Yogiños: Yoga for Youth® + Wanderlust Wanderkind Kids Program = OHMazing Summer Fun!

 Yogiños: Yoga for Youth® will provide kids programs at Wanderlust Colorado July 5-8!

The Wanderlust Wanderkind Kids Program is the number one spot on-site for kids ages 4-10 to have a safe and exceptionally cool Wanderlust experience all of their own. Custom tailored to the interests of Wanderlust families, the Wanderkind kids program, is held on-site at each festival location and runs from 9:30 am to 4 pm Friday through Sunday. All activities, like kid's yoga, music, hula-hooping, and arts and crafts, are included in the program. Kids and parents will be responsible for their own lunches, but can enjoy samples from kid-friendly snack sponsors. Tickets are $50 per day. Want more info on the daily activities? Scroll down below!

Tree Toss is one of the many games
 we play to practice balance,
sharing and team-work.

 

 

CLASS INFO:

Yogiños: Yoga for Youth® is an OHMazing™ interdisciplinary kids yoga curriculum in English, Spanish, and Sanskrit. Our yoga for kids program weaves together wellness and the 8 Limbs of yoga with original art, music, games, stories, and other mindful, sensory-integrated activities to promote flexibility, strength, balance, collaboration, civic and social responsibility, mindfulness, and nutrition on and off the yoga mat. www.yoginos.com and info@yoginos.com

We look forward to meeting you and your kids and posing, playing and learning about ourselves, others and the Earth! Each day we will weave works of art and music with activities touching on all aspects of yoga including pranayama, individual and partner yoga poses, cardiovascular and relaxation exercises.

THURSDAY, JULY 5: The Story of Ganesha
How did Ganesha become known as the elephant-headed prince? Spend the day on an adventure of self-reflection and empowerment through the story of Ganesha, a beloved Hindi elephant prince.

FRIDAY, JULY 6: The Hero in Me
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, no... it’s EACH OF US! Join us as we play and pose learning how each one of us is a hero and heroine.

Vishnu

Cambodia, Khmer culture
Sandstone

1999.30

Crow Collection of Asian Art


SATURDAY, JULY 7: Vishnu's OHMazing Journeys
Vishnu's OHMazing™ Journeys weaves together ancient narratives of the hero Vishnu and the heroine Lakshmi through yoga, art, music, and dance. We will celebrate our own journeys and the choices we make as we build relationships and extend love to ourselves, to others, and to the universe.

SUNDAY, JULY 8: Lean on Me
Learn to lean and be leaned on both on and off the mat! We will pose and play games that offer opportunities to practice communication skills in various ways. “Just call on me brother, when you need a hand, we all need somebody to lean on!” (Lean on Me lyrics by Bill Withers)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

originally posted:
5/4/12

Wanderkind Colorado: Class Info + Day By Day Activities

Tags: Colorado

Yamas, You's & Yoga for Youth

Photo credit: David Perrone

by Elizabeth Reese, PhD, E-RYT, RCYT

              

Sometimes, when I share with people that I weave Pantajali’s Eight Limbs or paths of yoga into Yogiños: Yoga for Youth classes, I get “the brow.”

You know “the brow.” And you know the variation accompanied with a strained ardha lipasana: the half-lip smirk.

My response is that while I may not read to kids excerpts from the Yoga Sutra’s, I do nurture opportunities for us to discuss ways to make mindful—or OHMazing—choices for the self, others and the earth. Here is one way I present Yamas to youth.

First, I reveal that Yamas are ways we can take care of the you’s and others in the world.

I purposefully selected this connection of Yama and you. Even for kids as young as three years old, I further explain that sometimes “even I” have a hard time remembering new information, and Yamas and “you” both begin with “Y”. This mnemonic tool assists learning acquisition. Moreover, for young readers it provides opportunities to play with language and alliteration.

There are numerous ways we can embrace the Yamas. One way is to to show compassion and kindness to all living things, including the “you’s” in our lives, ourselves and the earth. Pantajali calls this constant employment of empathy and care—or nonviolence—Ahimsa.

Elena Brower, Yoga Journal Conference,
New York, April 2012

In a recent class with Elena Brower, she invited us to bring the “you” in our lives who offers us the most contraction. She asked us to see that person, as well as ourselves, with compassion. Elena mindfully threaded this theme throughout the class occasionally highlighting—or knotting, if you will—that when we see all others with kindness, we allow ourselves to live and grow more fully into a place of constant grace.

For example, in an extended pose like utkatasana or chair, and of course while we felt that fantastic contraction in our whole bodies, Elena asked us to breathe through the sensation of tightness and strain. Here she skillfully connected this physical sensation to ones we feel when we are confronted with someone for whom we have ill feelings.

While Elena’s eloquent language may be high-level for a kindergartner, the message that we can have Ahimsa for the you’s or others in our lives—and simultaneously invite grace into our own lives—is worth attending to at every age.

To provide a physical embodiment of the Yama Ahimsa to kids and families, one of the many asanas I offer is what Yogiños: Yoga for Youth calls in its trilingual approach, Tierra/Dwi Apanasana/Earth.

Instructions:

1. Lie on back in Savasana (Zzzzzzz)
2. Pull knees into chest and wrap hands or arms around knees for a full squeeze.
3. Rock back and forth if it is comfortable.

Opportunities for Discussion:

• Invite your yogis to do this asana thinking about how much they love the earth for giving us so much.
• “As you hug and love yourself that is an important step to love and honor others and the earth.”
• Or “Remember that loving yourself is one of the best ways you can love others and the environment.”
• Next, ask your participants to think of someone with whom they struggle. Encourage them to hug, rock, and love this person as they want to be loved and held.
• If we can show compassion for others, it often enables us to treat ourselves with more kindness or Ahimsa. Afterwards, discuss how they felt in the pose showing kindness to the earth, others, and themselves.

Read more: Yoga in Schools Aligns Body, Mind & Heart

Photo credit: David Perrone

Elizabeth “Beth” Reese, Ph.D., E-RYT, RCYT, is the founder and executive director of Yogiños: Yoga for Youth®. A yoga practitioner for over 13 years, Beth is the mother of three OHMazing yogis under the age of 13. Her oldest daughter, Jordan, is part of the inspiration for Yogiños: Yoga for Youth® as she learned to navigate challenges associated with Sensory-Integration “Disorder” through practicing all 8 Limbs of yoga.Yogiños: Yoga for Youth offers classes for children and families as well as trainings for classroom teachers, yoga instructors, parents, and others interested in bringing yoga and healthy choices to all ages.elizabeth@yoginos.com

Via elephantjournal.com

on Apr 19, 2012

3 Breaths for the 3-Year-Old in Each of Us

By Elizabeth Reese

Learning how to mindfully breathe was tough for me as an adult. My mind tugged on the rest of me to knock-this-off and return to old habits of reacting rapidly rather than responding responsibly. The key that unlocked my paths to pranayama first and foremost was counting.

One, two, three.

Three, two, one.

One, two, three.

Three, two, one.

I admit it. It felt a bit silly for my adult mind—accompanied by its childlike or untrained response system—to count silently. Yet this simplicity is perhaps why counting was one of the best tools for me to step onto the paths of pranayama, or the art of how to breathe mindfully.

Uno, dos, tres.

Tres, dos, uno.

Uno, dos, tres.

Tres, dos, uno.

After years of experimenting, counting breath is a form of pranayama I teach to yogis of all ages, including kids, teens and adults. While evoking counting may seem overly-simple, in my experiences that is precisely why it works: a familiar, safe element is offered in tandem with something new. This is part of an educational theory known as constructivism and is one of the foundational educational philosophies we use in Yogiños: Yoga for Youth classes.

We also use different languages, specifically, Spanish, English and Sanskrit. While a book could be inserted here providing research and data as to why we weave different languages, one reason is based on constructivism. 

Many youth today join our classes with ranges of familiarity or full comprehension of another or various languages. Accordingly, we use a trilingual yoga approach to simultaneously provide opportunities for yogis of all ages to physically, mentally and emotionally draw from their core knowledge and they expand outward into new experiences and understandings. 

Uno, Dos, Tres/Eka, Dwi, Trik/One, Two, Three

Instructions and discussions: 

•  Inhale through your nose for count of 3
•  Exhale out of your mouth for count of 3
•  Repeat several times.
•  What feels easy? What feels more challenging?
•  Notice how it may be hard at first to exhale slowly, then how good it feels to develop control.
•  Where can we use this breath when we feel out of control?

Try counting in different languages: 

• English: one, two, three
• Spanish: uno, dos, tres
• Sanskrit: eka, dwi, trk
• French: un, deux, trois
• German: eins, zwei, drei
• Japanese: ichi, ni, san

What languages can you share to help us expand more fully into new experiences and understandings?

 

About Elizabeth Reese

Elizabeth "Beth" Reese, Ph.D., E-RYT, RCYT is the founder and CEO of  Yogiños: Yoga for Youth, an OHMazing interdisciplinary yoga for kids program in English, Spanish, and Sanskrit. Yogiños: Yoga for Youth weaves together the 8 Limbs of yoga and wellness with original art, music, games, stories, and other sensory-integrated activities to promote flexibility, strength, balance, collaboration, civic and social responsibility, mindfulness, and nutrition on and off the yoga mat. Yogiños: Yoga for Youth offers classes for children and families as well as trainings for classroom teachers, yoga instructors, parents, and others interested in bringing yoga and healthy choices to all ages. 

Website: yoginos.com

Facebook: facebook.com/yoginos

Twitter: @Yoginos

 

Originally Published on MindBodyGreen April 24, 2012 at 9:40 AM