Playing with Yoga – How to Help Children Love Yoga

An Article from March 2009 Aquarian Times

by Karan Khalsa

Playing with Yoga –  How to Help Children Love Yoga

 Until I tried to get my son to do yoga, it hadn’t occurred to me that it would be so challenging.  At ten, he is far more interested in Transformers and his Wii than stretch pose or long deep breathing.  So I took it upon myself to get some tips from the experts.

 

“Teaching yoga is very different depending on a child’s age,” says Shakta Kaur.  “With older kids, I try to engage their interest by talking about real life – exercises that help with shoulder pain from a heavy backpack or breathing techniques to help with concentration before a test.  But telling stories is the most sure fire way of keeping children engaged up to age 8 or 9.   Children play at yoga.  The posture is important, but it is more important at that age to be fun and engaging.” 

Yoga Warrior Card

 

First I talked to Shakta Kaur, author of a wide range of yoga books, DVDs and CD for adults and children.  I was really excited to hear that she is about to release a series of playing cards called Yoga Warrior Cards. “Most yoga products for kids are more focused on girls than boys,” she said.  “I worked with two boys to create these cards.  Their imaginations really brought this project to life.”   The cards each have a bio-mechanical robotic character doing a different yoga posture with names like Power Bud and MaxiMorph.  The postures have been given cool boy-friendly names (for example, shoulder stand is called Rocket Launch).  I can’t wait for the cards to arrive!  Hopefully they will find a home beside the Yu-Gi-Oh cards that fill my house.

 

 

Snatam Kaur is a strong believer in combining yoga and story-telling.  In her DVD, “Shanti the Yogi: Mountain Adventure” she weaves a story and singing into a fun-filled yoga class.  Snatam says “From Yogi Bhajan, I learned to engage children’s imaginations and use stories.  Growing up, we always had stories with yoga at home and at the 3HO Children’s Camp.  It made it really fun for me.  In my children’s workshops, we use music to support the stories and exercises.  It creates the whole environment and mood – ominous  music and snake  sounds when we go into cobra pose really enhances the imagination.  And children love to sing and love the celestial communications (mantras with movements).”

 

“A little 4-year-old boy came to one of our workshops.  He was really shy, sitting on the side with his mom.  Months later, his mom wrote me to say her son didn’t participate in the class, but every day he sings Yogi Bhajan’s words ‘I am happy, I am good’ from my ‘Feeling Good Today’ CD.

 

Gurudass Kaur, who teaches Childplay Yoga workshops all over the world, said, “In order to work with children, you have to be able to embrace chaos, be very active, and go with the rhythm of children. Children play at yoga, they don’t practice yoga.  I use so many techniques in my program.  Using mantras with movement is a very powerful practice for children because they love music by nature.   You want to involve as many senses as you can when you are working with children. And let them play!

 

Every child is unique, and there’s no end to the tools we can try to employ to get our kids interested in yoga.  But it seemed the universal message from the experts  is to make sure the kids have fun doing it.

 

For more information about the products and teacher’s in this article:

 

Shakta Kaur:       Radiant Child Yoga Training: www.childrensyoga.com

                                Books, DVDs and Warrior Yoga Cards: www.SpiritVoyage.com

 

Snatam Kaur:     Children’s Products: www.ShantitheYogi.com

                                Workshop Schedule: www.SpiritVoyage.com

 

Gurudass Kaur: Childplay Yoga Training: www.ChildplayYoga.com

                                DVDs and Music: www.SpiritVoyage.com

 

You can view and download the pdf of this recent issue of Aquarian Times here:  Click to View and Download

 

Karan Khalsa is a child of the 3HO community.  After spending 16 years living in India, between school and work, she joined Spirit Voyage to connect her business life with her inner spirit.  Now her career is dedicated to sharing the healing sound current of music and the healing technology of yoga with the planet through Spirit Voyage.

Learn the Kundalini Yoga Mantras

I finally got my hands on a copy of the Kundalini Mantra Instruction album

Kundalini Mantra Instruction

by my good friend Gurudass Kaur. It is a great contribution to the practice of kundalini yoga. She covers most of the mantras used throughout the classes.

Yogi Bhajan often spoke of the upper palate as keys on a piano. The effects of mantra were realized through the motion of the tongue on the palate and the teeth. These points were sensitive and would then have effects on the brain. He would then stress the importance of pronunciation in realizing these experiences.

This CD is real helpful in that regard. I have hyperlinked the searches to other music on our site in case you want more music with those mantras. Unfortunately there is not uniformity in the spelling, so some things are missed. All results were found by narrowing the search to track names on spiritvoyage.com and then entering the desired mantra.

The Mantras on this CD are:

1. Ong namo guroo dayv namo

2. Aad guray nameh

3. Aad such, jugaad such, hai bhee such, Naanak hosee bhee such

4. Aad such, jugaad such, hai bhay such, Naanak hosee bhay such

5. Aade shaktee

6. Aap sahaaee hoaa sachay

7. Akaal

8. Ang sang wa-hay guroo (Also Ung Sung)

9. Ang sang wa-hay guroo (Also Ung Sung)

10. Ardaas bhaee

11. Chatra chakra vartee

12. Ek ong kaar sat gur prasaad

13. Ek ong kaar sat naam siree wa–hay guroo (Long Ek Ong Kar)

14. Ek ong kaar-UH, sat-a-nam-UH, siree wa-UH, hay guroo

15. Ek ong kaar, sat naam

16. Gobind(a) gobind(a) haree haree

17. Gobind(a) gobind(a)

18. Gobinday mukanday

19. Gobinday mukanday

20. God and me, me and God, are One

21. Guroo guroo wahay guroo guroo ram daas guroo

22. Har har…

23. Har har har har gobinday

24. Har har har har har har har haree

25. Har har har har har har haree

26. Har har mukanday

27. Har har wa-hay guroo

28. Har haray haree wa-hay guroo

29. Haree haree haree haree haree haree har

30. Haree haree haree haree haree haree haree har

31. Haree naam sat naam haree naam haree

32. Humee hum brum hum

33. Humee hum too(n) hee too(n), wa-hay guroo

34. I am happy, I am good

35. I am I am

36. Ong namo guroo dayv namo, guroo dayv namo, guroo dayvaa (Also Gurudeva)

37. Ong

38. Ong ong ong…..

39. Ong ong ong ong sohang sohang sohang sohang

40. Ong sohang

41. Pavan guroo

42. Raa maa daa saa saa say so hung

43. Raa maa daa saa saa say so hung

44. Raa maa daa saa, saa say so hang

45. Rakhay rakhanhaar aap ubaari-an

46. Raa raa raa raa, maa maa maa maa, saa saa saa sat, haree har haree har

47. Saa ray saa saa

48. Saa ray saa saa

49. Saa taa naa maa

50. Saa ray gaa maa paa

51. Sat Kar-taar

52. Saa taa naa maa Raa Maa Daa Saa

53. Sat naam

54. Sat naam

55. Sat naam for Sat Kriya

56. Sat naam

57. Sat naam wa- hay guroo

58. Sat naam wha- hay guroo

59. Sat narayan wa-hay guroo

60. Sat siree, siree akaal

61. Wa–hay guroo

62. Waa yantee kar yantee

63. Wa-hay guroo, wa-hay guroo, wa-hay wa-hay, wa-hay guroo

64. Wa wa hay hay, wa wa hay hay, wa wa hay hay guroo

65. Wa-hay guroo, wa-hay guroo, wa-hay guroo, wa-hay jeeo

66. Wa-hay wa-hay wa-hay guroo

67. Wa-hay guroo