Posts Tagged ‘physical activities for toddlers’
Kids Yoga App Series #4 Guidelines Video
* This post is the 4th within a kids yoga app series #SSYappSeries… (here are #1, #2, and #3.
Kids often learn best from kids! That’s why our Sing Song Yoga Kids share their wisdom about doing yoga in this Guidelines Video found under the Information button within the Sing Song Yoga kids yoga app and on the DVD. We include the video here to encourage you to check out the app and DVD. And if you already use our program, be sure to share the video with your young yogis at home or in school.
Please let us know any questions you might have on Facebook or Twitter, using #SSYappSeries or #SSYkidQuestions. We look forward to hearing from you!! Happy Yoga!!
Related Posts:
Kids Yoga App Series – #1. Adult Help Symbol in DVD/App Quick video explaining the “Adult Help” symbol used in the Sing Song Yoga® kids yoga app.
Kids Yoga App Series – #2. Try it Free A super quick video to demonstrate some features within the Sing Song Yoga® kids yoga app.
Kids Yoga App Series – #3. Restore Purchases –FAQs: How to easily restore in-app purchases in seconds with this simple illustration.
Top 5 Kids’ Yoga Tips for Greater Flexibility A kids’ yoga question answered: “We want to know how we can stretch better! Any tips?”
8 Kids Yoga Myths Some common misunderstandings about kids’ yoga.
Crossing the Midline and Kids’ Yoga Kids’ yoga is one of the many activites that can provide cross-lateral experiences for children. If done regularly might assist in building the brain for…
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.
Yoga in Schools: Kids and Teachers Talk Kids’ Yoga A quick peek into what kids and teachers are saying about using the Sing Song Yoga app in the classroom.
Top 5 Tips to Help Balance in Kids’ Yoga: 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:
Sing Song Yoga® Kids’ Yoga App
Sing Song Yoga® kids’ yoga DVD
Sing Song Yoga® school program
This entry was posted on Thursday, September 10th, 2015.
Posted in Kids Yoga at Home, Sing Song Yoga, Yoga in Schools.
Tagged: app, children, childrens yoga, ipad app, iphone app, kids, kids yoga, kids yoga app, kids yoga benefits, music and movement, physical activities for toddlers, sing song yoga, yoga app, yoga for kids, yoga in schools, yoga poses
Crossing the Midline and Kids Yoga
Do you ever wonder why small children seem to lack coordination and tend to perform tasks slowly and somewhat clumsily? This is due to the fact that they are in the process of building neural networks – “roads” – in the brain.
You have likely heard of the terms cross-lateral movements or crossing the midline. The midlines are invisible lines dividing the body in half. When a leg or an arm from one half of the body crosses over to the other half of the body this is crossing the midline. This helps the brain communicate in greater depth by connecting both halves of the brain via the network of fibers, called the corpus callosum. This integration of the two sides of the brain determines the speed, flexibility, adaptability and depth of the brain’s thinking. When children are allowed to play freely over the years of childhood, they naturally cross these midlines just by being kids and playing in limitless ways.
Sometimes, however, children will show up to school without having had many of the necessary experiences for this to have occurred with the necessary repetition. When the midlines aren’t fully developed, cross-lateral movements might feel unnatural to a child. Educational researchers, educators, occupational and physical therapists have come up with activities to attempt to make up for lost time, so to speak. By getting children to move in specific ways within deliberate activities it can make midline crossing a regular occurrence to help achieve the repetition necessary to help build these roads in the brain. The handout below says “Think of it as doubling up on the brain’s processing speed and power as it draws on the strengths of both the left and right sides to create ‘whole-brain’ thinking.” Authors of A Moving Child is a Learning Child say that crossing the midline not only streamlines movement, it supersizes those superhighways across the corpus callosum. As such it plays a critical role in preparing children’s brains for formal learning.
Kids’ yoga is one of the many activites that can provide cross-lateral experiences for children. And if done regularly, along with other rhythm and movement activities, it might assist in building the brain for optimal development.
The handout below explains midlines in a new way for me. Prior to this learning I only divided the body in two halves, the left and right. But this author divides the body in two additional directions: the top and bottom and the front and back, thus making it midlines – plural. This opens the doorway to many more physical movements meeting the requirements of cross-lateral movements and is worth exploring further. I always love learning new things!
For some occupational therapy activities for crossing the midline see OT Mom Learning Activities.
Thank you to Free Spirit Publishing and authors of A Moving Child is a Learning Child, Gill Connell and Cheryl McCarthy, for allowing me to share this handout through Learners’ Edge.
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:
Sing Song Yoga® Kids’ Yoga App
Sing Song Yoga® kids’ yoga DVD
Sing Song Yoga® school program
This entry was posted on Monday, March 30th, 2015.
Posted in Benefits of Yoga, Education, Parenting, Yoga in Schools.
Tagged: children, cross-lateral activities, cross-lateral moments, crossing the midline, crossing the midlines, early childhood, early childhood activities, kid yoga, kids yoga, kids yoga benefits, midlines development, physical activities for toddlers, sing song yoga, yoga for kids, yoga in schools, yoga in the classroom
Kids Yoga in Schools: Getting First Graders Ready to Write
Sue, a first grade teacher from Michigan writes:
I was wondering the best combinations [of poses] to use [with my students] for getting ready to write.”
This is a great question! Yoga in schools can be a powerful resource for helping kids get ready to write, as well as do other school tasks. Kids’ Yoga is not going to take overly energetic children and mesmerize them into a state of conformity, but it can help a child transform their energy into a more usable form for accomplishing particular tasks. As teachers we occasionally need tiny reminders that children are not built to sit for long periods, and their squirminess might be good feedback to us that their bodies truly need to move in order for their brains to work most efficiently.
I know that, as an adult, when I rush around my world to run errands and then sit down in front of my computer to get some work done, it takes me a bit of time to refocus on my task at hand. Also, if I sit for an extended period of time I need to get up and move to focus most efficiently. Similarly, if a child is moving from one activity to the next without time to refocus with some deliberate guidance, or is sitting for extending periods of time without a chance for specific movement, then it’s likely that s/he won’t be able to give her best.
Yoga in schools can provide purposeful tools for helping children refocus. There’s much involved in how yoga can do this. However, simply put, focusing on one’s body to get into and hold a pose can help quiet the mind’s chatter, allowing more space for purposefully focused thought. And if the yoga movement itself is sufficiently involved it can fulfill the body’s need to move in order to stimulate the necessary systems for optimal learning.
In other words the physical yoga poses and the focus necessary to accomplish them work in tandem to help children refocus.
In addition to this, particular sequencing of poses also has the potential to calm the nervous system, which counters the stressors that physically shut down the brain for learning. The brain of a child who is in distress physically shuts down the networking necessary for learning. The brain of a relaxed child has much greater learning potential.
When thinking about yoga in schools it might be helpful to know that poses can be divided into three categories regarding their main effects on the nervous system:
- energizing poses (red – see arrow in pic below)
- calming poses (blue)
- neutral poses (yellow)
Poses can be sequenced to deliberately shoot for particular goals. For example, our Brain Break sequence was created to assist students in refocusing within their school day with the least number of poses necessary to accomplish the goal.
Brain Break Sequence includes:
- Triangle – general movement lengthening and strengthening the entire body
- Standing V – the inversion allows blood flow to the brain which may enhance mental functioning and forward bends calm the nervous system
- Eagle – crosses the mid-line helping the two halves of the brain communicate through the corpus callosum (helping to coordinate skills being carried out in different parts of the brain). Eagle also stimulates the vestibular system (balance), stimulating the brain for new learning
- Sailboat – crosses the mid-line and twisting allows for additional release of tension
Note below: the color coding above each pose in the app screenshot: red, blue and yellow represent energizing, calming and neutral poses respectively.
The Jazz up My Brain sequence within the Sing Song Yoga App is a longer version at 22 minutes. Teachers can throw poses out or add poses within the app within the sequence canvas and make it work for each situation. Sequences you create can be saved and named. And here’s another example of the app in use.
Thanks for stopping by! We intend to continue growing our posts dedicated to helping teachers enjoy the benefits of yoga in the classroom!
Until next time, Happy Teaching!
We would LOVE to hear from you – how you’re using yoga in schools or questions of how to begin. We are on Twitter @singsongyoga and Facebook and really look forward to connecting!
For more info:
Sing Song Yoga® kids’ yoga DVD
Sing Song Yoga® Kids’ Yoga App
Sing Song Yoga® school program
This entry was posted on Saturday, January 24th, 2015.
Posted in Benefits of Yoga, Education, Kid's Yoga Sequences, Sing Song Yoga, Yoga in Schools.
Tagged: app, children, childrens yoga, first graders, health, ipad app, iphone app, ipod touch app, kids, kids yoga, kids yoga app, kids yoga benefits, mindfulness, physical activities for toddlers, research, schools, sing song yoga, test prep, writing, yoga for kids, yoga in schools, yoga in the classroom, yoga poses
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!
Like 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).
Press Save icon on the bottom of the home screen and name your sequence.
Find 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.
Tagged: Animal yoga poses, app, children, childrens yoga, health, ipad app, iphone app, ipod touch app, kids, kids yoga, kids yoga app, physical activities for toddlers, sing song yoga, toddler yoga, yoga, yoga app, yoga for kids, yoga poses
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
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!
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.
Tagged: app, app store, children, childrens yoga, health, ipad app, iphone app, ipod touch app, kids, kids yoga, kids yoga app, physical activities for toddlers, sing song yoga, toddler yoga, video, yoga, yoga app, yoga for kids, yoga poses