I have been teaching children yoga based on Mr. Iyengar's methods for approximately one year. I originally began with a sense of trepidation, as I was not sure I would enjoy children's unfocused energy and requirements for discipline. My first efforts were to see whether I would be able to teach them anything at all! After a few months of "experimenting" with a range of ages and personalities I realized that this Iyengar system of yoga is very appealing to children as they love to move and enjoy challenges, sometimes the harder the better. I purposely stayed away from "playing games" or renaming the poses and taught a pretty straight forward version of the adult syllabus with consideration for the children's developing bodies and abilities, of course. My first efforts were sporadic and I really didn't try to recruit students. When I was awarded this Grant for teaching children, I combined forces with a friend and yoga teacher, Jeff Logan, who had just opened a new studio and changed all that!

Children's Yoga at Body and Soul

I was not surprised that we were able to sign up such a large group. Yoga is in a "boom" and most of these children had parents who took classes from me or from Jeff Logan at the studio. The parents were very interested in observing their offspring and at first I didn't want to have them at every class but then, I relented.

Children are very courageous, not afraid to fall or look silly. They really enjoyed the variety of poses that we did and I repeated in all the classes. The classes moved fast, as I did not hold the poses very long. I have learned that my demonstrations (the visual aspect) were the most important in facilitating learning, and not too much correction. They learn fast and too much correction can stifle.

I was very happy with the progress of this class. I taught a class of basic standing poses: Tadasana, Urdhva Hastasana, Vriksasana, Garudasana, Utkatasana, Utthita Trikonasana, Utthita Parsvakonasana, Virabhdrasana I, II, and III, Parivritta Trikonasana, Ardha Chandrasana, Prasarita Padottanasana. And then either a sequence of elementary backbends: Salabasana, Bhujangasana, Dhanurasana (even parsva, by accident!) and Rajakapotasana with the hands on the floor.

Or forward bends such as: Dandasana, Janu Sirasana, Ardha Baddha Padma Pachimottanasana, Trianga Mukhaikapda Pachimottanasana, and Kurmanasana.

We also did Padmasana, Parvatasanana, Simhasana, Matsyasana, Virasana, Supta Virasana, Bharadvajasana I and II, plus some hand balances like Bakasana, and Dwi Pada Bhujasana.

I did full arm balance in every class in many forms. We also started working on the shoulder stand in the last two classes. All classes ended with savasana.

I was amazed at their abilities given a legitimate sequence to practice. They performed wonderful versions of Bharadvajasana I and II! Falling out of poses was never discouraged! I loved their "it doesn't matter if I do it perfectly" approach as it created a sense of softness and energy flow in the poses that is so often lacking in adults. For me it was a wonderful challenge to go from a formal adult class to a much freer experience and to rediscover the joy in it and fun. There were no problems with discipline as they all were very involved and had fun. I was very moved by them.

Children love backbends (the opposite of most adults) and seem to be very comfortable with these heart openers. They didn't like forward bends as much and complained about pain, the "oww". We talked about how to soften and let it go. But I believe that children spend too much time sitting at desks in school, in positions that foster problems in (close) spinal alignment and pelvic joints. They really need those forward bending poses!

The ages of these children were between five and eleven or twelve which was very broad. I did it to expose the teachings to a larger group in a short period of time. It worked but I would not do that again. In the future, I will do one group from 5 - 8 or 9 and another from 9 - 12. I will be continuing this class at Body and Soul. I had a tremendous response to continue from this group. I am very glad to have had this opportunity to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Iyengar system to this" overlooked" group of potential yoga students.

Addendum: I am very hard of hearing and have a lot of trouble hearing little voices but this did not pose a problem. I had two helpers in every class to cover any safety issues but I realize even more how universal the" language of yoga" is. My doing (demo and talking) becomes the communication and their responses were the poses. Maybe my not responding to the all the talking of the children in the classes probably moved things along a bit and let them express themselves while doing without any censorship.