Every Fall, there is a rite of passage for kids aged preschool through college which involves preparing to go back to school. Usually, this means gathering school supplies, going school clothes shopping, registering for sports and activities, Meet the Teacher Night or visiting the school before the start date. These are all part of the back to school transitions which help kids and parents physically and mentally prepare.
The worries and fear of the unknown are real and can lead to feelings of worry and uncertainty. While these feelings are normal there are things that can be done to help children emotionally prepare for a successful year!
Parents play an influential role in helping children cope, encouraging a positive back-to-school transition and helping to reduce children’s anxiety and worries. These mini yoga brain breaks can help.
Enjoy the Following Back to School Help and Tips
Have Honest Discussions
It is important to sit down and really talk to your child. It doesn’t matter their age. Spend some time talking about how things may be different. As them if there are are specific things they are worried or concerned about, and talk these through with them.
Talk to them about what they can do to stay safe such as hand washing, using hand-santizer, keeping their distance from others avoid touching their face.
Get a Routine in Place
This is very important for children! Kids thrive on routines in place because they know what to expect and they feel like they have control.
Have your children wake up at the same time and follow a morning routine such as eating breakfast, brushing teeth and getting dressed for the day. Packing lunch the night before also helps minimize morning decisions and chaos.
Plan on certain places to keep masks easily accessible such as on hooks by the door. Have children help prepare the night before with homework completed and packed into a backpack, lunch prepared and in the fridge, and school clothes laid out. These simple steps will save so much time in the morning and really help with building a routine.
Children ages 3 and older are also old enough to have chores and to contribute positively to the family. Chores such as putting away dishes from the dishwasher, watering plants, walking the dog, taking garbage out, all help build responsibility and community within a family.
It’s important to acknowledge children’s worries, but parents also need to encourage their children to focus on the things that are positive and they are forward to.
Before school starts, you can ask, “What are you looking forward to about school school?” or “What have you missed about school?” Once school starts, you can ask, “What was something great that happened today?”
At dinner, we like to take turns sharing something positive about our day. With so much negativity going on, it is important to truly be intentional about looking for the positive.
Be a Role Model
Children are watching and looking to us. They are noticing how we are responding to the changes and new challenges. Children even pick up on the nonverbal with our facial expressions.
It’s OK for us to feel uncertain and worried. However, as much as possible, try to model calm and confident attitudes about returning to school for your child and use cheerful, positive messages.
Please take the time to care for your own well-being and mental health. Be kind to yourself and one another. Seek out help if you needed. You are not alone. Make time for what makes you happy.
Conclusion:
While this year’s back to school is different, we can help children feel optimistic by listening to their worries, helping them feel confident by establishing routines and coping strategies. Our kids need us to lead the way for a successful back-to-school transition and to develop the lifelong skills they will need in the future.
Learn how to easily incorporate fun and beneficial yoga poses as well as mindfulness exercises for some family fun and together time! This free mini Kids Yoga & Mindfulness Masterclass will include the most beneficial yoga poses for these young growing bodies as well as fun yoga games to practice these poses.
You will also learn the top mindfulness exercises that can help calm children and set them up for success and a growth mindset. This mini master class is perfect for parents, educators and caregivers.
Discover in this Kids Yoga & Mindfulness Masterclass:
How adult yoga is different than kids yoga
What ages can children begin yoga
The benefits for children who practice yoga
How to easily & effectively teach yoga to children
Family fun yoga games that all ages will enjoy
How to easily help children relax and reduce anxiety in minutes
What teens & tweens really need with yoga & mindfulness exercises
How to easily implement mindfulness at home with your family in small moments
Ideas for fun yoga poses and breathing and calming exercises to begin doing right away.
Join Go Go Yoga for Kidsand Des Moines Parent for fun home adventures for kids! With all the changes around our world, we are excited to provide a new, fun summer yoga camp experience for families this summer.
Your kids will get a taste of many subjects and activities all in one week! Camp Des Moines Parent will provide fun lessons from instructors and businesses, a private community, fun goodies, and more.
This virtual camp is open to families all over!
How to Enroll:
Select a camp you would like to attend below. Camps are aimed for children 5 to 11 years. Please note that some activities may require a parent’s assistance.
One week prior to your camp start date you will receive a fun packet filled with items you may need for your week of camp, bios of your instructors for the week, and other fun goodies. Most daily lessons will include things you will have at home.
You will be delivered your video each day during the camp week, which will be good for TWO weeks. This means you have two weeks to carve out time, have fun, and experience the lesson.
Interaction and fun are important during camp! You will be included in a Private Facebook Group that is ONLY for the specific week of registrants. All of you will be doing the same fun activities, will be able to share your experiences and make friends. We will also sprinkle in some other fun during the week.
What is included with your admission to camp?
An intro packet filled with instructions, supplies list, instructor bios, and other fun goodies.
(5) Daily videos delivered straight to your inbox with a TWO week access period. Videos are taught by local, Des Moines instructors, and/or business owners. Video lessons may differ but may include art, STEM lesson, themed yoga, nature lesson, and more.
Membership into a Private Facebook Group so you can interact and connect with other families participating in the same week of camp as you!
Sara is an elementary teacher and just celebrated her 20th year of teaching for West Des Moines Schools! Her passions are kids, teaching, and yoga. She holds a master’s degree in education as well as certifications in teaching adult and kids yoga. She is the creator of Go Go Yoga for Kids which includes kids yoga books, lesson plans, resources, apps, and teacher training. She regularly teaches kids yoga classes for a nationally-known health and fitness club and enjoys visiting schools to help inspire children to be an author as well as the fun and benefits that yoga can bring! She lives in Iowa with her husband, three kids, and Bichon Poodle Pup, Rocky.
Get kids fit, flexible, focused, and having fun with yoga! Go Go Yoga for Kids is the resource for all things related to how to easily and effectively teach yoga to children while having fun! All of our resources have been tested and kid-approved with our
Go Go Yoga for Kids provides complete resources that detail everything you will need to successfully teach yoga to kids of all ages and to inspire then in life-long healthy ways.
Welcome to our Spring Easter Family Yoga Class. Together we are going to learn and practice some fun Spring yoga for kids poses and games that can be done at any time and are fun for all ages!
This Kids Yoga Class is geared toward children ages 3-10. I have my helpers and I know that they are little older, but they still love to have fun with yoga.
1. What words or things do you know about Spring? What happens outside and with the animals? Discuss with the children. This helps activate their prior knowledge and sets the tone and theme of the class.
2. Move into Child’s Pose. Pretend to be a little seed in the ground. Feel the warm sun on your back and slowly begin to grow. What are you going to grow into? A flower? A tree? Something in your garden?
Pretend to be a seed in the ground. Feel the warm sun on your back. What will you grow into?
3. Now let’s practiceBunny Breathing. Breathing exercises can help calm anxiety and regulate emotions. Take one long inhale through your nose and then exhale with 3 short sniffs. Like a bunny!
4. Now let’s warm up the whole body with some Egg Rolls. It is important for your body and mind to participate in some Active Movement every day. This gets your heart pumping and happy!
5. Now it is time learn and practice our Spring Easter Yoga Poses! Draw out a plastic egg and inside will have a pose for us to practice! Find a full list of yoga poses here. We have practiced Flower Pose, Butterfly Pose and Tree Pose.
6. Now we have worked warmed up our body, practiced Bunny Breath and Yoga Poses, it is time to work on some balance! Balance is very important in yoga because as you get older, you lose your sense of balance. The good news is that it can be maintained by practicing some yoga poses. We are going to use our plastic eggs for balance! You can use whatever you have at home.
Easter Egg Balance: Remember this is not a race! Your goal is to go slowly and mindfully and to not let your Easter Egg fall!
First, let’s practice balancing the egg on your outstretched hand. Remember to switch hands when you get across the room.
Now let’s practice on your shoulder, under your chin, or top of your head! Where else can you think to balance your egg?
7. Finally, we are going to end our yoga class with a little mindfulness practice! Mindfulness is paying attention on mindfulness on purpose. Let’s shake these Easter Eggs one by one, listen carefully, and see if you can guess what is inside! This is a good practice of slowing down and being mindful.
“Yoga makes you feel good inside and out and it is also fun! It is form of active movement and exercise that really works with kids.” Sara J. Weis of Go Go Yoga for Kids
What are the best practices in teaching yoga to children? How has teaching yoga to children changed over the years? These are just a few questions and more that are answered. I was honored to be interviewed by Catharine Hannay of Mindful Teachers.
In this Mindful Teachers Q+A, Sara discusses what she’s learned from the coronavirus crisis, as well as from her 20+ years teaching kids.
Surprisingly, Stillness & Savasana often becomes a favorite part of their kids yoga class. Learn more about how to plan engaging, fun, and memorable kids yoga classes in our free Kids Yoga Lesson Planning 101 Training.
We are in time of such uncertainty and change. It is important for kids and parents to recognize their feelings and understand that it is ok to not always be ok. Take a moment and recognize those undesirable feelings of fear, anxiety, anger, and depression and then move on.
Here are some easy ways to do that with your family:
Establish and build a new routines and schedules as quickly as possible. Our schedules are so now different now and even though the days feel the same, they are not. This can cause additional anxiety.
Have children go to bed and wake up at the same time.
Create established learning/school time; and
Build in time for physical activity. Include simple mindfulness times, for example through a mindfulness game.
My family does this every night at dinner. We share what we are thankful for and why. This is simple, but effective, and takes the focus off our ourselves and our uncertainties.
Find out more here about my thoughts on some controversy of using the word Namaste and practicing yoga in schools as well as easy to make adaptations for children with mental and physical disabilities.
Welcome to a fun family yoga class! We will move into some yoga poses that will help you feel calm, comfortable and strong. Then we will move into some partner yoga poses, a Plank Challenge, and then a relaxing stillness and savasana which is so good for your body.
Join us for an active and fun family yoga class!
You can find all the Kids Yoga Challenge Pose Card visuals that we use for this family yoga practice here. You do not need to have a yoga mat to this. The carpet or hardwood floor is fine or you can use a beach or bath towel.
1. First, begin in Child’s Pose. Bring your forehead to the ground. This is a very centering and grounding pose. Let’s take a few deep centering breathes in and out of your nose. We have had some crazy weeks, our schedules have changed, we miss our schools, our teachers, our friends, but it is going to be ok. We will have a strong body and mind and we will get through this.
2. Move into Tabletop position and let’s move through Cat Pose and Cow Pose. You may be on a screen a bit more than normal and it is important to keep our spines fluid and flexible.
Your spine loves moving through Cat Pose and Cow Pose
3. Go ahead and step forward into Ragdoll Pose. Sway side to side. Let your arms and head hang. This is a great release for your lower back and a very centering pose.
4. Now move into Gorilla Pose. This is a fun pose! Bend your knees as much as you want to. Place your hands under your feet. Maybe you can just reach a few fingers under there. That is ok! Let your head hang. Can you make some gorilla noises?
Kids Love Gorilla Yoga Pose! What sound does a gorilla make?
5. Now reach overhead to mountain pose. Feel strong and tall. Pull your shoulders back. Look up above your hands. You are strong. LET YOUR HEART SHINE. Go ahead and close your eyes. It feels good and strong.
6. Now take a big inhale and on the exhale dive forward over your feet. This is almost like you are diving into a large swimming pool. We can’t wait to do that this summer!
7. Next step back into Down Dog Pose. Would you like to be taller? This pose lengthens and strengthens your leg muscles. Walk out your dog. Think about taking your dog for a walk after he has been cooped up all winter!
Can you take your dog for a walk in Down Dog Yoga Pose?
Now let’s put it all together! Look forward and hop or step to the top of your yoga mat.
Breathe in and stand tall into Mountain Pose. Exhale dive forward and step back into Downdog. Continue this simple Sun A matching your breath to your movement.
Now that your body is warmed up let’s move into our Plank Challenge! Grab your mom, dad, brother, sister…anyone can do this Plank Challenge with you!
Can you try and take the Plank Pose Challenge?
In the Plank Challenge, your arms and legs working. Pull your belly button to your spine. Feel yourself getting very very strong. Squeeze everything together. That will make you feel lighter.
First, hold Plank Pose for 15 seconds. Then try 30 seconds (Be sure to stretch out into Child’s Pose in between) Lastly hold Plank Pose for 45 seconds or 1 minute!
Bonus Family Yoga Game: Freeze Dance Yoga!
Now it is time to get your heart pumping and strong with Freeze Dance Yoga. I love playing games in my kids yoga classes and with my family. This is a perfect game to get the wiggles out and practice the yoga poses that you just learned. It is also completely fine to make up some of your own yoga poses in this game.
Freeze Dance Yoga is fun for all ages!
How to Play Freeze Dance Yoga:
Crank up the music really loud and Dance. When the music stops. Freeze in a yoga pose! Hold that pose until the music starts again. There are lots of fun variations to this game. Find out this and over 150 other favorite Yoga Games for Children in our book Go Go Yoga for Kids: Yoga Games & Activities for Children.
New Book Release! Go Go Yoga for Kids: Yoga Games & Activities for Children
Feel free to dim the lights or turn them off. Bring your legs straight out in front. Shake them like spaghetti. Then fold like a sandwich over your legs. As you are ready be like a melting icicle as you slowly melt into the ground. Bring your knees to your chest and give them a hug! Your body deserves this hug. It has worked hard for you today!
Find a comfortable position to lay in. This could be on your back, side, stomach, curled up into a ball. It doesn’t matter. Just know that you are safe and loved. Now relax. You earned this. You deserve this! It is so important to take time for you each day.
When you are ready to move on with your day go ahead and roll over to your right side and use your arm as a pillow. Then slowly move up into a seated position and we are going to end our time together with some full cleansing breaths. Go ahead and breathe in and raise your arms above your head. Bring your hands to heart center as you exhale. Continue with this a few more times. Matching your breath and movement with inhales and exhales. Now place your hands at heart center, bow your head, and give thanks for our time together. Namaste
