Ready to start your day with a yoga adventure? Morning yoga can be a great way to start the day. Kids Yoga Adventure’s first episode focuses on movement and breathing exercises at the beach!
Some types of breathing can help us calm and some can give us energy. But they all give us more oxygen to the brain - which helps our minds and bodies do the work they need to do.
So let’s join Kathryn, our yoga guide, on a trip to the beach. Using our imaginations, we can breathe like the ocean, say hello to the bright sun, swim in the waves, and much more! Below are all of the poses, so you can have a guide wherever you are!
Parents, you and your kid(s) can use this as a guide while you listen to the podcast. Or, try listening to the podcast first and going through the moves, letting your kids follow their instincts. Then, check back in here if you have questions about a certain pose. Remember, it doesn’t have to look exactly like the picture. All bodies are different and that's ok!
Sunscreen Stretch (aka Wide Leg Forward Bend):
Reach one arm out in front of you, and use your other hand to rub the sunscreen up and down your arm. Now the other arm! Reach from your shoulders to your fingers. Step your feet wide apart and stretch your arms out straight to each side. Now, turn to one side, reach down with both of your hands and rub sunscreen down your leg all the way to your foot and back up. Let’s switch sides and get the other leg too! All the way down and back up. How about your belly and back? Let’s remember to put sunscreen on your face and neck! There you go.
Forward Fold: Stand with your feet planted on the ground. Take a big breath in, reach up really tall with your fingers, and wave to the bright sun for a tall mountain pose! Then breathe out and reach down for your toes and forward fold.
Plank: Now put your hands on the ground. Try to hop or walk your feet way behind you.
Snake Pose (aka Cobra): Come all the way down to the ground on your belly. Lift up your head and chest and make a “sssss” sound in snake pose.
Downward Dog: Come onto your hands and knees and get ready for our downward dog. Push into your hands, tuck your toes under, and lift your hips up high. If you want you can lift one leg up high in the air, and wag it like a tail. Woof. Put that foot down and lift up your other leg up. Give it a shake! You can put that foot down.
Mountain Pose: Straighten your legs and stay in a forward fold. Take a big breath in as we come all the way up and reach our fingers up to the sun. Breathe out as we bring our hands down beside us and we can stand strong and tall in our mountain pose.
Dive Pose: Stand up nice and tall with your feet together. Bend forward like you're looking down at the water from a diving board, and extend your arms straight behind you.
Dolphin Pose (aka Locust pose—shalabasana): Slowly lower all the way onto your belly. Clasp your hands together behind your back to make a dolphin fin. Breathe in and lift up your arms, legs, and chest all at the same time. Good try. Now, breathe out and lower your arms, legs, and chest back down to the ground.
Octopus Pose (aka Wide Leg Forward Fold): Stand up nice and tall with your feet spread a little wider than your hips. You can wiggle your arms side to side, up and down, slow or fast…..just like tentacles.
Starfish Pose (aka Savasana/Lying Down Pose): Lie down on your back, and stretch your arms and feet as wide as you’d like, so that they are in the shape of a starfish. If you like, you can close your eyes, or you can keep them open.
We like to end our episodes with an affirmation. This episode’s affirmation is “today is a new day.” Can you think of another affirmation? What kind words would you like to say to yourself? Try out your new affirmation today, and see how it feels!
In this episode, we went to the beach. What is another calming place you can go to in your imagination? What makes this place so special to you? You could draw a picture of this place and maybe even keep it with you, so that it’s there whenever you need to feel calm.