Kids learn yoga through play

The children prowled like jungle cats, held hands to create a tree canopy and sprinted like cheetahs through the savannah.

They paused for cotton ball races - using straws to puff the cotton balls down the length of their mats.

Palm Yoga's new children's yoga program takes an imaginative approach to an ancient practice.

It doesn't sound like a stereotypical yoga class, filled with slow stretches and mind-clearing meditation. But it is a way to open the door into a yoga practice that teachers say can help children connect with others, focus at school and improve their flexibility.

The North Dale Mabry studio started its YamaYogis program in February, adding three classes a week for children ages 5 to 10. It recently hosted two free, 45-minute classes so newcomers could check it out and decide if they wanted to enroll.

Teacher Anna Weeks led them through a jungle-themed lesson with exercises that helped the children learn traditional poses while they played. The cotton ball races, for example, encourage kids to control their breathing and get used to exhaling longer than they inhale, she said.

And acting like an animal or tree can help children understand how to do a pose without relying on terminology that they might not follow. They don't have to learn the poses perfectly, Weeks said.

The children's carefree attitudes are contagious.

"They're so energetic and happy and excited to learn new things," Weeks said.

Although Palm Yoga once offered a preschool program, the studio has spent its seven years focusing on adults. The preschool program was fun, studio owner Rebecca Wood said, but the children's maturity made it hard to hold organized classes. The elementary children are at a good age to respond to instruction and benefit from the practice.

Yoga can be a good break from children's busy lives, said Wood, whose children are 7 and 2.

"There are a lot more pressures on kids now than there were before," Wood said. "Yoga helps them learn to be present."

Kids get used to bouncing from activity to activity with little down time, and yoga gives them something physical to do without the pressure of competitive sports. It also asks them to think about their poses, which helps children learn how to calm down and focus on school or other activities.

Because classes ask the children to work together, the students build connections as well that Wood said they won't find on email, text or through video games.

"It reconnects them to other human beings," she said.

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