ENGLISH YOGASTORY WORKSHOPS

How to teach yoga to kids through stories

Every individual has the potential to be original  Yogi Bhajan

 

A 16 hour workshop aimed at yoga teachers, school teachers, therapists & parents

This creative workshop is the result of 25 years teaching children, adolescents & adults, first as an English teacher, 10 years as a teacher trainer of primary and secondary school teachers and a decade as a yoga teacher.

We know that children are naturally curious and creative, but in the modern world in which they live their senses are overstimulated from an early age (from TV, computers, video games etc), they are encouraged to be passive and obedient at school and perhaps at home too, so that their sense of wonder, their innate curiosity to learn is severely stifled.  They have shorter attention spans, they need a lot of changes of activity, stimulating material and other support to follow any kind of class that runs for a whole academic year.  With this in mind, I started to adapt short stories to use in class and then I started writing stories myself. By integrating yoga postures into stories and by using stories in the relaxation stage of the class, I found you can capture a child's imagination and interest to a much greater degree.  

"What we learn, we learn by doing" Aristotle
We also know that children (well, all human beings actually) think, feel and express themselves with their whole body and they need to actively participate and do things for themselves in order to learn. So by permitting a child to participate in and help develop the story (recapturing their sense of wonder), to invent their own postures and movement, (working individually, in pairs or as a group), you stimulate their creativity even more and you allow them the space in which they can be themselves and express themselves with their bodies, in whichever way they choose, discovering what their body can and cannot do. 

There are many advantages of using yoga stories and visualizations for the teacher too, namely that having a yoga story is like having a yoga series and it gives you a framework for your class.  The story can be interactive and educational, it can transmit valuable ideas about our emotions and beliefs and for older children it can be a springboard for discussion topics and related activities.

Practical part: 

• experience a couple of yoga story classes as if you were young/older children
• in small groups create yoga postures to represent elements of the story: individually, in pairs and as a group
• teach a yoga/relaxation story in small groups
• explore creative ways to give instructions for asanas (yoga postures) & explore creative techniques for storytelling
• share/experience/teach 1) ice-breakers & activities to begin the class 2) warm-up activities 3) ways to work with asanas & stories 4) ways to work with asanas & games 5) relaxation activities 6) concentration activities 7) calming activities for the senses & emotional expression 8) activities to end the class
• explore the use of a wide range of material to help us make yoga more accessible to children: pictures to use with stories & games, cartoons, drawings, musical instruments, felt letters, picture dice, story stones, felt finger puppets, yoga card games, felt bean bags...
• explore & create fun yoga activities adapting classical children's songs & games

Theoretical-practical part: 

• we will look at what yoga for kids is, and we will define our own beliefs and our own individual teaching style
• we will reflect on what children are like (naturally creative, curious to learn …) and see how our methodology can adapt itself to respect their nature 
• we will reflect on children's likes, on their emotional and physical needs and their motivation at each stage in life (young children, older children, pre-teens)
• we will look at how to structure a class for each age group
• we will look at the challenges that come up in in a yoga class with children and possible solutions for those challenges
• we will share classroom resources: websites, books, authors, articles, music, courses, magazines etc…
• and many more questions ... all of which we will deal with in a varied, interactive way because the methodology of the workshop reflects the methodology we can apply to our children's yoga classes, namely that real learning is when it is INTERACTIVE, not passive, COLLABORATIVE and above all CREATIVE.

"We cannot teach people anything.  We can only help them discover it within themselves. "Galileo Galilei

This workshop offers a whole range of activities & resources: activities, games & material for each stage of the class and adapted yoga/relaxation short stories of all kinds: from traditional or classic tales to modern stories, stories from all over the world, or stories with a yoga message.  The aim of the workshop is to give you the confidence to use & adapt stories for yoga with children & families, to improvise and even create your own stories, visualisations & games.  It will give you an insight into ways in which to transmit stories, from the way we use our voice to using Indian storytelling techniques such as mudras (hand gestures). Most importantly the workshop shows how you can involve children so that they are the creators of their learning process.

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Weekend workshops in Spain are held in Spanish - see the EVENTS section for dates 
This workshop is also held in English in Blanquerna, Ramón Llull University, Barcelona, look at the Blanquerna  Course section of this blog for more info

Investment: 190 euros (early bird registration for 20 hour course)

To reserve your place: 50 euros and the rest on the first day of the course

Contact Lisa Howe at the following email address for information and to register: yogastorieskids@gmail.com

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Participants on the course will receive the workshop activity pack*

*the activity pack contains two sizeable pamphlets: one is the theory of the workshop, while the other contains instructions for all the games and exercises demonstrated in the workshop, and more to be going on with ...
* there is also a digital pack: you will receive more than 30 adapted stories, 12 PowerPoint presentations from the course, pictures, articles & more...