The Yoga Adventure for Children: Playing, Dancing, Moving, Breathing, Relaxing (Hunter House Smartfun Book)
Have you ever practiced yoga? Yoga has been around for many years. Many grownups have practiced yoga to calm their emotions and increase physical strength. Helen Purpehart has created a book which focuses on children doing yoga as a way to gain self-confidence, coordination and flexibility.The Yoga Adventure for Childrenis a valuable resource. There are many pages of yoga exercises for kids to try. Each exercise is illustrated with step-by-step instructions. There are many childf riendly stories included to help the older children with the concepts presented. Kids of all ages will enjoy the many yoga exercises in this book. Teachers may even use this as a manual to assist them in introducing yoga to their classrooms.I found many of these exercises to relax me. I tend to get nervous when taking tests. Maybe I will be able to use some of the techniques presented in this book to calm me down and receive a better grade. There are so many games in this book both for small groups and larger ones. There are also many stretching exercises which can help me become more flexible before competing as part of a sports team at school.Note from Brianne's mother: Brianne loved The Yoga Adventure for Children. She is always looking for new ways to play and new ways to relax in stressful situations. I could see her using this book both for herself now and throughout her growing into adult years. -Reviewed by Brianne Plach (age 10) for Reader ViewsI work with children. I am a paraprofessional in a special needs school, and was very excited to read this book, to see if there might be anything I could use with our kids.One of the things that I noticed right away is how many of the games and exercises were done in groups or pairs. This is fantastic in my opinion! It seems to me that these days kids are more isolated than in the past. I am not sure what it is, but I rarely see little girls walking and holding hands or boys roughhousing. Fighting yes, just roughhousing, no. I also have noted that most parents do not hold their children’s hands any more. This is very sad in my opinion, as touch in and of its own is healing. Touch during play is a good thing!So, I was very pleased to find that there were things that there were games where the kids held hands or leaned back against each other. I believe this helps to build co-operation and understanding.There are also plenty of games where it is individuals alone. My favorite is Sun Salutations! It incorporates many basic yoga positions, and it will be a lot of fun for the kids. The Mountain is a close runner up. I can just see the kids enjoying those games, and having fun.The relaxation exercises are ideal as well. Sometimes kids, as well as adults, need to just let it go and breathe. This book gives several examples of how to do this.I will not be able to use many of these games with my special needs classroom. We have a low functioning group and the understanding is not there in some cases, and the physical abilities are not there in others. My niece is a preschool teacher in a daycare facility, as well as being Assistant Director. She is very excited about trying many of these games with her class! I had a hard time holding onto the book long enough to finish reading it before passing it on. She is thinking that if it works out she can suggest it for other sites in the corporate system she works in.This book would also be great fun for any family with young or even not so young kids. I raised four kids of my own, and know how valuable that together time is, and there are many fun suggestions here. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has young ones in their life. -Kathleen Wagner, LibraryThing Early Reviewer