Let's Move!

Hi everyone! What a fun time in our last class of this summer series of kids' yoga at Centered. Remember, this was just the last class with me (for now!). Lauren, Centered co-founder and yoga teacher with years of experience working with children, will be picking up the class for at least the duration of the summer. Keep dropping by to play yoga with her; you'll have a great time!

***UPDATE! Lauren and I have decided to keep this Kids Yoga class going as a regular part of Centered's class schedule! She and I will take turns teaching the class, swapping back and forth from week to week and subbing for one another when needed. So, I will be back again for more yoga fun with you on July 13 and July 27. Hooray!***

This week we opened as always with our "Yoga Time" song, and we continued the same Balloon Breath exercise that I introduced last week. Then we warmed up our bodies with our "Sun Dance."

This week's book was Move! by Steve Jenkins. I love this book not only for its wonderful opportunities for creative movement, but also for the excellent animal vocabulary that it introduces. Rather than cats and dogs and cows, this book features gibbons, jacanas and armadillos! This is a great example of why picture books are such an awesome tool for helping parents expose their children to lots and lots of words, an important indicator of later school success.

Then children's musician Jim Gill led us in a "Silly Dance Contest." How fun! You can find this song on his CD Moving Rhymes for Modern Times.

We played our yoga game again, based on the book by Kathy Beliveau, this time learning mountain, eagle and lion poses.

Next it was time to begin cooling down, so we found the love singing "Love Inside My Heart" as we've done each week of this series. We began to settle toward rest reading Peace by Wendy Anderson Halperin. And then finally the most important part of our yoga class...time to rest.

I can't tell you how much fun it has been for me to share yoga storytime with all of you this summer. Thank you so very much for coming, for telling your friends, for spreading the word on Facebook and for your donations. Also, thank you Centered for opening your incredible space in this way for the families in our community. I look forward to working with you again!

NAMASTE