Aside from our weekly yoga classes with Cheeba, the children are also welcome to practice yoga in the classroom. Our City Place Montessori Casa classrooms are equipped with a yoga mat, yoga pose cards, books, and a timer.
Nicola Russel (January 29, 2020), founder of Yoga Play and Earth Mother Yoga, enumerates seven benefits of children’s yoga.
- Yoga enhances social connections
- Yoga is fun!
- Yoga connects children to themselves
- Yoga increases focus and concentration
- Yoga is non competitive
- Yoga teaches children respect
- Yoga helps children to slow down.
Bryony Duckitt (July 24, 2019), founder of YogaBeez Children’s Yoga School, on the other hand, details several ways wherein Montessori philosophy parallels with the children’s yoga practice.
- Both are non-competitive with the emphasis being on the process and not the end result – we encourage children to enjoy the poses without trying to perfect them
- Just as Montessori aims to build self-esteem, we modify the poses and give children the tools they need to complete them successfully
- Both work to balance and calm the child
- Both begin simply and gradually increase in difficulty, moving from the concrete to the abstract
- Both value movement as vital to the development of the mind
- There are three parts to a yoga pose: going into the pose, being in the pose and coming out of the pose with control. These correlate with carrying a piece of work from the shelf, using the work and thoughtfully placing the work back on the shelf
