6 Week Drop Off Toddler Yoga Series with Amy Pancake

Eastside Yoga (Austin)

begins 10/8/15

Cost $85

www.eastside-yoga.com

http://www.eastsideyoga-austin.com/drop-off-toddler-yoga-series-fall-2015

Many parents and caregivers report that their child’s transition into preschool is eased by their participation in Toddler Yoga classes and Toddler Yoga Camps (summer, school holidays) where they learn fun yoga poses and the beginnings of classroom skills such as: following verbal cues, being in a group, taking turns, getting to know a caring teacher, putting their things away, etc. 

Amy’s message - My goal as a teacher is to create an atmosphere that fosters a sense of peace, acceptance and fun. We play with the elements of yoga - breath, poses, sound, relaxation. Kids yoga is all about discovery and creativity in a group setting. We experiment with new sounds and moves all the time, and we play in all planes of gravity. 

Parent FAQs 

- this is drop-off class NOT mommy and me 

- the age range is 20 months to 5 years. The lower age limit (20 months) isn’t flexible but upper range is flexible as long as your child knows smaller kids will be there and it will still be fun then they are welcome. 

- Kids don’t need to be completely potty trained to attend. Amy can change them if needed. 

- Loaner mats available or kids can bring their own. 

- Amy is fully certified to teach kids and completed all background checks.

Why Yoga and Kids Go Together

Link to the article here - PBS: Benefits of Yoga for Kids

7 Ways Kids Benefit From Yoga

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-15075/7-ways-kids-benefit-from-yoga.html

Summer Tot Camps 2015

So excited to announce this new camp venture!

www.AmyPancake.com/kids for my bio or email me at apancake@mindspring.com for information & registration!

Summer 2014 - we're almost there!

New Year, New Classes!

Happy New Year!

I'm welcoming 2014 with a fresh class schedule!

Classes at Balance Dance Studios
www.balancedancestudios.com

Tuesdays 10:00-11:00 Toddler Yoga

Thursdays 4:00-5:00 Yoga (ages 5-10+) - This class is so cool! You can do yoga with your kids or on your own!

Saturdays 9:00-10:00 Kids Yoga (ages 3-7)
12:00-1:00 Kids Yoga (ages 5-10)


Classes at Austin Kula Yoga
www.austinkulayoga.com

Fridays 10:00-11:15 Toddler Yoga (ages 20 months - 5 yrs)

I hope to see you in class and please write me a note if you have any questions: apancake@mindspring.com

Yoga for Children - Austin Yoga Hub

An article I wrote for the Austin Yoga Hub - a great site that lists pretty near every yoga event in Austin and publishes articles about yoga.

Yoga for Children - Austin Yoga Hub

Tot Camps Summer 2013

Holiday Tot and Kids Camps 2012!

We are super excited about school holidays coming up! 

So what do you do when your kids are out of school? Send them to enjoy some yoga, crafts, friends, & fun, of course! Below are the dates and times for our holiday camps with Amy & Meredith: 

Fri, December 21, 9 AM-12 noon(2-4 yrs)  Amy Pancake

Mon, December 24, 9 AM-12 noon(4-7 yrs)  Amy Pancake

Thurs, December 27, 1-4 PM(4-7 yrs)  Meredith Paterson

Fri, December 28, 9 AM-12 noon(2-4 yrs)  Amy Pancake

Wed, January 2, 1-4 PM(7-10 yrs)  Meredith Paterson

Thurs, January 3, 1-4 PM(4-7yrs)  Meredith Paterson

Fri, January 4, 9 AM-12 noon(2-4 yrs)  Amy Pancake

Registration is now open at www.austinkulayoga.com

Teaching Yoga to Your Toddler

This weekend at Austin Kula Yoga we got together to explore how parents can teach yoga to toddlers - something people ask me about a lot and which I am half way qualified to answer. I do teach a lot of kids and we get along very well and everyone has fun and does a lot of yoga. That said, I don't have my own toddlers, so I always have the edge that non-family members get - that curious respect that kids seem to give everyone but their folks! Now it certainly doesn't last forever and you have to take that opportunity and make sure they find real respect for you while you still have that magic fairy dust glow. And that is what the workshop will focus on - how to take a child's interest and natural curiosity and extend it, stretch it out a bit longer, so they have enough time to learn something they hopefully come to love.

Some notes on this:

"Pre-anything" prepare yourself mentally, physically and emotionally. I don't leave the house for work without doing some physical, mental and emotional check-in/warm-up. I'm in charge, and my energy will determine how clear the class is, so I strongly recommend some personal ritual for you before you guide the little ones. If you're giving me the hairy eyeball right now because you have toddlers and you can't just close the bedroom door and go meditate, then close your eyes for a moment and say your favorite prayer, intention, or affirmation. If I only have 3 minutes to prepare I'll close my eyes and silently say "I will find the right words, in the right way, at the right time". But if you can do something more complete you'll see a difference.

You are the larger energy field and the kids will adapt to you - decide what you want that to feel like and find a way to get there. I always recommend for working with kids - and the smaller they are the more I've found this to be true - the more you can slow down, the better they will be able to follow you and still self-pace. This, by the way, is the goal - to lead/guide children without forcing them to do things your way, at your pace, with your "signature" - you want them to see what you're doing and feel how you are interacting and then to start matching you in their own time and with their own flair. If we are too amped up the kids blow a fuse. Slow down, slow down, and then slow down some more. Leave space in between words and actions if you can. Leave time for them to respond and try things once or twice before moving on.

                                           .....................................................................


1) Make sure they set up their own spot or have a hand in it if they aren't big enough to do it on their own. Make it like a class - it's not a choice whether it happens or not, but rather we can try everything and then decide how much fun it was afterwards. I think this must be challenging for parents - I know when my niece was little and she would say she didn't feel like doing something I had planned I didn't want to force her - so without a plan for how to cope with the inevitable last minute hedging I was lost, along with my plans. Preschool taught me all about how to get past that moment! It's a big Montessori thing (thank you, Maria Montessori!) to leave out the question mark or the "okay?" at the end of what you're saying. Maybe you already know this.

2) As with most transitions, let them know when you're planning to start some yoga, and then give the 5-minute, 3-minute, 1-minute announcements so they have time to wrap up whatever they might be up to in their own time.

3) Have a little opening ceremony or ritual that they enjoy so it's tempting to sit on the mat and change gears for yoga, rather than play or hang out. I use the sound of OM and a Tibetan bell. As I've brought up before on this blog, kids love to learn little rituals - so make one up or use someone else's. I have to say that the bell is great because it is so serious and makes such a beautiful sound.

4) Not the most groundbreaking advice, but Keep It Simple and Repetitive :) At first I thought the kids would be bored if we did the same poses in the same order for at least the first half of class, but they love it and if I leave anything out they remind me and we go back and fill in the gap. We do get creative, but I've found that adding small little bite-sized bits of new information works the best. Today I tried to introduce 2 new poses in tot class and that was too much - they were sad that we ran out of time for all of our usual routine - not a big deal, but it reminded me of what I already had learned.

5) Remember - the kids don't know that you're not an expert - fake it till you make it! If you don't know any yoga then get a yoga card deck and start with a few things and add on as you get more familiar with the poses.

6) Have a plan - even if it's just 5 poses - so that whatever else happens you have something to stick to.

7) Follow a general plan of warm-ups, easy poses, balance poses, and if you have more than one student then eventually incorporate some partner poses - they like this a lot!

8) I'm not going to list the poses we do because those are already on other posts on this blog - if you want to see more about that then check out those posts. By far the most important element is you, so prioritize your own state of mind and preparation - that way you can draw the kids into your field rather than being splintered by theirs.

We had so much fun at the workshop and a lot of interesting questions came up - feel free to write comments or post questions here if you wish!

xo Amy

www.austinkulayoga.com

Transition and snack time - is there anything sweeter?

Is there anything sweeter than a dozen toddlers sitting around chatting over their snacks of edamame and fruit? I think not. 

After we get up from savasana we sing one more om and our namaste song, and then sometimes we'll sing a song or two in Spanish if the kids aren't too squirmy yet. Then, as with all things in toddler land, we make 'la transición' to snack time. Transitions are a huge part of our day, as I'm sure parents can relate to! Just picture twelve hungry toddlers, some of whom are still working on the concept of taking turns...we practice sitting up cross-legged to show they're ready to go get their snack, and as they do this I set up our mats into a pretend snack table. We talk a lot about not walking on the 'table' and treating our new mat arrangement as a real table. So that means we eat sitting up, keeping all snacks and drinks on the table, using our table manners (please, thank you, no grabbing from other kids' food, etc). 


This is followed by lots of amazing conversations, about dreams, superheroes, swimming, Mom, Dad, baby siblings, birthdays, favorite foods, play dough...you name it! And you can't rush little ones with their food, so snack goes on for a while. As kids finish, they clean up their place and put their lunch boxes away and they can choose to hang out with us at the table or read a book on their own until story time      officially starts. That happens when everyone (or almost everyone is done eating and has cleaned up). 


Story time starts and so does the Potty Parade...everyone goes to the bathroom and washes their hands and any snack off their face. This is sometimes a really fun time to interact with the kids one on one, and sometimes more of a time trial, depending on how many of them decide to tell me about summer vacation while they sit on the pot! Good times :)

Poses We Do (To Varying Degrees)

I've been dreading this post a little bit, because it's the hardest part of camp to explain. So I made a deal-i-o with myself that I can do it, but not in crazy detail. If you know me, you know how much I can talk, and you know how much I love details! But I am going to give a more readable, breathable version of my self here this time. Here goes:

Butterfly

Boat (yes, the seated boat)

Roly Poly (rolling front to back hugging our knees - awesomely fun to do together!)

Candlestick (shoulder stand) - this obviously runs the gamut from lying down with legs sticking up in the air all the way to some pretty amazing full shoulder stands by the older kids. I help them a lot on this one.

Fish (starting with Fish Faces to make it more fun, because this one is challenging for small bodies!)

Cat/Cow - complete with lots of noise :)

Dog

3-Legged Dog - can also be hopping 3-Legged Dog

Baby Donkey Hops

Big Donkey Kicks

Dog Walk (walking around in Dog pose)

Handstands at the wall - endless variations!

Seed pose - we often need a rest after all the handstands :)

Dancer's Pose with one hand on the wall for balance (or not)

Star pose - this is what Half Moon pose is called in kids yoga - we do it leaning on the wall, mostly.

Snake - now I do this differently than a lot of people - we get down and slither around the room pretending to be snakes and hissing and making up things like snake names. There's a lot to be said for kids pretending to actually be animals and just going the whole 9 yards, as you well know :)

After Snake we grow our legs back and stand up for Tree pose

Airplane - kids yoga version of Warrior III

Bridge pose

Savasana with eye pillows

Now just a couple of details I think are so essential that if they're left out we may as well be playing T-ball:

Yoga breath (also called Flower Power breath in some kids classes) - gentle breathing through the nose. Our skulls make something like 28 movements/adjustments for every nostril breath, and zero for mouth breathing. Super important for the health of the skull and hence for the health of the whole being. But it should be gentle, natural breath - yogic breathing is not a good idea for kids at all. There are many reasons for this, and in many ways it's not all that great for adults, either, unless they find their natural breath first. So when you're doing yoga with little ones, just touch your nose every so often to remind them to breathe, and make sure they understand it's easy, gentle breathing in yoga.

Also that alignment, for kids, is irrelevant - the best thing is to model something (if they don't already know what shape to make with their body for a particular pose) and let them do it completely on their own. Physically putting them in positions is less than ideal because at the age I'm working with (and my own age, as well!) a huge part of the learning experience is actually seeing something and just giving it a shot. Whether they do it backwards, halfway, or totally 'wrong'  it's fine - it's great, even! They're figuring out so many relationships between body/gravity/up/down/forwards/backwards, etc...they'll get it all eventually if they keep playing around with it :)

No pressure :) I sort of started to talk about this with breathing and letting them figure things out on their own...please remember that 'yoga' really is an imaginary concept. There is no 'canon' of poses - there are no definitive yoga movements - almost nothing is known about what yoga was, originally, and it's changed so much over the years that none of us are doing 'real' poses. We're doing 'stuff' and we call it yoga because of the conditions we create in which to practice this 'stuff'. Right and wrong, etc don't apply very well in yoga. If you run out of things to do or feel at a loss, just start making things up, or have them invent some new poses :)

Love to all, and see you in the morning at camp!

Once the half pints are in the yoga room...

The last post covered getting from the studio front door into the yoga room...the next step in our morning is a little transition play time. This is pretty straight forward, as play times go...we talk about sharing, playing well together, walking instead of running, using our words instead of our hands (i.e. grabbing, pushing, etc.) to communicate what we want and need, and helping (putting everything away together). It's a nice time, and we also play catch with balloons or just look at books together.

After putting away the toys, books, and balloons, everyone chooses where they will sit that morning for yoga. I set up a big rectangle of mats every morning before the kids arrive, so after play time we migrate to the yoga mats. The kids choose their own spot, which often results in some photo-worthy clumps of tots with huge gaps in between. They rearrange themselves once we get to the poses that require more personal space. We all sit cross-legged (to the best of our ability) and tune in with an Om, with a daily reminder about using our yoga breath (breathing through the nose).

The next paragraph may just break your heart open, so take a breath yourself if you haven't seen this part of class before.

The bell ceremony:
We have a couple of types of bells at the studio - one Tibetan bell on a string, and one on a little post with a piece of wood to strike it. I start off, modeling how to handle the bell and how to ring it. The kids are enthralled by the bell - there is a hush in the room as they watch me ring it, wait until the sound dies away, and then ceremoniously pass it to the child to my left. They then recieve the enchanted attention of the whole group as they ring the bell and pass it along to the next child. One of these days I'm going to get this on video for the parents - seeing these little ones in hushed silence as they wait for a dozen of their friends to ring the bell is pretty stunning. Just yesterday, a little one who was too scared to ring it the first day took what seemed like an eternity and almost rang the bell at least 3 times before deciding to tap it ever so gently to produce a faint tone. The respectful, encouraging silence and subsequent elation on the part of the group as this tot meandered through this experience was very moving. This sort of thing happens all the time in toddler yoga, and is one of the big reasons for this blog : class is not chaotic most of the time - we actually get a lot done, and in fine style. Some of the more experienced half pints are so good with the bell that they have certain sound they can reproduce every time by striking it with their own personal technique. Death by cuteness is something I worry about sometimes, but I figure it'd be a pretty nice way to go if comes to that.

Thanks again for reading this installment about the half pints and their yoga practice with me and my great helpers (without them, we'd never get to this level of harmony and I appreciate them infinitely!).

Summer camps begin tomorrow!

I'm so excited to start camp tomorrow with the half pints! I figured this is a good time to start my series of posts on how camp runs, and why, step by step. First, I'd like to talk about getting to camp and coming into the yoga room. The way they come in can positively affect how their morning starts off, so it's worth a short post. It's wonderful if the kids can do this independently (of course this isn't always smooth sailing, and we can definitely roll with whatever does actually transpire). This is what we're working toward, and some days it happens, some days...not so much :)

Kid walk in to the studio lobby (on their own if possible).

They take off their shoes and store them in one of the cubbies.

They bring their bag with their snack, refillable cup, diapers, etc over to the area by the door of the yoga room and put that down with the other bags.

They walk into the room for a little transition time playing with toys, balloons and/or reading with their camp mates and me and  my assistant. We're so lucky to have assistants this year who have been with camp for at least one summer and who truly enjoy working with the kids. I start getting emails in the winter inquiring about summer camp - needless to say, it's a delight to work with these fun, creative, caring young women, and the kids adore them.

All of this may seem like detail mania, but it does help the kids feel like they have some ownership in the process and ultimately it leads to smoother drop-offs and it also helps at pick-up time that they know where their things are and can gather them up "all by themselves" (the toddler mantra!).

Much love to all the folks who bring their children in to do yoga with us - can't wait to see you, whether it's for camp or a drop-in class!

-Amy