Yoga for Kids | Kids Yoga Poses – Part 1
Yoga for Kids – Part 1
Standing Kids Yoga Poses
In the articles Kids Meditation Techniques with Videos and How to Raise Enlightened Children, I provided some nice easy meditation techniques for children and also, we discussed how to approach raising exceptional children. Now I would like to give you another awesome tool for helping raise your children so that they can achieve their maximum potential in this life, and the tool is of course none other than Kids Yoga.
Before jumping in, I would like to thank my teacher under whom I studied and was certified for teaching Kids Yoga: Shakta Kaur Khalsa.
Since there are a lot of kids yoga poses I want to share with you, I have broken this topic down into a series of articles. Here in part 1 of this series, I will present some standing kids yoga poses and also go over the guidelines and benefits of kids yoga.
It is a good idea to be familiar with the general guidelines for yoga and kundalini yoga practice and you can get those details is the following 2 articles:
Guidelines for Kids Yoga:
I have gone over the guidelines and benefits of kids yoga in the article, Yoga for Kids Guidelines and Benefits, but am going to include this information in this article as well, so you can access it all in one place.
- Children under 6 you can do up to 1 minute / exercise. The total time for the kids yoga session can be up to 15 minutes.
- Children 6 and above can do up to 1 1/2 minutes / exercise and the kids yoga session can last up to 25 minutes.
- Encourage the child to do the pose correctly, along with the breathing, but don’t force perfection. Use lots of positive reinforcement to help the child learn and improve.
- Take frequent little breaks in between, during which encourage meditation and being still. Breaks after strenuous exercises is a must.
- Always demonstrate the posture or exercise, rather than try to just explain it. Use this technique even when trying to correct their poses.
- Encourage the children to practice with their eyes closed when so indicated by the exercise. This will teach them the profound art of looking and feeling what is happening within them.
- Remember even kids need to warm-up before doing vigorous yoga.
- Kids tummies should also not be full when doing yoga.
- Never compare the children with each other.
- Start them off with joining you towards the end of your yoga practice. This is one of the best ways to inspire kids to start yoga.
Benefits of Kids Yoga:
- Builds their confidence and self-esteem.
- Improves their powers of concentration and focus.
- Develops their brain and intellect.
- Excellent for their bodies and health. Promotes balance, flexibility, coordination and strength.
- Helps them cope with stress and difficult emotions.
- Develops their creativity and imagination.
- Sharpens and expands their awareness.
- Helps them develop calmness.
Practice Tips to Help Kids Learn Yoga:
The most important things to remember with kids yoga is to keep it fun, keep it open and keep it simple. Below you will find a collection of kids yoga poses, demonstrated by my son Shivum when he was about four and a half. The poses are for you to use in designing your yoga sets for the children.
There are many fun ways to encourage the children to learn and do yoga and here a few ideas for doing this. Let your creative juices flow, I am certain many more good ideas will come to you as well.
- Imaginative stories are some of the best ways to teach yoga to kids. A trip through the jungle, etc, are a perfect way to incorporate doing the poses as you journey onwards. Do cobra, bear, tree mountain, etc, as you come across these in your story.
- Follow the leader is another great way to get kids to be creative and do the yoga poses. You can lead and do your favorite poses, and then the kids can lead turn by turn doing theirs.
- Yoga shows are great too and kids love nothing more than having your attention as they can put on a show of all the yoga they have learned.
Kids Yoga Poses:
Standing Kids Yoga Poses:
Kids Yoga Pose #1:
Yoga Archer’s Pose:
Good for mental focus, confidence and energy. Also, good when the prince has to hit the target to free the princess 
. Get more details of this excellent pose here: Kundalini Yoga Archer’s Pose.
Kids Yoga Pose #2:
Yoga Mountain Pose:
Stand up nice and tall and reach up high in the sky with your palms together. Journey to the Himalayas anyone? Good for stretching the whole body and expanding one’s energies.
Kids Yoga Pose #3:
Yoga Tree Pose:
Here is an article with gives all the details you need for this great pose: Yoga Tree Pose for Balance. Good for building balance and agility. Also good for the brain development and concentration.
Kids Yoga Pose #4:
Sri Rama Pose:
Well here is Shivum doing a pose that he wanted to do, even though it is not part of the traditional schools of hatha or kundalini yoga. It is the pose that Sri Rama takes when he is giving his blessings to others. Never to early to learn about giving and devotion.
Kids Yoga Pose #5:
Yoga Jumping Jacks:
Jumping Jacks are great for kids in many ways. They not only help develop coordination and strength, but they also help develop the brain and concentration. Start in mountain pose and then jump to the pose shown below and then jump and return to mountain pose.
In part 2 of this series, Shivum will bring you many more kids yoga poses, so stay tuned for that.
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Fantastic resource. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge. I look forward to passing it on to the children I teach.
Hey KL,
Same here :-). I am now very good at the spider man pose as well.
Cheers,
Anmol
Awesome stuff! My partner’s daughter joins me on the mat sometimes, and as I’m doing prana flow, I encourage her to find her own postures. She’s come up with some lovely asana that I’ve ended up incorporating into my practice to great effect.
Kids rock!
Hi Art,
Great yoga site, just stopped by a did a quick tour :-). Will come be and set-up my account at the next opportunity. Well done.
Best,
Anmol
Anmol, great article. We are seeing a big increase in interest for Kid’s Yoga. We just setup the yoga style in yogatag several weeks ago. I invite you to come and add yourself to the style and link back to your article from the style page.
I love this young Yogi. He is starting early enough to reach great heights and will inspire his generation.