Youth Yoga School

www.youthyogaschool.com

Classes start June 2011!
We are proud to announce the opening of the new Youth Yoga School LLC to serve yoga teachers, educators, and students.

Our motto: Aspire to Inspire
Our mission
The Youth Yoga School’s mission is to provide yoga teachers and child-focused professionals a “whole child approach” utilizing yogic techniques for the physical, cognitive, and emotional well-being of our youth.

Our vision
“A 2003 study by California State University, Los Angeles found that yoga improved students’ behavior, physical health and academic performance, as well as attitudes toward themselves. That same year, Leipzig University reported that yoga reduces feelings of helplessness and aggression, and in the long term helps emotional balance. The benefits of yoga are particularly strong among children with special needs, research shows.” Wall Street Journal

Have you ever done yoga or taken a yoga class? If you have, you KNOW the benefits yoga brings both internally in your emotional experience and your clear thinking, and externally with a relaxed and strong body.  All of those benefits that adults enjoy are also available for children.  Think of what a gift it is to youth to discover in themselves the capacity to calm down, to feel good about themselves, to be able to concentrate.  Many times we have heard adult yoga students say, “I wish I had found yoga sooner!”  You can help to give the gifts of yoga to children where you live, and to children whom you love.

Today’s Yoga for Children

The Dilemma
Today, thousands of schools, teaching institutions, and studios have incorporated yoga into their daily curriculum. We found teaching yoga to children of all ages so rewarding! Yet, we experienced overwhelm and exhaustion from situations like preparing for classes only to throw your entire plan out the window, or completing our planned activities for a class and still having 40 minutes left. Also, deciding on which resources to utilize for our classes left us experiencing information overload. How do we begin to select a book, curriculum, website, yoga deck, or any other resource? It was all too much. Once in the class, we sometimes found ourselves in situation that we did not feel prepared for; for instance, children with special circumstances like autism, attention disorders and behavior disturbances. Yikes!  As  yoga teachers offering classes to children and youth, we started to ask ourselves:

What are some of the best resources in books, music, web-sites?

How can we adapt basic classes to such a wide variety of ages of children in a developmentally appropriate way?  A 2 year old and a 12 year old are worlds apart.

How can we include fun child-centered crafts and activities but still stay true to the experience of yoga?

How can we best interact with schools, and parents, and teachers so the children have the best results?

And maybe most importantly, how can we teach kids in a way that is fun for them and for us, that it not draining or chaotic?

The Solution

Thus, the Youth Yoga School LLC was born!  This training program is specifically designed to answer the questions above.  It was created from the love, compassion and respect three women have for educators who are passionate about sharing yoga with our youth. We wanted to prepare these people with our knowledge, and arm them with tested and current information. Teachers who attend the Youth Yoga School are prepared to go out into the world sharing their love of yoga, and teaching the young leaders of tomorrow.

We are all teachers in some way!

You may find your way to the Youth Yoga School via many different paths.  It could be your love of yoga that leads you here, or it could be a love of children and young people.  (If you are like many people drawn to this path, you relate to both of those!)

You could be a yoga instructor already but want further training regarding teaching children (seeking Yoga Alliance Registered Children’s Yoga Teacher credentials, or just seeking a few CEU’s).

You could be a person who loves yoga for yourself and you want to share it with your children or grandchildren in a fun and effective way.

You could be a preschool or K-12 school teacher who wants new approaches to help your students learn and be productive in your classroom.

You could be a school administrator who has seen the exciting research regarding yoga and kids and you want to include yoga in your Teacher Institute Days or school curriculum.

Whether you are a yoga teacher, a school teacher or just a teacher to our children, we are all amazing teachers because we continued to be students….students of life. We welcome all “teachers” to the Youth Yoga School LLC. We can all always learn more and share our wisdom with others.   We can always be a Student of Life and a positive influence in the lives of children.

If you love yoga and want to share yoga…
The Youth Yoga School LLC may be just for you. You can incorporate these techniques into any setting, do what you love for a living, and increase your personal toolbox to utilize whenever and wherever you need it.

Levels of Youth Yoga School LLC

The Youth Yoga School LLC is designed to accommodate your needs for knowledge and credentials in whatever format suits you best.  Here are the options for training.

Registered Children’s Yoga Teacher (RCYT)
Yoga Alliance set new standards for the designation of RCYT. Their recommendations include a 95 hour program designed to be a “Master’s Degree” type designation for current 200 and 500 hour yoga teachers. This program is additional training designed to fit the needs of teaching our youth. You will receive age specific training from preschool to teenage children. You will learn yoga games, poses and adventures in the younger children. For the older children, we move towards issues that address their individual needs like body image, attitude, focus, and teen issues that are top of mind to them.  When you have completed all the requirements of the Youth Yoga School LLC, (which include but are not limited to; lecture, practice, child development knowledge, practicum teaching, service learning, assigned reading and homework etc.) then you are eligible to apply for the Yoga Alliance RCYT credential.  Youth Yoga School LLC is created to cover all Yoga Alliance requirements and prepare you for success as a kids yoga teacher.

Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Units

You can also take just a portion of the training which is broken up into weekend modules, and apply those hours to your CEU requirements.  One Weekend Module could provide you with more than half of the CEU’s you need for your three year renewal with Yoga Alliance.

Child-Focused Professional Certification
This certification is for the child-focused professional who is not currently a licensed yoga instructor.  Whether you are a school teacher, psychologist, fitness professional, or librarian, you can glean useful skills and activities to share with the kids you serve.   If you would like to learn yoga techniques to share with your students or clients, this is the best training for you. The certification is comprised of 32 hours of training custom-designed to fit your professional needs.

Yoga for the Classroom
This continuing education program is designed specifically to bring yoga into the classroom setting.  Bring all the benefits today’s research has shown that yoga provides, to your students! If you would like to learn techniques to address classroom issues to improve attention, reduce stress, or just be able to apply these calming techniques in your daily class, this program is just for you. We will offer you yogic techniques that help to tame stress for both the children in your classroom and for you.  This program is typically offered to groups.

When asked to teachers

“What do you teach?” Do you reply, “Math, English…?” Consider replying, “No, I teach KIDS”
Vella Goebel, PhD Education, Director of Graduate Programs and Teacher Education at the University of Southern Indiana.

The Good of Children is at the heart of everything we do at Youth Yoga School LLC.  Join us, and Aspire to Inspire!

 

For more information, check out our trainings page or contact stacey@yogaandlife.com for  more information.