Family Yoga - How To Enjoy Yoga With Your Kids

After seeing hundreds of children transform their lives through yoga & mindfulness, my hope is that more and more children (and their parents) start discovering benefits of yoga & mindfulness. In my past blogs, I’ve talked about 10 benefits of yoga for children and also 5 fun yoga poses for kids. (Scroll down to the bottom of the page if you missed these topics) Today I will be sharing 3 top tips to enjoy yoga with your kids in the comfort of your own home. Find some space, roll out your mat and get ready for some family yoga time!

1. Keep it short and sweet

As we’re all aware, young children have a short attention span. Our main interest in sharing yoga with children when they are new is to get them to be curious and interested. So, start with short and simple practice of 5 to 10 minutes. Even doing one or two poses together would be great if your little one is young and new to yoga. If they enjoy it, you can always do more and gradually increase the practice length to around 20 minutes or longer. If they don’t show interest, don’t force it but try again at a different time.

2. Connect

Try to make body contact with them while staying in each pose. In my class, we do a lot of partner and group poses to encourage physical contact and connection. You can join hands in tree pose, you can join backs as you sit in meditation. Make eye contact wherever possible. Give them your full attention. This is the opportunity to have some quality time with your kids!

Pose of the day - Partner Tree pose

Stand next to your child and do a tree pose together.
Have the leg that’s closer to your child as a standing, balancing leg. Wrap your arm around each other’s shoulder or waist. Your outer hand can come around to meet your child’s (palms placing against each other’s) Switch position and work on the 2ndside. If you’re a group of 3 or more, you can form a little circle.  

*For more detailed instructions on how to do this pose safely and its benefits, please visit my past blog titled “5 fun poses for pre-schoolers”

3. Make it FUN

Incorporate singing or story where appropriate. Even music would add to fun. Turn it into a little game. Laugh together. My kids yoga & family yoga classes are so different to adult yoga classes I teach. If I taught like I teach adults, kids would be bored in less than 2 minutes! They love seeing you have fun too. Always think of a way to make it fun and get creative!

Pose of the day - Musical tree

Play some upbeat fun dance music. When the music is on, you dance with your kids. When the music stops (you’re in charge of pause/play) everyone needs to freeze and become a tree.

So, there you have it. If you’re new to yoga yourself, it’s probably best to join classes run by an experienced teacher. By attending the class together, you get a better idea of how you can try yoga with your child at home. If you’re ready to take action, I invite you to check out Mindful Mama Membership where you can access Family Yoga class as well as Kids Mindfulness classes. 

If you enjoyed this post, you will love these posts too 👇 

10 benefits of yoga for kids
https://www.wayoga.com.au/blog/10-benefits-of-yoga-for-kids

5 fun poses for pre-schoolers
https://www.wayoga.com.au/blog/5-fun-yoga-poses-for-toddlers-and-pre-schoolers

About Chika  

Chika is the founder of Wa Yoga (Wa is a Japanese word meaning harmony). She is a Yoga Australia registered teacher, student of yoga since 2008, teaching yoga & mindfulness since 2014. As a mum to a school-aged daughter, she understands challenges many mums face including shortage of time and lack of connection. She believes in the power of what we do every day so she's passionate about helping you establish short, simple & sustainable practice. She specialises in offering online courses and membership for mothers of young children and young families. Her mission is to inspire and motivate more mums to start incorporating yoga & mindfulness into their daily self-care ritual so more kids have early access to yoga & mindfulness.

She is a creator of Mindful Mama Membership, the online membership for mothers who aspire to embrace daily practice of yoga, mindfulness & Ayurveda. If you wanna reduce stress and find more calm so that you can be more present & patient with your kids, this online membership is perfect for you. This is the only place where she can offer you ongoing support all year around. You can find out more about this online membership by <<CLICKING HERE>>