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Text 2019 Lisa Roberts
Illustrations and cover 2019 Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.
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ISBN 978-1-4549-3347-2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Roberts, Lisa (Yoga instructor), author.
Title: Teach your child yoga : fun & easy yoga poses for happier, healthier kids / Lisa Roberts.
Description: New York, NY : Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., [2019].
Identifiers: LCCN 2019001928| ISBN 9781454933465 | ISBN 9781454933472 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Hatha yoga for children.
Classification: LCC RJ133.7 .R63 2019 | DDC 613.7/046083--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019001928
For information about custom editions, special sales, and premium and corporate purchases, please contact Sterling Special Sales at 800-805-5489 or .
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Cover design by Elizabeth Mihaltse Lindy
Interior design by Shannon Nicole Plunkett
Illustrations by Julia Morris
Teach Your Child Yoga is dedicated to my students, who inspire me to approach yoga with a sense of play and creativity every day.
Introduction
Yoga has found its way into classrooms, physical education programs, summer camps, and even hospitals. A vehicle for building strength, flexibility, coordination, and balance, yoga practices can be designed to target specific issues, from anxiety to sleep problems, poor posture, and tummy troubles.
Through yoga play, kids explore how amazing the body is and what it can do, boosting confidence, self-image, and self-awareness. Slowing down and experiencing the mind-body connection teaches children a lot about themselves; inner reflection is a wonderful skill to teach our kids, but inner reflection is only valuable when we provide them with tools to support what they discover on their inward journey. Yoga, a practice that explores body, mind, and breath, builds a strong foundation of skills kids can access on and off the yoga mat to navigate stressful situations, promote general wellness, and simply feel happy in body, mind, and spirit.
The bottom line is that yoga is a beneficial tool that kids love. So how can parents share in their childs yoga experience and teach their child yoga? Its simpleplay yoga with your child!
Teach Your Child Yoga is designed so that parents and children can explore yoga together. Regardless of your own yoga experience, this book is a tool to discover and benefit from the magic of yoga with your child. It will grow with your child as his yoga practice, abilities, and developmental needs progress. Whether your child is a toddler or a teen, tips to keep him engaged, safe, and benefitting from yoga are right at your fingertips.
I wish you and your child many fun yoga adventures. Happy stretching!
-Lisa Roberts
CHAPTER ONE
Benefits of Yoga for Children
The word yoga comes from the Sanskrit word yuj or connect. What exactly are we connecting? The body, the mind, and the breathvia yoga poses, stretches, meditation, present moment awareness, mindful movement, and mindful breathing techniques.
Benefits of Yoga
These are the known benefits of yoga:
Increased flexibility, strength, and muscle tone
Increased mobility, stability, coordination, and balance
Improved posture
Improved overall physical fitness
Improved circulation
Improved focus and concentration
Increased mind-body awareness
Increased confidence, self-esteem, and self-acceptance
Reduced symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression
Improved general sense of well-being
Improved sleep
Are the Benefits the Same for Children and Adults?
Children who practice yoga enjoy the same benefits as adults (see list on ). In addition, yoga supports physical, sensory, cognitive, emotional, and social development in children.
Developing Children and Yoga
Physical Development
Yoga supports rapid growth and body changes, and achieves appropriate physical developmental milestones in children by improving and supporting several areas:
Fine and gross motor skills, balance, coordination, flexibility, and mobility
Bilateral integration (see )
Core tone, stability, and strength
Posture
Confidence