Tip #4 on practicing yoga with kids

Tip #4: Let it go and embrace the chaos

Or release the ego and go with the flow.

Read the room and the mood. 

Kids might not enjoy an activity you planned at that given time or might be dysregulated (often very energetic or chatty, sometimes bored or apathetic). If you persist, you will most likely lose their attention for the rest of your class. At the same time, you spent time crafting your sequence and its different parts. 

Let go of the ego - be present

Unfortunately, you have to let it go and move on to keep them engaged, to maintain a good environment for you and them and to make sure they will leave the room feeling nice, having learned or integrated a few things. But what can you do?

Below a few ideas to move on depending on the mood and the class part:

• Continue to your next activity, let’s the class moving.

• Do a music-based activity to release the energy and regain the attention, e.g.:

• Movement-based dance such as “if you’re happy and you know it” or “wheels on the bus”, especially for the little ones

• Alternating crazy / quiet times such as dance and freeze or melt

• Game times to use up their energy and have them lead, e.g.: red light / green light or crabs catch hermit crab

• Partner poses to re-engage them

  • Check my free resources for ideas and printables

• Challenges such as how long can you stand in this pose or the slowest race

• Props-based breath to calm them down, in particular towards the end: e.g. bubble breath or feather breath

• Mindful crafts to start relaxation, for instance mandala colouring or stone stacking

Embrace the chaos

You might be able to return to the missed activity at a later time or in another class or not at all, but you made sure you were listening to them. Some days it will be widely different to what you had imagined, go with the flow. You will create a stronger bond, embody a mindful behaviour for them to follow and might even come with some new ideas. It will be also less stressful for you to accept that you cannot control everything and detach from the outcomes.

Non-attachment is not indifference - behaviour management

It is very difficult when you have devoted heart and time to class planning and things did not go as imagined. Yet you are here for them to learn about yoga, including yamas and niyamas, and you set a good example on how to be present and how to regulate emotions. That is very powerful.

You also are open to them and listening. And learning to practice non-attachment and mindfulness.

Yet, there is a fine line between dissipated kids and disrespect. I learned it the hard way: you have to identify it and address it when it happens. 

Of course, it is not pleasant. Of course, you want kids to like you. But the risk is to have it disrupt the class and the others and destroy the trust and kindness of your class environment.

Keep spreading the joy of yoga and trust yourself. You got it.