Fall is a fun time to be outside. When thinking about this season, one can’t help but think of all the wonderful things we can explore about nature. This is a great time to do yoga outside and explore all the fun ideas that come with the season.
Nature has always provided a backdrop for yoga. The yoga we do today comes from ancient yogis exploring how it felt to emulate what they saw in nature.
Fun Poses To Explore With Kids
1. Tree/Wind Pose
- Try doing tree pose as partners. Make one person become the tree another person be the wind.
- To come into tree pose, stand tall on both feet, then shift your weight to one leg and bring your other foot to rest on your ankle or your calf or your thigh.
- Stretch the arms up alongside the ears.
- To be the wind, take deep breaths in and then blow your tree. See if your tree can withstand your high wind.
- Take turns to be the tree and the wind.
2. Acorn/Child’s Pose
Acorns fall from the tree. When they fall, they land on the ground, and then re-generate to become trees. Try coming into tree pose first, and then falling to the ground and becoming an acorn, and then growing back into a tree. What better way to learn that life is cyclical!
- Child’s pose is as simple as coming to your hands and knees, bring your toes to touch, and either keep the legs together or separate the knees and then sit back on your heels and lower the torso down to the legs or above the ground.
- Forehead rests on the floor with your arms resting alongside you, or you can bring the arms in front of you with your elbows bent and let your forehead rest on your hands.
- Make sure to take a few deep breaths here, as it takes time to regenerate and become a tree again!
3. Down Dog Tunnel/Snake Pose
This is a fun game to play, and especially when you have a group of kids and/or adults playing.
- Everyone lines up side by side on hands and knees to start.
- Then lift the knees off the ground and come into dog pose.
- The person at the back of the tunnel turns to face the tunnel, then comes onto their belly and uses their arms to help themselves slither through the tunnel of dogs.
- When they get to the front they go into dog pose and the next person goes.
- You can time this to make it a win/win game where you try to beat your time.
It’s fun to do with leaves on the ground, making the crinkling sound through the leaves adds a whole other element to the game!
4. Firelog Pose
Pretend to build a fire like the pilgrims did to prepare for their Thanksgiving meal. In order to build fire they had to cut down some trees first and collect logs.
- Stand with the legs a little wider than hips width.
- Stretch the arms overhead and clasp your hands.
- Take a deep breath and then bring the hands towards the ground as you fold from the hips.
- Inhale raise up and exhale chop again like you have an axe in your hands.
- Repeat a few more times.
- Sit and position the legs so that your knees are bent and your shins are stacked with the ankle of the top leg resting on the knee of the bottom leg. This is firelog pose.
- Breathe here for a minute or two, you can fold forward over the legs to deepen the stretch.
- Switch which leg is on top and hold for another minute or two.
5. Use A Prop
- Apples and small pumpkins make for great props!
- Use a small pumpkin or apple as a point of focus for meditation.
- Use them as a point of focus for balancing poses like tree or eagle where you need to focus on something to help you balance better.
- Put them on your belly while you rest in final relaxation and focus on giving it a ride up and down with your breath going in and out.
Enjoy spending quality time with your kids practicing yoga. Not only does practice of yoga bring one closer to him/herself, it also creates a deeper interpersonal connection with others. Have gratitude for this connection you can make.
