoga captivated men and women across the nation and turned them into lifelong om observers. But now, the practice of yoga is reaching another demographic: one that thinks downward facing dog is a new trick for Fido, opts for Saturday morning cartoons over a Saturday morning stretch and cares as much about connecting the mind, body and soul as about memorizing multiplication tables.

Who would have thought yoga could be for kids? Well, Abbie Davies did, for starters. "The generation that's really getting into yoga right now is the yoga moms, and they're beginning to understand that they should treat their kids how they treat themselves," says Davies, who at 23 founded My First Yoga, a yoga studio for kids in Newton Centre, Massachusetts.

Marsha Wenig, a yoga mom of two teens, has also been dubbed "Missus Yoga" after creating YogaKids, an internationally acclaimed program with more than 1,000 trained instructors worldwide. "We take many traditional yoga poses and make them fun, understandable and accessible to children with the idea that we'll build a lifelong love and practice of the art and science of yoga," Wenig says. "And it's without the dogma and spiritual part of yoga that can often be controversial. We just use a lot of affirmations, like 'I can do it!'"

Should kids really get their om on?

A recent study by Program Evaluation and Research Collaborative Charter College of Education proves that students who participate in yoga have fewer disciplinary problems and higher grades in school. And one-fourth are significantly more physically fit. Davies, a Harvard grad with a degree in child development, focused her studies on self-esteem through exercise and agrees that yoga helps children build confidence because of its noncompetitive nature. "Any kid, whether athletic or not, can feel good about themselves," she says. "There's no way you can really fail."

But today's generation of kids does feel the stresses of failure from school, from their peers, media expectations and themselves. Both Davies and Wenig make a point to explain how a particular pose is perfect for a specific situation, whether it's when they're feeling sad, when they're nervous about a big event, when they're bored in the car or when they just need to have some fun. Before long, these yoga kids will do the techniques on their own and show them to their friends.

The YogaKids method uses Harvard professor Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences to develop exercises that allow kids to grow in all aspects of life. Below are the nine abilities and how any type of yoga for children uses them:

Yoga's the best medicine

Sure, laughter helps, too, but the benefits of yoga aren't profound just for typical kids: The practice works wonders for children with learning disabilities such as ADD and autism. Depending on the degree of the condition, yoga trainers will first offer a private consultation with the parents and child before moving to a class setting.

"New names and diagnoses are popping up every moment," Wenig says. "These children are hip to therapy. The important thing is that we not look at them from a place of pathology but from a place of perfection. Parents will inevitably say, 'He can't do this,' but I want to look at him as a whole person. As a parent, you sometimes see what you want to change. Let's see what they can do."

Some kids start yoga unable to hold even a crayon, and through basic routines such as eye contact and touching, they find life skills. "You can tell it's working when the children can actually do balance poses or when they can actually lie still for more than a few seconds at a time," Wenig says.

Strike these poses

If you still haven't been converted to the kids' yoga philosophy, take a look at this slideshow of playful poses, and try them out with your child.

How to get started

Most youth-oriented yoga classes meet once a week and are broken down by age groups. My First Yoga has separate classes for babies — those that are not yet active crawlers — as well as toddlers, six- to eight-year-olds, eight- to thirteen-year-olds, teenagers, and the full family. Besides the younger sets, which do non-yoga poses such as jumping and crawling, all other age groups do the same poses. Older kids hold the poses longer and get more of an aerobic workout.

As the youth-yoga trend grows, finding programs, classes or certified YogaKids teachers should be easier. Weekly sessions at the gym, however, aren't mandatory. "Great videos are online, and if parents know any yoga at all, they can teach their kids," Davies says. "At the least, it's great to just do breathing techniques."

YogaKids also has three DVDs geared toward kids up to eight years old, all of which received the Parents' Choice seal of approval, and a book YogaKids: Educating the Whole Child Through Yoga, which offers more than 50 photographed poses for parents and their children to experience together.

And now, a reverse trend is occurring: Children are enlightening their moms and dads. "Kids are benefiting, and parents see that," Wenig says. "One mother told me that when she was stressed, her son came up to her and just said, 'Take Five, Mom.'"

Generation Zen: Yoga's Most Playful Poses

By Kate Schweitzer

pedal laughing pose

Plenty of poses, such as peddle laughing, are as cool as they are calming.

If you thought yoga had to be silent and solemn, you and your kids haven't tried a new brand of "om." Whether your child needs something extra to help manage stress or simply wants an avenue of expression outside of competitive sports, yoga for kids is a top alternative, says Marsha Wenig, founder of the internationally acclaimed YogaKids. "There are about 1,000 poses in traditional, physical yoga," she says. "We use about 200 of them."

She and Abbie Davies, the owner of My First Yoga, a studio for children in Massachusetts, offer up a handful of their top techniques, along with how they each can help in specific situations, to try at home. Whether your child feels nervous about that big math test, whether he's bored in the car or whether she just needs to lose some of that pent-up energy, a little time on the mat — or the grass or carpet — can work wonders.

Keep these playful poses on par for whenever you need them next. Before long, these yoga kids (sure, yoga moms too) will do the techniques all on their own.

Generation Zen: Yoga for Youngsters