Posts Tagged ‘yoga app’


6 Tips to Dive Right Into Kids Yoga

partner child rainbow

It’s easy to put off beginning new things with your kids. The need for extra time, new paraphernalia, the “know-how”, and the needed space (without extra laundry filling it) can put parents into a temporary frozen state.

Kids yoga is no exception. It might seem as though everyone else is up on the latest yoga pose or the trendiest method, and you’re in no place to get your kids involved in that unknown territory — as though you’re too far removed to catch up.

However, this in not true in most any endeavor. So, here’s a little platform to help you feel comfortable to jump right into kids yoga.

1. There are no rights or wrongs in kids’ yoga

bow

First of all, you can’t get it wrong. As parents we are often afraid that we’ll get things wrong so we hold back from trying. But the most growth occurs, for ourselves and for our kids, when we step outside our comfort zone.  Whether you choose to begin with a kids yoga book, a CD, a DVD or an App, you’ll find those that you like and those that you don’t – but none of them will set you off perpetually in the wrong direction.  Just jump in and allow your likes and dislikes to lead you to your family’s best fit.

2. Maybe a live kids yoga class is your best first move.

IMG_2852At times going into a class with a real teacher can be a great jumpstart to finding what works best for your family. If one class doesn’t do it for you, another class might be the key. There are heaps of great teachers out there and an increasing number of styles/methods so finding a good fit will be much easier today than it was just 5-7 years ago – when I was looking for something for my little one.

3. No yoga experience necessary.

As a yoga instructor people often sheepishly “confess” to me that they have never done yoga before, as though that’s a bad thing or that they’re somehow behind. Everyone is a beginner when they first begin something. No one comes into the world an expert on anything. We all begin at the beginning. It’s truly that simple. You do not need to know anything about yoga to start kids yoga!

4. No equipment needed to start.

You can begin without a yoga mat and don’t even really need any special clothes.  Just give it a shot! Then, if your family is diggin’ it, you might find that a yoga mat and some soft clothing may help up the fun-factor!

5. Any space will do.evan dead bug pose

No need for a special space to begin kids yoga.  Just scoot the toys to the side and begin the yoga fun!

6. Just jump in and get your feet wet. 

dog

Whether you begin with a live teacher or a book, yoga poses begin with simply mirroring the teacher. Nothing need be perfect. Just jump in and be guided to your next experience by your likes and dislikes. There are heaps of quality kids’ yoga programs available. I have a biased regard for our program, Sing Song Yoga® which currently has a customizable app and a DVD.Sing Song Yoga App image So check it out if you wish or locate another that seems a good fit! Either way, have a blast and be easy about it! Yoga is meant to help us lighten up a bit.

We would love to hear from you – either a comment below or through Facebook or twitter.


Related Posts:

Top 6 Yoga Poses for Toddlers  “A few months ago a parent asked how she could best do yoga with her one-year-old daughter…”

Kids Yoga App – Create Your Own Balancing Sequence Effortlessly create a balancing sequence with a few taps of this kids yoga iOS app.

Top 5 Tips to Help Kids Yoga Balance: Kid Twitter Question Answered A kid question answered: “Do you have any tips to help us balance better?”

Getting Kids Ready to Write: Yoga in Schools A teacher question answered: “I was wondering the best combinations [of poses] to use [with my students] for getting ready to write.”

Twitter Leads to Most Rewarding Visit Imaginable  Sing Song Yoga founder does yoga with students she connected with on Twitter.


For more info:Yoga in a School Setting

Sing Song Yoga® Kids’ Yoga App

Sing Song Yoga® kids’ yoga DVD

Sing Song Yoga® school program

Sing Song Yoga® website


This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2015.
Posted in Kids Yoga at Home, Parenting, Sing Song Yoga.
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Top 5 Tips to Help Kids Yoga Balance

This topic was inspired by a helpful kids yoga question tweeted by Mrs. Z’s #1stgradeyogis in Michigan…

Do you have any tips to help us balance better?”

 

sing song yoga eagle

Mrs. Z’s #1stgradeyogis doing Eagle Pose (Garudasana)

These talented first graders and their creative, tech savvy teacher have been tweeting about their experiences with Sing Song Yoga and we’re loving it! Thank you @MrsZFabFirsties for sharing your yoga experiences of kids yoga with us and the world! Thank you also for the inspiration for this post!!

Some simple tips to help you balance in your favorite kids’ yoga poses…

1. Know that it’s okay to fall over.  When I was first learning to do headstand, I was unsure about moving my pose away from the security of the wall. However, once my instructor mentioned that it’s okay to fall when trying headstand in the middle of the room, I gave it a shot and never turned back! Now it’s a favorite of mine!  Sometimes children (and adults) simply need to know that it’s okay to lose their balance and fall.  Taking the pressure off can sometimes be all the support they need to feel success in a balancing pose.

2. Try to look at one spot in front of you.  Fix your relaxed gaze on something that is not moving.  To experience how helpful our eyes are when balancing try this:  Before doing a balancing pose, experiment with the kids having them close their eyes while in Mountain Pose (Tadasana).  Even Mountain Pose feels wobbly with our eyes closed.  Then compare how Mountain feels with their eyes open.  Then do Tree Pose (Vrksasana) and compare the different experiences of first, moving your eyes all over the room and second, keeping your eyes fixed on one spot.  Might be fun to illustrate the comparing/contrasting experiences with a Venn Diagram in the classroom, with some interactive or shared writing.

Kids yoga balancing pose

Mrs. Z’s #1stgradeyogis doing Tree, Big Butterfly and Flower

3. Hold your arms out to the side like a tightrope walker.  Children tend to do this naturally, but you can also discuss this with them.  You could also, for example, do Eagle Pose (Garudasana) twice. Once with their arms wrapped together in front of their chest and once with their arms out to the side.  And ask the kids which feels easier. Answers will likely vary but it’s powerful to feel these differences within their own bodies.

4. Start at the ground and move up.  Focus first on having strong balanced feet (or whatever body part is on the ground). Try to distribute weight evenly between the front and back and between the inside and outside of each foot.  Oftentimes when yogis are attempting a balancing pose, they don’t even notice that they are holding their feet crooked and half off the ground because they are so focused on balancing. So again it can be helpful to experiment with Mountain Pose (Tadasana). Close the eyes for a moment to feel how the weight changes within their feet as they wobble.  Try to keep from falling over by focusing on the feet remaining flat on the floor.  And once they open their eyes try to keep their attention on their feet while they steady their balance.  Then try to re-balance the feet before beginning the next balancing pose.  Closing the eyes allows us to attempt to focus more clearly on other balancing systems that we are less likely to notice when our vision is being used — in this case the feet (and vestibular system).

5. Imagine that you’re floating up.  Next time the kids are doing a balancing pose have them imagine that they are really light and nearly weightless — maybe even that their foot is glued to the earth with hardly any gravity.  This one in particular is not based in anything I’ve learned, only in what I’ve experienced.  So give it shot.

Bonus:  And just for fun try thinking about your belly button while balancing.  It seems to help sometimes — and if not, it tends to bring on giggles 🙂 Thank you James Fry for this one!

Please send your kids’ yoga questions to Sing Song Yoga’s

Twitter or Facebook using #ssykidsquestions

 

See this link for an outline of the Simple Process for Creating and Saving a Kids’ Yoga Balancing Sequence within the Sing Song Yoga App

Balancing Sequence Sing Song Yoga App

Creating Balancing Sequence within the Sing Song Yoga App

 

For more info:

DVD: https://www.singsongyoga.com/childrens-yoga-dvd/

App: https://www.singsongyoga.com/kids-yoga-app/

school program: https://www.singsongyoga.com/school-program/

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 19th, 2014.
Posted in Education, Sing Song Yoga.
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Kids Yoga App – Create and Save Your Own Animal Sequence

So much fun to be a Yogi Artist within the Sing Song Yoga app for kids, creating masterpiece sequences to enjoy again and again!  Here is a quick pic tutorial on creating and saving an Animal Sequence with your kids or students! Have a blast!

kids yoga app sing song yogaLike a yogi painter… Create!!  Press, hold and drag animal poses to the Sequence Canvas while keeping these guidelines in mind.  Each pose is color coded within the app. The color at the top of each pose picture indicates the influence each pose has on the nervous system:

  • yellow = neutral
  • red = energizing    
  • blue = calming

It is most often recommended to order the poses in this way

  • neutral or energizing poses (beginning)
  • energizing poses (middle)
  • calming poses (ending… Savasana is most often the last pose).

kids yoga app sing song yoga   Press Save icon on the bottom of the home screen and name your sequence.

 

kids yoga app sing song yogaFind your saved sequences behind the home screen by pressing the “saved” icon in the top left of the home screen.  And return to your custom sequence anytime you wish! Have fun and let us know if you have any questions or ideas!  And we would love to hear about some of your Animal Sequence creations on our Facebook page or on Twitter.

 

For more info:

DVD: https://www.singsongyoga.com/childrens-yoga-dvd/

App: https://www.singsongyoga.com/kids-yoga-app/

school program: https://www.singsongyoga.com/school-program/

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 28th, 2014.
Posted in Kid's Yoga Sequences, Sing Song Yoga.
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Sing Song Yoga® Kids Yoga App Update Live in App Store

Sing Song Yoga® For Kids… Take Two!!

We are excited to announce that our kids yoga app update is available in the Apple App Store!  We want to be sure you enjoy the benefits of the improvements:

  • Bugs squashed
  • Improved stability and performance with iOS7 integration
  • Simplified usability

NEW: kids yoga app

The above pic illustrates an example of one of the simplified features in our kids yoga app – the Available Purchases page. While our Packages remain the most economical deal for purchasing, this new page more clearly displays the options for you, to best meet the needs of your family or classroom.   We’re so grateful for our talented developers and love this gorgeous and functional new “Available Purchases” page!

kids yoga app

And, another example of the simplified features —  If you do not own all of the poses and sequences, those you do own will move to the left so you can find them easily.

 

We are so excited to make these improvements available to better serve you and your young yogis! Thank you for your continued support and loyalty for Sing Song Yoga! We are so grateful for you!  If you’re not yet following us on Facebook and Twitter now’s a great time to hop on board 🙂

Look forward to sharing more soon,

Deb

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 9th, 2014.
Posted in Sing Song Yoga.
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Top 6 Kids Yoga Poses for Bedtime: a calming sequence

Ahhhh!  Summer is here.  After long lovely days at the beach, at the ballpark, on the playground and running around the neighborhood, kids tend to remain wired when heading to bed.  Unless of course a calming activity is deliberately infused into the routine leading up to bedtime.

One such activity can be a short series of kids yoga poses.  Here are top 6 yoga poses for helping your child begin to calm their bodies and minds — in as little as 8 minutes. These poses also happen to be the included poses in the free Sing Song Yoga App.  So enjoy – and let us know what you think!

Sailboat T

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sailboat begins the series during which your child will twist around the straight spine, which has a neutral effect on the nervous system.

 

Half Butterfly T

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next comes Half Butterfly.  Forward folds have a calming effect on the nervous system and the one bent leg opening up the hip adds to the calming effect.

 

Fish T Still Image

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fish pose is a lovely night time yoga pose to add to our sequence.  We tend to hold stress in our hips, so allowing our legs to relax out to the sides enhances the relaxation effect.  Open up the chest and allow your head to relax back and look behind you (slightly different than the picture). This multifaceted pose works beautifully to continue the calming effect.

 

Bridge T

Bridge pose is an inversion well known for its calming effect on the nervous system.  This kids’ yoga pose can also be used anytime you have an extra minute during your day to give your child an extra sense of calm. Great, of course, for moms and dads too!

 

Dead Bug T

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Deadbug pose adds a final dose of a calming response before the big finale! Your child can even add the hum of the bug to enhance the relaxation. Hearing the humming sound within one’s own head can also double the calm for some children.

 

Savasana 1 T

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Savasana is the final yoga pose in this series and the granddaddy of the relaxation poses.  Encourage your child to lie flat on his or her back, close the eyes and imagine themselves floating on a cloud allowing their bodies to completely relax.  For preparing for bedtime, it can also be helpful for your child to do savasana right in their bed and then allow themselves to drift softly into dreamland!  Ahh! Now mom and dad can slip off for their own quiet time.

 

 

If you would like to learn the songs and more in-depth directions to these Sing Song Yoga kids yoga poses, check out the award-winning Sing Song Yoga App in the iTunes Store. The above poses are the free ones at launch. Or see our website to order the DVD.

To see a fun White Board Animation about our program click here!

Sing Song Yoga Kids Yoga App video animation

 

 

 

 

 

 

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 21st, 2014.
Posted in Benefits of Yoga, Kid's Yoga Sequences, Parenting, Sing Song Yoga.
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