Tiny Tots Yoga

Mums turn - Miss T was feeling a bit off and I was feeling tight so I covered the poses I could do with her on me, whilst working on my hips and back and chest flexibility.

Introducing pose of the day. We use pose of the day to keep it short and sweet for Miss T when she might be having a clingy or sleepy morning. She gets to practice and focus on one main posture whilst I take the opportunity to work on my troublesome areas and we both get to cuddle.

Bubbles!!
Such a clever fun and sneaky way to get in breathe work. Once she’s warmed up and done her bubble blowing I ask Miss T to hold a peacock asana whilst I blow some even bigger bubbles her way. Then we go through our major poses and even got into a double down dog at the end! Woohoo!

I wanted to work on some upperbody strength and test my transverse core muscles. So we combined a breathing exercise with wheelbarrows for little one and then headstand balance work for me.

Rewatching this reinforces my I need to work on my back flexibility and transverse strength

That daycare food has been quite harsh on Miss T’s tummy, and without me being there to constantly encourage her to keep drinking water things have been getting a little blocked up. So today we worked down the meridian lines for digestion and urinary/expulsion, and we used bicycle kicks and knee lifts/lowers to try help Miss T’s body processes along.

I hope this along with plenty of fibre and water will help in bringing her a little less discomfort in that area.

Also managed to get some strength work in for myself too! Much to Miss T’s delight.

Today was a surprise toddler led warm up complete with Roley poleys. We also covered belly breathing, some leg work as well as Miss T’s exceptionally good head balance. Loving todays focus.

Jiggling and shaking is such a great way to get all the sillies out before we concentrate on the asanas. And it’s so much fun just to put a song on and allow yourself to be a bit silly. We also use jumping and dancing for a little bit more energy exertion particularly on the colder days.

We’ve been working our way through gruffalo themed poses for our upcoming gruffalo class based on the popular childrens book by Julia Donaldson. One of what’s to be our book based yoga series. Can’t wait to share this with my students!

To attempt a longer hold on poses I turned our session into an artwork. Miss T did a great job of holding poses while I traced her hands and feet. And even better, we could learn about left and right at the end. -Namaste

Sometimes Miss T just has a morning where she is acting out, being needy and simply wanting attention. And so we turn our practice into a bonding session by using poses that allow us to maintain eye contact and closeness. I let her dictate the first few poses so she is comfortable then add a few of my own where we can stay connected. This deepens our relationship and fulfills her need to have the attention she craves.
You can hear how happy she is with herself at the end 🙉
Win win!

If cleanliness is next to godliness then can I Get a hallelujah!
Thank goodness my mats are all disinfected and hand cleaned now ready to go.
No sticky residue from the packaging on the new mats 🙂

Now please don’t let it rain overnight I need these babies dry for my mums and toddlers course this weekend.

Learning how to deal with their emotions is a big part of being a toddler. So in attempt to help Miss T recognise and verbalize how she’s feeling when she’s feeling it, we did an emotion board today! We decided on angry. This is apart of my emotions yoga series course, useful for those at an age where tantrums can present a problem. This also encourages openness without judgement between parents and their kids.

Todays Challenge - Donkey Pose

We wanted to try a new pose today and I knew it’d be a real challenge for Miss T. We made sure we did a fun warm up followed by effective dynamic movement for the shoulders so Miss T would not have any injury trying to hold the upperbody frame for Donkey. She had great body awareness for someone who still doesn’t know her left and right. And it helped her challenge her upperbody strength and coordination trying to get her leg up.

We can never expect perfect positioning from toddlers but as long as they are able to gently try and hopefully make a little progress each time then that’s all we can expect! Fab job Miss T and excellent concentration.

Breathing fun - practicing breath and focusing on a slow exhale will assist toddlers to regulate and calm when they maybe upset. However it is still important to acknowledge when and why they are upset, naming the emotion and then encouraging them to take a breath (or 3) to centre themselves again. Along with lots of cuddles and comfort of course!

Miss T always loves these expander balls. They are a colorful visual aid of air filling and then being expelled by the lungs and are fun for toddlers to play with.

Today we used some yoga cards to dictate our session. Making the animal noises helps Miss T remember the asanas and learn more about animals whilst practicing.

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. Yoga is fun for you and me!

Toddler Yoga for Relaxation

What do you do when your child is sick and you can’t go out for your usual activities?!

Then find something active to do inside!

After doing a dancing jiggly warm up, I engaged Miss T in a pre nap yoga routine to settle her. We kept it short, sweet and finished off with a nice cuddle before bed.