Maintaining a controlled, attentive classroom remains a difficult task as the natural breaks in a child's school day are incrementally reduced in the name of academic achievement.
Adults in this fast-paced society of over-stimulation and stress to acheive have found that the stillness, grounding and strength to be found in a regular yoga practice are the perfect antidote to their stressful lives. The fact of the matter is that children are suffering from stresses and over-stimulation comparable to their parents and teachers! It was only a matter of time before someone figured out that a little bit of Yoga could go a long way in the classroom setting.
Yoga Takes a Twist
Lynea Gillen is a school counselor who has been integrating yoga into classes in public schools with wild success. She and her husband Jim Gillen, a Registered Yoga Teacher have compiled the handbook from their ongoing series of Yoga Calm workshops and published it as a resource for teachers, counselors and parents.
Yoga Calm for Children is a guidebook for educators who are ready to try something a little bit different to try to meet the physical, emotional and social needs of their students.
Each pose and activity is complete with notes about integrative lessons and variations that could be used to weave the process into a regular school lesson plan. The handbook is set up with an organized index and bibliography for easy access to all of the vital information.
Teaching Kids Yoga
The program illustrated in Yoga Calm for Children is designed to be accessible to any teacher or counselor willing to try it - with no prior experience or exposure to yoga necessary. Though the authors encourage teachers to pursue their own individual yoga practice outside of the classroom, it is not a requirement for incorporating the lessons and poses into a curriculum.
Lynea's voice of experience offers tips regarding various age ranges - what concepts and poses are suitable for kindergarteners, as well as more advanced options for teenagers.
Getting Everyone Moving
There are many benefits of getting the kinks out. Using mild stretches and breathing exercises helps kids who have had to sit still for long periods of time to burn off a little excess energy. Harvard psychiatrist Dr. John Ratey has repeatedly cited research showing that exercise allows brain cells to bind together faster, making students more ready to learn.
The connection between mental and physical doesn't stop with learning new things. Activity can help increase concentration before a test, or help everyone wake up after lunch.
With practice, poses help children increase strength and balance. The immediate results and visible improvement in doing poses over time helps build confidence. Not to mention the emotional calm that can be restored with a renewed physical sense of grounding.
The book’s range of safe, basic yoga poses are well-illustrated, and each pose is carefully described in detail to ensure that anyone would feel comfortable explaining how to do the pose. There are also detailed notes for explaining to children the particulars of alignment through the use of metaphor, avoiding the Sanskrit and any anatomical jargon one might encounter in a regular yoga class.
Beyond Academia: Social and Emotional Skills
Yoga Calm’s unique workbook also includes complementary worksheets and activities for building children’s Social and Emotional skill-sets.
The Gillens cite dozens of studies, references and scientific evidence proving statements like this one from Education Week in 2003: “A Comprehensive approach to teaching children social and emotional skills can raise grades and test scores, bolster enthusiasm for learning, reduce behavior problems and enhance the brain’s cognitive functions.”
Teaching children everything from self-soothing and proper anger management to guidance for setting and maintaining healthy boundaries seems like the kind of stuff most adults wished they’d learned in school. It also helps children who don’t have the modeling or positive atmosphere at home to learn how to cope with situations in their own lives.
One of the vital components of Yoga Calm is a lesson in “Emotional First-Aid” for educators and caring adults in the lives of children. Often there are circumstances that must be referred to a professional, but in the meantime, it is helpful to have a few simple guidelines to follow to staunch the wound and keep the child safe until help arrives.
Relaxation = Integrating and Soothing
"Because modern children tend to be accustomed to being entertained, silent relaxations like those at the end of adult yoga class do not work well for them initially. We’ve found that simple guided relaxations that include some sort of story help them relax more and develop their imaginations.” [Yoga Calm, p. 133]
Following detailed evidence to support the importance of rest, and allowing students a moment to integrate all that they’ve taken in and emotionally heal form their experiences, Yoga Calm also ensures that children get to experience the relaxation and stress relief of Savasana, Final Resting Pose.
Don’t worry! This also includes scripts and clear guidance as to how to accomplish these relaxation processes.
In short, Yoga Calm is a clear, concise how-to book, created with the vision of someone flipping through pages for quick reference and making notes in the wide margins. It seems to be a viable solution to help both stressed-out students and overburdened teachers.
Alicia King - Alicia King has been writing for Suite 101 since June of 2007. For over a year, she was the Featured Writer for the Suite section about ...
