Over the past few months, I've been working on my registered children's yoga teacher (RCYT) certification. Here are 10 videos of the first 5 teaching hours!
These 10 videos below are based on the curriculum from my 95-hour RCYT with Yoga Ed. The program was divided into three courses: teaching children's yoga, teaching teen's yoga, and trauma-informed yoga for youth. There were no baby and toddler-specific classes, so of course I had to modify some of their teachings here to fit our oftentimes chaotic needs. I hope you see through that chaos to the small moments of rest we were able to pocket, and most of all, I hope you enjoy them!
Children's Yoga: Introduction
In this first kid's yoga class, I introduce snowpea to yoga. A very cuddly, tiny 2-month-old baby oakleaf got too fussy while being watched by his dad, so he joined us for relaxation - by far the most adorable part of this class. I may have been a bit rusty filming this because I had my camera set to the wrong orientation (oops). If you prefer to watch annoyingly zoomed-in and horizontally, you can see this version instead. Someone (or some robot) clearly enjoyed this orientation because they went through the trouble of creating chapter titles in the video, which were amusing to read! My favorite was title was "beanbags". It was a bolster, but close enough. If you were the person AI bot who names all of these, thank you!
Children's Yoga: Centering
This second class features just me and a 2.5-year-old snowpea. It's perhaps a little less chaotic than usual with only one kid, but I would never call yoga with a toddler a calm experience, hence the theme of this class. I teach snowpea all about centering here. Do the lessons stick? Maybe not immediately. But every now and then, in the heat of feelings too big for her body, I remind snowpea to practice breathing or going to her "calm place". Sometimes, she actually will, and when she does, every moment of yoga is worth it.
Kids Yoga for Calm
Here's the first full class with me, snowpea, and baby oakleaf. This one is all about the necessary skill of cultivating calm. I'll admit, I did use AI to generate some of these video descriptions because it's a bit market-y but accurate, so why not?
Kids Yoga: Breathwork
It may seem odd to think of babies doing breathwork, but in fact, they are natural diaphragmatic breathers, so we can learn from them through observation. Here, I teach snowpea different breathing techniques to calm the body as baby oakleaf breathes and coos along. He's in a vintage carrier that my mom actually wore when I was a baby. Baby-wearing experts, please hold your judgment on the carrier's snugness and alignment here because when he was this teeny, he was light enough to be worn imperfectly.
Kids Yoga: Safe in My Body
This class is all about cultivating a sense of safety in our own skin. The theme comes directly from Yoga Ed.'s trauma-informed yoga for youth coursework, so I can't take credit, but it really is an important one that you're never too young to learn.
Toddler & Baby Breathwork & Yoga
Here's more breathwork with snowpea and a now 3-month-old baby oakleaf who just keeps growing and growing and growing!
Baby & Toddler Yoga: Feelings & Emotions
In this class, we move, play, and explore all the big feelings and emotions that color toddler life.
Toddler Yoga for Focus
Focus is such an important topic for snowpea, who often finds herself too busy to put her clothes back on after pottying! Here we talk through this concept as we practice mindful movement and breath. At the end of these final three videos, I embarrass myself playing harmonium as baby oakleaf sleeps and snowpea dances along. Please don't judge me, I'm not a professional at this, but snowpea does adore the music.
Children's Yoga for Emotional Regulation
We dive deeper into emotions in this class as we explore more yogic techniques to regulate them. It's hard to believe baby oakleaf is already 4 months here, but here he is, enjoying the practice and cooing along!
Baby & Toddler Yoga: Movement vs. Stillness
In this final video, we talk about movement, stillness, and the stillness in mindful movement. Of course, snowpea is still a bit wild here, but it's all just practice.
What's next?
Luckily for the loyal fans of these videos, I'll be producing many, many more of them because I still have about 25 hours of practice teaching to finish my RCYT certification. And lucky for me, snowpea is an eager student. Every time we go up to the attic, she loves to roll out our mats and say, "Mommy, be the teacher!" Stay tuned for much more!