Teaching Mountain Pose | Kids Yoga 3+

Mountain Pose, or is Sanskrit, Tadasana, is the most important pose to teach your children/students.

Think of Mountain as the BASE or the ROOTS of every standing yoga posture.

Every standing posture begins in a nice, strong Mountain Pose.

Make sure your children/students have enough room to stretch their arms wide without bumping into objects or each other.

We always come into poses by beginning with the feet.

Ask the children to stand hip width apart. This means about 2 fists width of space between the feet.

Toes are pointed forward.

Encourage a slight bend or a bounce in the knee.

Lengthen the spine. Ask the children to grab an imaginary string on the top of their head and pull themselves up tall.

Next, ask the children to squeeze their shoulders up to their ears and gently release or glide their shoulder blades down their back.

Fingers should be pointed down. Ask your children/students to imagine sending laser beams from their fingertips into the ground.

Lastly, encourage the children to engage all of their muscles as they stand tall and strong just like a Mountain.

When your students are ready, you can ask them to “test” each others Mountain Pose.

This is done by 1 person gently pushing 2 fingers against another students shoulder while they are engaged in Mountain. This allows the students to feel their strength and also encourages body awareness.

If you would like to add positive self talk in your Mountain Pose practice, ask your students to say “I Am Strong” while their muscles are engaged in a strong Mountain pose.

You could also teach mountain pose with an anatomy lesson about the spine or skeleton and its functions in the human body. Or maybe in a geography lesson about mountains.

Remember to make yoga & mindfulness time with your children/students your own. Keep it simple and always practice with the children!

Check out http://www.kidsvirtualyoga.com for more about children's yoga & mindfulness.