From the LAUSD to some small private schools on the East Coast, teachers are learning the value of giving kids the tools for their own wellness through something that has become a household name in fitness: yoga.  That's right - it's not just for grown-ups anymore.  Dozens of "grade-school" instructors are extolling the benefits of getting kid's classes to practice the ancient art.

When it comes to pint size yoga, the focus is generally a little different.  Yoga was originally a meditative art, after all, and most kids are anythign but meditative.  When it comes to using yoga in a kid-friendly context, teachers are reporting that it comes down to simply engaging the little ones in the activities that will give them balance, body strength and agility for years to come.

In some ways, the guidance for kid-centric yoga is not completely unlike what adult group yoga instructors have been doing for years.  Kids respond to the visual metaphors of yoga poses (e.g. tree, boat, snake) as well as a "storyline" that links all of the poses together.  But where adult classes will only tolerate so much of this kind of "extra" motivation, kids often love the narration by an enthusiastic instructor, which is why so many of the most bubbly and extroverted yoga teachers see this as a great role for improving their game.

A few other things can improve a kids' yoga class: for one thing, it's always good to leave "breathing room".  What this means is that a kids' yoga class will be substantially less rigid in time frame and sequence than an adult one.  Letting kids have space in between activities allows them to get any extra energy out of their system and come back focused.  

Instructors may also need to simplify.  Advanced yoga manuals include a lot of really challenging activity that's best left for advanced classes.  Kids, on the other hand, will need to ease into yoga gradually, with very simple, easy to achieve exercises.  Again, it's best to really play up visual metaphor, so that kids understand what they are trying to accomplish.  Underscoring the link between the noun in a yoga pose and the actual activity is a great way to help kids start to make "bridges" between ideas and practical concrete actions.

As with any kind of kids' class, there's also the fine balance between "overteaching", a rigid lecture style which ignores some of the points above, and a lax style that will end up with kids running all over the place.  The fundamental point is to prevent the session from unraveling due to unclear instruction or a lack of supervision.

And, with kids classes, there's an additional element: the parents.  Teachers also report that the need to include parents in the process is ultra-important.  Kids don't sign up for yoga the way adults do, and though it may seem innocuous, some instructors have seen that when it comes to yoga, parents' opinions run the gamut, with some fiercely opposed to yoga or any similar activity.  The best way to deal with this is to lay out the program up front and give parents some kind of feedback opportunity before the class ever begins.

These are just some of the challenges and aspects of "pediatric yoga" that will be on the minds of proactive teachers who have figured out that yoag can be a great way to provide a 'holistic' education at a grade-school level.  With the right attention to detail, an instructor can really help kids reach new heights with yoga, not only in physical fitness, but in making school a little more fun, and a little less of the monotone drama that it often was for previousgenerations of children.