This Saturday, May 12th, join Budding Yogis Founder, Annie Mahon, and Director, Linda Feldman in the YoKid Continuing Ed Course, “Mindfulness Practices for Children & Teens.” In this course students will learn about mindfulness and how you can successfully integrate mindfulness practices into yoga classes for youth. This course is perfect for everyone! Specifically, classroom teachers, parents, yoga teachers, therapists or anyone interested in sharing mindfulness with children.  You will be able to take what you learn and apply it to the children in your community.  Techniques learned include mindful listening and speaking, mindful eating, mindful games and activities, and using a bell. Use this course to fulfill the YoKid or Budding Yogis 95-hour  Yoga Alliance Registered Children’s Yoga Teacher requirements, CEU’s, or professional development.

Location: Budding Yogis Yoga Studio, Washington, DC,

Time: 2pm-6pm

Link to register: https://clients.mindbodyonline.com/ASP/adm/home.asp?studioid=16084

Also on Saturday, May 12th – The First Annual YoKid Challenge in Richmond! Whether you are new to yoga or have done a million and one sun salutations, the YoKid Challenge invites all of Richmond to come together in support of kids health through yoga! Along with 108 Sun Salutations, we’re pleased to have a goal setting activity with lululemon athletica as well as a healthy eating presentation and healthy snacks presented by Eating Bird Food blogger, Brittney Mullins!

Location: Project Yoga Richmond

Time: 9:00am-11:30am

Link to Register: http://richmond.yokid.org/

And, last but certainly not least, this Sunday, May 13th, join our DC program participants and community members in our DC YoKid Challenge at GW University!  Like the event in Richmond, this event invites friends, family, community members, and all who have participated in the YoKid Yoga program, to enjoy a day dedicated to having a healthy mind and body!  This event is part of the DC Yoga Week, so the suggested minimum donation to participate is only $5!

Location: GW University – Foggy Bottom Campus – University Yard – 2000 block of H St., NW, Washington, D.C. 20052

Time: 2:00pm-4:15pm

Link to Register: http://yokid.org/our-programs/yokid-challenge-spring-2012/

Looking forward to seeing you at any one of these exciting events!!

We are well on our way to reaching our goal of receiving the generous $500 matching grant from the Mason Hirst Foundation for Spring2ACTion.  If you haven’t already done so, please give in any amount by the end of the day at the link below:

http://spring2action.razoo.com/story/Yokid-Stretch-Your-Limits

As always, we sincerely appreciate your support in helping us to bring the benefits of yoga to more kids in Alexandria and beyond!

Additionally, YoKid has received a generous $500 matching grant from the Mason Hirst Foundation for Spring2ACTion.  When you give on May 2, your donation will be doubled and will help us increase our chances of winning even more money and prizes!

To give, simply click on the following link:

http://spring2action.razoo.com/story/Yokid-Stretch-Your-Limits

As always, we sincerely appreciate your support in helping us to bring the benefits of yoga to more kids in Alexandria and beyond!

Bringing yoga to a secular school system can be challenging. In a yoga philosophy training last fall with founder Michelle Kelsey Mitchell, she discussed the “Yoga Sutras”, something many of us would imagine to be an unsettling term for parents of little yogis. The deeply rooted philosophy behind yoga resembles religious texts on how to embody one’s religion. But yoga is also a physical exercise for the mind and body, and most other physical activities are not considered a religion.  As yoga teachers in public schools we have to consider these dichotomies.

I recently read an article in the New York Times that sparked my thoughts on this subject even more. The article, entitled “Seeking to Clear a Path Between Yoga and Islam”, highlights a community in Queens, NY. Mr. Rashid, a Muslim, said he had long believed that practicing yoga was tantamount to “denouncing my religion.” But as the article points out, after moving to New York in 1997 from Bahrain, he slowly began to rethink his stance. “Now Mr. Rashid has come full circle: not only has he adopted yoga into his daily routine, but he has also encouraged other Muslims to do so — putting himself squarely against those who consider yoga a sin against Islam.” For some, yoga is just an exercise, but for others, it can challenge certain beliefs. The fact that Mr. Rashid was able to see the concomitant relationship that varying ideologies can have for the spirit represents a balance between these challenges. The ability of religion  to accept yoga could mean a wonderful new coexistence among religions, while also promoting secularism.

It may be idealistic, and it may be too sensitive of an issue to speak of. Nevertheless, yoga is much more than a work out, and its complexities are very fascinating indeed. As yogis we can strive to think critically and positively, while remembering what yoga brings to our lives and considering how we can bring it to others in a culturally sensitive way.  It doesn’t matter what you believe in, as long as you believe in something you love!

The Program Assistant will work directly with the Executive Director and other members of the YoKid team to assist with the administrative tasks involved in providing yoga classes to school-aged children in Virginia, Maryland, & DC.

Responsibilities Include:

Assist with data entry; contracts;  scheduling  programs; coordinate programs with teacher schedules.  Assist with website updates, social media, event preparation & planning.

Work Environment: 

The assistant will primarily telecommute with regular (weekly) communication with the YoKid team via email, phone, skype, bi-weekly team meetings, and in person-meetings as necessary.  Must be able to telecommute 5 hours each week on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, OR Thursday between the hours of 8:30am & 6pm.  The remaining 2-5 hours each week are flexible.

Qualifications:

~Proficient in MS Word, Excel, use of online social media, and web-based communication

~Database/Salesforce experience preferred

~Personal laptop (mac preferred)

~Professional, friendly, proactive, and responsible

~Interest in youth development and yoga

Compensation & Commitment:

$12/hour for up to 30 hours per month (approx., 5-10 hours/week), Available to begin training mid-April with a May 1st start date

Application & Questions: 

Email resume, references, and letter of interest along with any questions to Michelle K. Mitchell, Program Director, YoKid… Stretch Your Limits, michelle@yokid.org or call 703.475.004

Each morning while in Cuba I practiced yoga. Many of those days it was on dusty concrete in the courtyard of the Martin Luther King Junior Memorial Center, a NGO dedicated to community development, which hosted my group. The kitchen and center staff stood by watching us lead ourselves through sun salutations and relaxation techniques as the morning sun gained its heat. They seemed curious, but when we asked them to join they politely declined and just kept watching, fascinated by the large group we had become over the course of the 40-minute practice before breakfast. I realized there that it does not matter where or what you practice, but what it brings to you and those around you.

I spoke to many Cubans about my own work as a children’s yoga teacher in DC and VA public schools. They found it hard to believe that some schools had a culture of violence or marginalization, because in Cuba, every school is the same. They were also fascinated that some schools in the US had the opportunity to have yoga in their schools and they wondered why others did not. Many Cubans were very interested in general in the practice of yoga; however, they explained that there were no formal institutions for them. Cuba has the best preventative medical system in the world, and some have taken an interest in holistic health practices, yoga being one of them. Furthermore, the spiritual nature of yoga was something that Cubans could relate to. Connecting the mind, body, heart and soul to nature is very much a part of what dance and music provide to the Cuban people.

The purpose of my trip to Cuba was to study the national education system. Overall, I was very impressed with every student I met, from kindergarten to university. When I visited a kindergarten classroom, the children were prompted to find a dance partner and perform for us. The children immediately found their partners with no fuss and began dancing to a traditional rhythm. Expressing themselves through movement is such an integral part of their culture, which begins in the earliest stages of development. Seeing movement-based learning in the most organic form in Cuba certainly reaffirmed the need to create this same kind of culture right here in the DMV.

My first yoga class was at the junior college in town when I was in high school.  I always fell asleep during savasana and that’s about the only thing I can remember clearly about that time..oh and I remember thinking that our instructor was really strong.   I took classes now and then but it wasn’t until a little later where yoga became my practice.  It helped me clear my head, it gave me the space that I desperately needed and it made me feel in control, in a healthy way.  I really do think that it has helped me make better decisions, and for that I am grateful.

In January, I began teaching 5th and 6th graders in the new Richmond chapter for YoKid, and the students, (or scholars as they are called by their after school program, Higher Achievement) are a true delight, and man are they smart!  I feel honored to be able to spend the time with them.  They are inspiring teachers, they remind me to not be so serious all the time, to laugh, to be sensitive.  This age is a doozy, so I just hope they can take some yoga tools with them, to help them along the way.

I recently realized a very important aspect of teaching yoga to young people: we are more than just their yoga instructors.  When I enter the school grounds, I am Ms. Erica, the yoga teacher, but I am more than that.  I gather the scholars who are coming into class, well after a full school day, they have just eaten lunch, they are free from their director and they are ready to party.  Ready for yoga?  Well yes, or sometimes, but its definitely not what your typical yoga class entails, just as Ellie has mentioned in a previous post.  Energy is never lacking, there is uncontrollable laughter, there are upsets, there is attitude, there are clashing and congruent ideas.  I immediately become the moderator, the negotiator, the mentor, the friend, at times I am the audience.  We talk about their day, we talk about their jam packed schedules, and they often feel the need to remind me that they are still kids.  When I am honored with one of the students sharing something with me, it gives me a great opportunity to help them see how yoga works beyond the classroom, and its these times when I really feel, in my heart, that we as yoga instructors need to be in more young people’s lives.

So even when I feel like the entire class was spent trying to get them to listen or have them do sun salutations when they would rather just run in circles around the room, I can let all of that feeling of failure from my part fly out the window, because you know what they said when I asked them what they thought about yoga today?

They said that they LOVED it!!  It helps them feel better, its helping them with school, a few students said they even practice outside of class.  It was great to hear that, and to get to see it on their faces was even better.

Yoga works in all kinds of ways, and I am finding that there is no room for perfection.  When I started teaching I was too concerned with them learning postures, I felt like I failed them if they didn’t learn more than the sun salutations.  Oh, how I was mistaken.  I am more than an instructor of postures, we are teaching yoga and that involves teaching communication not only within the different realms of the physical and spiritual body but also between people, ideas, etc.  “Teacher” is a heavy outfit, but so worth it.  Today was a good class.

*2nd photo from The Chicago Tribune by Skip Rowland

On your marks, get set, GO!

1.  Choose your fundraising goal – $250 / $550 / $750

2.  Sign up by making an initial donation of $50 by clicking here (http://clients.mindbodyonline.com/ws.asp?studioid=16084&stype=-103)

3.  Create your online fundraising page on Razoo

Each fundraising tier receives a special thank you from YoKid:

$250 ~Entry into the 2012 Marine Corp Marathon AND a YoKid t-shirt

$550 ~ Entry into the 2012 Marine Corp Marathon, YoKid t-shirt, AND complimentary monthly yoga classes at 6pm on the first Saturday of the month at Mind the Mat Yoga & Pilates Studio in Alexandria from April through October

$750 ~ Entry into the 2012 Marine Corp Marathon, YoKid t-shirt, complimentary monthly yoga classes at 6pm on the first Saturday of the month at Mind the Mat Yoga & Pilates Studio in Alexandria from April through October, AND training tips and support

For more information and to register, click here!  Thanks for your support!!

Kids of all ages are intrigued by and interested in doing yoga, either because they watch mom and dad doing it, or they’ve seen it on TV or in books.  They’re curious and, when they try it out, learn that they enjoy the movement and the joy and relaxation that it brings. Just like anything else, depending on the age of the child, it is important to find tools (whether books, DVDs, or interactive flash cards) that are age-appropriate and engaging for that child at their development stage.

Although YoKid has it's own Kids' Yoga Basics DVD  which is great for elementary and early middle school-aged kids, there are a couple of wonderful DVDs out there that are fantastic for the lil' guys out there: YogaKids - The Original and Radiant Child Yoga - Yoga in Motion are two DVDs that teach different yoga poses, songs, and games that you and your child can do together.

And, for those of you who are in the DC Metro area, YoKid is now offering special classes at one of our supporting studios - Mind the Mat in Alexandria! Also be sure to check out another one of our wonderful supporting studios, Lil Omm, where they offer tons of classes for children of all ages as well as families to do together!

The article quoted Michelle explaining “Yoga gives children breathing techniques and calming methods that they’re able to call upon whenever life gets overwhelming.” Since beginning my time with YoKid, I’ve spent many an hour up at night thinking about the wonderful benefits of and obstacles to providing yoga to children in the classroom. I wonder what the children I see on a weekly basis (for only an hour) are like the other 167 hours a week that I do not see them. Do they call on their yoga when times get stressful? Do they use their breathing techniques when they need them?

Organizations like YoKid must always find innovative ways to measure their impact, and while the short term impacts of physical activity and mindfulness may reward some immediately, the effects are not always obvious or abrupt; the benefits of yoga may take years to set in, and they may not manifest in the physical sense. But as I see it, there are no negative benefits to giving it a shot! As the article points out, children are entirely too stressed out and over-stimulated. The least we can do is take their minds away  from the outside stimuli of the world for a short time to practice self-awareness and calming techniques.

Throughout the course of my internship, I have a spent time researching the physical, mental and emotional benefits of yoga for children and people of all ages. After spending numerous weeks in public schools teaching yoga to kids, I have noted changes in my students and I know many other children’s yoga teachers would agree in regards to their own classes. It is truly a movement to bring the calming and healing techniques of yoga to as many classrooms and lives as early as possible. It is lovely to see the efforts of organizations like YoKid being recognized for this mission. I want to thank everyone for all all of the hard work that they have put in to the movement for yoga in the classroom. Soon the whole world will believe in it!