We are delighted to offer a new Child & Family Yoga service - Rainbow Yoga!
It is common knowledge that yoga is great for adults. But is yoga only for adults? No! At TCT we are lucky to now have a dedicated yoga teacher, Emily Joy, to run a specialist children's yoga service.
The effects of yoga go beyond physical fitness and also allow children to build confidence and awareness beyond the classroom. A growing body of research has shown that yoga can improve focus, memory, self-esteem, academic performance, and can also help reduce anxiety and stress in children.
Children’s yoga has one important benefit that is generally not part of adult yoga; it involves interaction.
Children's yoga is fun! Instead of pose after pose, Emily will guide your child through a fun session using imagination, games and props to make the experience fun and interactive for all ages who attend whatever their level of ability or mobility.
In her Rainbow Yoga sessions, Emily weaves in fun games and stories with positive themes like compassion, gratitude, and strength. Children learn how to read their emotions and their body, while exploring how the different parts of their bodies connect and move. Rainbow Yoga also teaches children many life lessons such as kindness, friendship, confidence, self-expression, and much more.
The Benefits of Doing Yoga with Your Children
What’s an activity your family can participate in together- one that everyone will benefit from? That would be yoga, of course! Rainbow Yoga sessions are the perfect way to get everyone together for some fun, memorable experiences. Along with one-to-one sessions, Emily offers family group yoga so parents and carers can join in.
Yoga is a great activity for families to do together. It offers something to look forward to together every week. Not only will your children love to do yoga with you, but there are many benefits to families. Firstly, by participating in an exercise activity together, children will be more excited about it and it will help normalise and promote healthy habits as they continue to grow. Doing yoga together can help both adults and children to relax, be in the moment, and obtain physical activity at the same time.
Secondly, practicing yoga together is a natural and healthy way to bond with your children. Spending time together as a family helps form connections that will be with them throughout life. Through group yoga poses and sharing the activity, families learn how to support one another, both physically and emotionally. As a result, trust is built and bonds between parents/carers and children, or between siblings, are deepened.
How Yoga Benefits Children
Through yoga, children are learning in a non-competitive environment many important transferable skills, all by having fun!
The many physical, social and emotional benefits of children practicing yoga include:
improving strength and flexibility
increasing self-confidence
teaching how to relax and reduce stress
coordination and balance
self-discipline and self-control
developing good postural habits building
nourishing creativity
concentration
encouraging teamwork
encouraging compassion, generosity and respect
Yoga offers more than flexibility! It can help spark creativity in children by having them think up their own poses. This will allow them to be creative, self-expressive and have the freedom to let their bodies move and relax. Rainbow Yoga sessions also incorporate fun illustrations, the alphabet, or rhyming vignettes, all of which can help promote language development.
About the Teacher
Emily graduated from her BSc Psychology with Child and Language Development degree in June 2017. Since then, she has completed her Rainbow Kids Yoga training, learning practical and fun ways to teach yoga to children of all ages in a variety of environments including both private and group classes.
Having been a passionate dancer from the age of 3, Rainbow Yoga combines both her love for dance and keeping active in a fun way with mindfulness and stress relaxation techniques learned in her degree and on the yoga training courses.
Emily has a real love for working with children and has regularly assisted at TCT and led dance lessons over the years at her former dance school as well as teaching ballet lessons for children with SEN at TCT during the holidays.
Teaching yoga to children is a uniquely wonderful way to guide them into a healthy lifestyle. They don't need to understand all the health benefits - they just know that moving their body with yoga is fun!
You can find full details of the Child & Family Yoga service here.
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