Yoga Books for Kids

In my search for yoga books for kids I found the PedaYoga series. It's a series of books and games designed for use in schools, daycares and the home, to introduce yoga to children. The books are illustrated and use children and the PedaYoga mascot  Namaste a yoga practicing monkey to demonstrate the poses.

For the parents/teachers the books explain the positive impact of yoga for children as well as techniques to teach yoga to children including not only good poses for children but also visualisation techniques. I haven't gotten to the visualisation with my little man yet but the games are a big hit.

Our favourite yoga game is the yoga wheels. You chose one position per wheel, the wheels are numbered 1-4, and you do each chosen pose in order. I went a step further, colouring the wheels and gave them spinners to make it more game-like.

While most of the books are in French, there is one in English as well as games like Yoga Bingo, which are mainly illustrated. I have found this to be a great resource and a great way to have some fun with yoga.

Yoga Mom, Yoga Kid

Get back to the yoga mat and bring your kids with you!

Yoga pants! I love yoga pants, they're comfy and stain resistant but for a stay at home mom of a 2 ½ year old I was having a hard time using yoga pants for actual yoga.  Yoga wasn’t on my to-do list for a long time after I had my son.  When I did decide that it was time to get back to the mat I couldn’t find a way to work it into my schedule

Before my son was born I practiced yoga almost every morning before work.  I had energy and a sense of accomplishment before I even left the house.  I found myself missing those benefits of yoga as well as the work out aspect of a yoga routine.  Since I love practicing yoga in the morning I tried to wake up before my 2 ½ year old.  That lasted all of one week.  More often than not I chose the temptation of going back to sleep over the benefits of yoga.

Then it hit me one day that the way to get my yoga back was to incorporate my son into my yoga practice.  He imitates almost everything I do anyways so it was worth a shot.  I was amazed at how quickly it became part of our everyday routine.  He is not yet at the age where he will do a full sequence but he will try poses with me and before I knew it he was doing yoga poses without realizing it.

These are three kid friendly yoga activities:

1. Books - Children’s yoga books, I like "Babar's Yoga for Elephants" by Laurent de            Brunhoff.
2.  Play around with it - Choose a magazine or book and let your child decide which pose you should try
3. Animals -Make a list of animal poses and let them play at being their favorite animals

There are many benefits of practicing yoga in addition to flexibility, balance and releiving stress it also helps develop patience and dedication and your kids will think it's all a game!