I started teaching a class called Yoga Garden Kids Club a little over a year ago. There was one big motivator amongst a bunch of other smaller ones that inspired me to start teaching children.
I am a mom and a yogi. I would often feel frustrated because I felt my mom life was interfering with my yoga practice and I could sense that my kids felt the same about my practice. I have done lots of yoga classes with my kids but they were super watered down and didn’t show them the reason yoga feeds my soul as well as making my body strong. Why aren’t there Kids Yoga classes that are teaching kids more than just animal poses? So, I decided to create one, using what I wanted to teach my own kids in mind. In YGKC, we talk about breathing, they learn the mythology behind poses, mudras, and the asanas with their Sanskrit names! (Half of them pronounce them better than me) I work to give them a yoga practice that feeds their soul and body in a fun way with others their age. I believe that if they are given that, our own practices will be more supported by them! It is also pretty amazing to have a home practice WITH them instead of trying to keep it to myself.
The next Kids Club session starts this Thursday, January 26. It is 4:30-5:15pm at Yoga Garden in NE. Each session is 5 weeks long and is $45/session! Email Stephanie.loes@gmail.com if you have interested little yogis in your home!
“Yoga is a life skill. Like learning to swim.
Our girls have taken many of the Yoga Garden Kids Club sessions with Stephanie. We tapped into teaching our girls yogic breathing techniques very early on (both my husband and I have practiced yoga for many years.) And have long appreciated the combined beauty and benefits of breathing, meditation, stretching, strength and challenge of body and mind for every kind of person and every kind of body for all ages. Life skills. The most remarkable thing to me has been how our girls have learned to respect and support my yoga practice in a way that they didn’t understand before they had their own practice. They encourage me to get out the door to class, or get on my mat at home, they share the stories of the postures and mudras. And this motivates me and reminds me that I do this for myself, but also for the good of all the people that I love. Care for myself to be able to care for others. Easy, right? Much easier if you see the twinkle of understanding in the eyes of your kids…as you skid out the door to class!”
-Kari (Yoga Garden parent)
Yoga Mama in Minneapolis 