Parent & Child Yoga-The Space Burston

In our parent & child yoga for 3-5 year-olds, we experience elements of yoga through song and play which allows for special bonding time between each child and their care giver.

Yoga postures (asanas) are linked to animals or other elements of nature. We use lots of popular songs and nursery rhymes. Their words are often modified to resonate with our yoga practice. We also use story telling and our imagination as a thread to guide us through the class. We often use resources, such as blocks to explore balancing across or bean bags for coordination training and also balancing. The sessions always consist of a warm-up followed by yoga postures, some game or activity and a calming down phase which closes with a few moments of relaxation.

We introduce the children to various poses (yoga asanas) that may be linked to one another (dynamic flow like practice). We encourage and guide through balancing exercises (our balance path being super popular!), helping them to focus their minds and determination during their efforts.

We will do breathing exercises designed to guide young children towards ‘breath awareness’, the difference between an inhale and an exhale and the calming effect of focused breathing. We use props like bubbles or the very popular 'breathing ball' (Hoberman's Sphere) to encourage the exploration of each child's breath.

To close each class, we rest with a relaxation practice which allows children to find a way to conjure up inner peace. These are precursors to basic meditation and visualisation techniques in an age-appropriate fashion and can promote better sleep and harmony between their bodies and minds.