by Abigail Rasminky: Think yoga is just for adults? Think again. Little yogis love turning into lions and learning to calm their bodies down…
Is there anything cuter than a kid practicing yoga? When my nephew was 3, he took yoga at preschool and my sister sent me the video of him doing a sun salutation. He narrated the entire sequence (“and namaste”), but my favorite moment was when he jumped from downward dog to standing forward bend and said, “and give it a hop!” I died.
Yoga is, of course, not just for adults. While kids may not need it the way we do—they are already super flexible and hopefully not at all stressed—it can still be beneficial, especially as they progress in school and life becomes more challenging. And even if it doesn’t turn them into little meditators, it can be a wonderful source of fun: Who doesn’t want to be a frog or a lion?
Even more remarkable than my nephew’s little sun salutations is how yoga was used in the preschool classroom. The program was full of easy-to-do exercises for large groups in a classroom setting—reaching arms up and down, bending over and stretching legs—but mostly it was yogic breathing. The exercises were meant to calm the kids down and create a sense of quiet and ease in the classroom. One day I observed them and it really worked. The whole classroom went silent. It was a revelation.
