i would like know your thoughts about kids doing yoga.
my cousin has a 3-year-old son who she wants to engage to do yoga after seeing a video on youtube called kidyogi. she asked for my help to know if it would be alright and if it would be good for her son.
any thoughts?
thank you:)
Up to the age of seven the practice of yoga is just “fun”. At seven, an alignment-based asana practice may begin. So the answer for a three-year old would depend on how the class was constructed.
Kids will do whatever you do!! I have 2 boys and they copy me all the time. And then I find them making up their own yoga moves and calling it their own names!! My boys are 4 and 2 and they’ve both been involved with yoga since they were born. Yoga is fun! But like everything else they only do it for a few minutes! So do not expect the kids to be engaged fully, they are still indeed little ones!! But tell her to just have fun!!
I strongly believe in yoga for kids. It will help them grow stronger physically, mentally, and emotionally ? and they’ll have a lot of fun too! I recently worked with a yogini in India to produce ?Teaching Yoga Through Story? series for kids (this can be found on the soul indulgences website). Each story is meant to be nothing more than fun and then as this happens they unconsciously reap the benefits of yoga and start applying it to their daily lives.
My daughter is not quite two years old and we have been doing yoga together since she was a tiny baby. It has always been a game for her and sometimes she makes up her own poses and I follow her lead!
So go for it!
There is a British children’s TV program called Waybuloo. They feature four cute creatures who practice “yogo”, copying animal moves or elements like the wind. This has also helped my daughter’s interest in yoga; she plays at being a mouse (child’s pose) or a cat and loves it. You get to make the animal noises too 
thank you very much for everyone’s responses. i’m sorry i replied quite late but i’m still very thankful for your thoughts on kids and yoga. i’ll definitely tell your answers to my cousin.
@ lakurumau
i have heard of copying animal moves as part of yoga or just plain exercise.
i remember there was a time during one of the retreats that i had when i was in college when one of the nuns (who served as our class’ mentor) made us do poses like stretching our arms and making them flap like we have wings or move as if we are the wind. that was our morning routine.
a good little book that has exercises and yoga is “Fun Fitness Training For Kids” at lulu.com. The book has several exercise “games” or “activities” and several include yoga positions. I liked a partner game where one child is in downward dog and another child crawls under them, runs around and crawls again.
Both my kids (2.5 and 5) do Yoga For Kids. They love it. Once they saw me practicing at home they started copying my positions. It actually became a great thing to do together. After that i enrolled them in after school program for kids Yoga.
Yoga for kids? Absolutely! The slow, flowing motions not only builds flexibility but takes a lot of concentation and can help slow a young mind down. It can help you child acheive balance in their young lives.
I just got a book called “Itsy Bitsy Yoga fo Toddlers and Preschoolers” by Helen Garabedian. The routines are 8 minutes long and look like fun!
My favorite population to teach is kids. I do a bunch of kids yoga, it is a great way to get them moving and introduce them to topics of mindfulness