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 To All yoga gurus out there…Moderators: Moderators Jump to page : 1 Now viewing page 1 [25 messages per page] | View previous thread :: View next thread |
| Yoga -> General Yoga | Message format |
Thushara |
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| I need loads of advise.. I got 2 students to teach … hehe (I cant believe) Its part of my TT.. 1 is a small boy 8 years old (Looks soo cute like a rabbit)…, and other one is a 14 year older.. (Looks very naughty and stubborn) hehe.. Both seems good..  They were introduced to me on last Saturday by my teacher and I got to start their schedule from next Saturday.. Once a week, 1-hour session… Teacher said.. Please don’t be too friendly with them  ( I will try hard on this) What she meant was as they are kids, they will try to play in the class instead doing yoga.. If I show them I’m too friendly ) So here it goes…...Im excited…never wanted to be a teacher soo soon.. But now its changed… Please give me advise you experienced yoga gurus.. What are the most important things to have in mind, tips, tricks..specialy dealing with kids for yoga.. Will they listen to me ??? I went through the schedule and their schedule is not quite hard.. And I hope they can gain flexibility faster as they are very young.. Kids parents believe that yoga will give them more concentration on their studies. And discipline too.. | |||
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| Cyndi |
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Expert Yogi Posts: 5098   Location: Somewhere in the Mountains of Western NC | Well, I'm a teacher and I teach my daughter Yoga. As for being friendly...I don't like that terminology at all...seems somewhat old fashioned and is a big mistake dealing with children. Be friendly with children, but don't be friends. You are going to be under tremendous pressure from your teacher which will definitely influence your teaching ability. Try to find your own niche, forget about the pressure (kids sense our weaknesses), and just think about the word guidance..you are there to guide them into Yoga. What are you going to do if the 14 year old decides he doesn't like Yoga?? You are going to have to connect with this kid on some level without loosing your role as the teacher and that is the biggest challenge. It's a give and take a little situation. The best thing to do is be careful with too much advice until you get a feel for what the children are like as each child is different and have different capabilities and personalities. I would certainly work from that place first. I don't know what your timeframe is but, if you find it challenging and the children being uncooperative, back off and don't push them, they will only push you back harder. If you are skillful with them and they trust and like you, then you will have the advantage and find these moments and use them wisely as with children, they are unpredictable and change very quickly. They are like little spiders and have very short attention spans. The 8 year old especially. Good luck. Do you like Usher?? My daughter likes Hip Hop music - she's 12, going on 15. I make it a point to know what is going on in her world to relate to her and what she likes and dislikes. The older kids at a nearby college take Yoga instead of P.E. class. They did a study on these kids and found they were under less stress, performed with their studies at very high levels and felt sooo much energy. American College is awful. My son who laughs at Yoga, is under stress all the time. He's in his first year of college. The only thing that has saved him is he is on the Cross Country Team and runs several miles a day. I keep telling him he could run an extra 5 miles (over his 7 that he presently is doing), have more energy to keep up with school work and no stress. I think he's going to get it soon  He is a stubborn 20 year old, he wants to listen to everyone except me. He always ends up listening to me, it just takes time, he likes to play that power struggle game with Mom. Talk about different personalities and that is the difference between my daughter and son. Outside influence has robbed parents of doing their jobs and is what makes teaching children the biggest challenge in today's world. My daughter has limited and selective outside influence - another words we choose where and who she spends her time with...makes a big difference. So much danger out there for innocent minds. I would not want to be a child in today's world, parents are afraid to guide their children, they want to be friends instead and are dealing with guilty parenting because they are never at home - there is never any quality time for them and that is what they want and need more than anything. So, Thusara, I wish you the best of luck. I hope you can come back and teach me some things. There are some great Yoga books out there for children. Maybe you can find them and use pictures to help you with them. You could have the 8 year old draw the asana's that he is going to be learning. Edited by Cyndi 2005-03-28 7:44 AM | ||
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| Cyndi |
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Expert Yogi Posts: 5098 Location: Somewhere in the Mountains of Western NC | |||
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| MrD |
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I have 2 granddaughters that absolutely love yoga when we can get a teacher. It hasn't caught on in our area yet. Now these girls also do gymnastics so they may have an edge. And of course I have a natural bias here.  But these girls are very flexible and strong. They can go into Urdva Danurasana without as much as a Doe, Re, Mi. Just put hands behind the shoulders and pop up. Perfect Wheel pose every time. Forward bends, magnificant. But at their younger ages 5, and 8 their attention span is almost nill. 15-20 seconds and they want to be off on other poses. So they are moving constantly. They like to play games like pretend they are animals when doing poses. Gorilla, Flamingo (tree pose), Lion, Lions breath, Snake, barking dog, and tough warriors, and turtles when resting. They hear at least one yoga song that the teacher sings while they change positions. They also have a section where the children can pick an Asana, except relaxation pose of course. It's surprizing how complicated of poses they can pick at times. They also pick a different pose for each mat then make everyone switch to a different mat until they're back at their own. I wish I knew better what to do with the older student. He may like some of those variations, but will also want to be more adult IMO. You've been given a blessing and a challenge by your teacher. Good luck. Edited by MrD 2005-03-28 7:29 PM | |||
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| tourist |
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Expert Yogi Posts: 8442    | Yes, kids yoga has to be much faster than adult classes and you can't expect much in the way of focus or perfection in the pose. We had a teacher give us a typical kids class once and oh my good ness - it was tough! Kids do like stories and I have heard they will cooperate better if you promise them a story. Learn all your yoga mythology if you don't already know it One way to get them to do savasana is to have them pretend they are "playing dead" to avoid being caught by a big animal. We talk about bears here - I don't know what a good example would be in Sri Lanka! This teacher would walk all around between the children lying down and tell his story of Krishna or whatever and the children would lie really quietly and listen. Have fun! | ||
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| Thushara |
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| Thank you all yogis for the advises. Cyndi ~~ Yeah I agree this is more like “Traditional teaching”....... When I do it on my own, I have many ideas to do.. I like your idea about that “drawing poses” thing.. But you know I have a strict time schedule with them. And the scope and the methods are basically defined.. It’s just that I have to be tricky and smart enough with kids within the defined scope. Teaching a traditional art like “Yoga” its bit different here..(Teachers are matured people (at least over 40, except my very 1st yoga teacher)they are not much commercialized.. Students need to respect them a lot. I know many of them teach students free when they find some of them cant afford. I will teach free as well if I find somebody who cannot afford (still with lot of interest for yoga) as Yoga teaching is not my “Rice Bowl “ Its just a part time interesting thing and I have my profession separately for my living... ) I will definitely buy a kid yoga book from Amazon.. Yeah usher has cool stuff like “Think of you “  Mr.D ~~ Yeah I got your point.. Thanks again!! Tourist ~~ Thanks a loooot tourist.. I love your example.. Promise I try this Bear works in SL Just one more question guys, what do you think the best definition of “Yoga” for a kid., I mean how you explain what Yoga is .. I was thinking along this lines a lot… but couldn’t figure out a good definition. | |||
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| jeansyoga |
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| Thushara |
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| Hi Guys, I did my first yoga lessons. Being a yoga teacher is quite cool I should say Instead 2 students I ended up in a class of 6 students. Instead 1 hour per week I had to do both Saturday and Sunday 1 hour per day. 6 students – 2 teenage girls 1 teenage boy and 3 small boys. They were quite corporative. 4 of them could be in Padmasana in the first day itself., they can gain flexibility much more faster than adults. They did everything well in the first day itself., And I could do everything I scheduled for that day. Nadi suddhi I will be doing only 3 – 12 –6 for them. (Still I didn’t start pranayama sessions) I asked them why they want to do Yoga, Except the smallest one, all the others said that because their parents wanted them to do it.. The smallest one (6 year older) said that he cant remember why he came to do yoga .. Soo cute…. I love to hear the way he pronounced some Sanskrit names I taught (its not hard for them, most of the words are similar to their language). I explained them the benefit of doing yoga and I related it to their studies and health The feed back I got after the class was amazing.. I think they love to do yoga with me Its quite an amazing experience to be a yoga teacher for kids and I gain so much confidence now… And this makes me to be thorough in what I have learnt. P.S. thanks to Jeansjoga too for the advise and wishes!!! Edited by Thushara 2005-04-04 12:59 AM | |||
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| LoraB |
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| tourist |
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Expert Yogi Posts: 8442 | |||
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| jeansyoga |
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| I'm so happy it went well! Teaching can be very stressful but so exciting when you first get started. I'm actually going on 2 years now, and it's still stressful and exciting, and the most rewarding thing I've ever done! One of my wise teacher-trainers told me once, teaching is nothing more than just getting people into the poses. Once there, the magic of yoga will take over! The great thing is, the students who get it will love you, because you're the one who showed it to them! | |||
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| Cyndi |
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Expert Yogi Posts: 5098 Location: Somewhere in the Mountains of Western NC | |||
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| Thushara |
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| Sorry for the late reply I just got a chance to write a reply Poses are no difference to what adults practice., Only thing is the way we teach is different., I need to explain them a lot and make sure whether they understood., I have to talk a loot (Which is not a problem for me anyway ) Best thing with kids is that they have no attitudes like adults. As there are some Muslim and AOG students I said they don’t have to tell the teacher prayer if they don’t like., But they just wanted to follow the flow.. If Im to tell you the outline of the schedule for them is – 1st day Prayer in Anjali mudra Discussion Breath in and out 5 times with the right hand placing on the tummy to feel the movements Warm-up and stretching (Log exercises, rotation, folding, shoulder rotation, arms stretching, neck rotation and hip rotation) – everything is with the breathing., I always I say breath in and do the movement, breath out and I continue with the next movement and then they follow. They were quite used to it on the 2nd day) Eye exercises only 2 Then I could do Thadasana, And I taught them Lotus pose, (for kids who cant do it, I told them how they should practice by pressing the leg towards the flow gently) then I did standing Asanas (Ardha konasana. And Vrksasana. I had to stop the class at that point and discussion with them., Then said the prayer and called it a lesson The next day I repeated all the things above. Some kids were in Padmasana for the prayers. I Added mathsyasana (normal –not lotus) , Vajirasana and breathing in and out in Vajirasana. There a funny thing happened., When I wanted to do mathsyasana, I remembered tourist’s bear story and I asked the small kids whether they like to be a fish for few minutes.. oh boy !!!! again that smallest kid said that he doesn’t like fish and he likes Chicken J hehe (must be referring to food Believe me.. this is no jokes.... So What I did was I showed them the bakasana (Me doing it is almost like a chicken I think ) and I said I will be doing a birdy pose later and for now we will do the fish.. he agreed… Oh man I wont ask this questions again.. UHHH>> TOURIST *$#)$#)$&$#& I don’t think I will ever forget this incident Im sure I can write a book of stories about teaching kids when I finish this class with my lovely bunch of small friends.. Their schedules contain all the basic possess what adults do. The main difference is the breathing., It contains only deep breathing and Nadi suddhi and that’s also a very short count. Only problem is the individual attention and corrections., Others have to look at and wait till I correct one. Soem times I feel 6 is a large number for a kids class. Teenagers.. They loved to show off … No matter what the pose was… Oh I have passed that age Tourist ., Yes I will be continuing the same class for these kids 2 hours per week. Till I finish my course. I know yoga is not to create bonds.. But I have already started loving these kids. Edited by Thushara 2005-04-06 7:29 AM | |||
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| tourist |
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Expert Yogi Posts: 8442 | Thushara - it is hard not to love kids I was going through my digital photos of the kids at school and trying to clean up the computer by deleting a bunch of them. But then I would see how cute they were and remember "oh, there's Susie, she moved away" or "oh my goodness, there's Jack - he is looking all grown up now (5 years old is grown up to me!)." And then I'd leave at least a few photos of them to remind me | ||
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