15 Great Ways to Get Kids into Yoga

Yoga is a wonderful practice for kids to get into. Some of the reported benefits to kids doing Yoga include reducing stress, helping kids’ focus, concentration and memory, and improvement in appetites, sleep, and overall well-being. With a little help from a DVD, online video, app, book, or some nifty yoga cards, you can help your kids practice Yoga at home.

With that in mind, we have sought out the best stuff to help you get your kids doing some super cool yoga stuff pronto. Namaste.

Best Yoga DVDs for Kids

There are quite a few yoga DVDs aimed at kids. We checked out the following:

For ages 3-5

The best DVD for the ages 3-5 seems to be a toss-up between YogaKids, Vol. 3: Silly to Calm and Storyland Yoga: Yoga for Kids and Families (ages 3 to 8). Oddly enough, a few reviewers for both DVDs found them a little “weird,” but overall, the reviews for both these DVDs were very positive. A lot of users like to use Silly to Calm before bedtime to get their kids to wind down and become calm and peaceful. A common complaint about this DVD seems to be that there is a bit too much downtime or long pauses in the DVD where the instructor talks about the beauty of trees, etc. The other DVD that is good for this age range is Storyland Yoga: Yoga for Kids and Families. This DVD has two stories with a bit of an eco-conscious message that introduces Yoga by having kids learn yoga postures that are related to the story. What people really like about this DVD is that it keeps very kids interested and gives a fun, engaging elementary introduction to Yoga.

For ages 6 to 9

For ages 6-9, the best DVD seems to be Yoga Kids Two by Marsha Wenig (not to be confused with Yoga Kids, Vol. 2: ABC’s for Ages 3-6). This age group has a bit less choice in yoga DVDs than the younger group, so it’s a little harder to find a standout DVD, but the few reviews we could find(mostly from Amazon) are very positive.

If you are looking for something a little different, you can try Kids Teach Yoga – Flying Eagle starring Lynea Gillen and Haley. Most reviews for this DVD are excellent, one of the things that people like about this DVD is that a child leads the class.

For ages 9+

For ages 9+, we recommend Shanti Generation: Yoga Skills for Youth Peacemakers – Ages 7-16. This is an excellent DVD for youth because it gives guidance on how to achieve stress relief, self-awareness, and self-empowerment all through Yoga. It has five 30 minute sessions to choose from, as well as breathing and relaxation exercises.

Yoga Apps for Kids

One of our favorite yoga apps is Super Stretch Yoga. It is a super helpful resource to help kids learn a few simple poses. What is great about this app is that Super Stretch Yoga includes poses that are easy for children, boys, and girls both appear in the app, and the illustrations are distinctive and appealing for kids.

Kids Yoga Journey is another exciting option for those a little more serious about Yoga. They offer four apps: I am Love, I am Sun, I am Moon, Short Sequence: Kids’ Yoga Journey Lite, and I am energy. All of the apps are for slightly different ages, it is much more new-age than Super Stretch Yoga, but it is worth a look.

Yoga Decks (Cards) for Kids

There are few different yoga decks you can choose from that are available the cards that have the best reviews are the Yoga Pretzels (Yoga Cards) by Tara Lynda Guber. The reason a lot of people like these cards over some of the other yoga cards out there is because they are bigger, sturdier, and more colorful than other cards making them easier to use. The Yoga Pretzels cards include yoga poses, games, and breathing exercises, while other products only have Yoga poses on the cards. One drawback to these cards that they don’t use common names for the poses; instead, they give the poses new names, so this can be a bit irritating for people who are familiar with Yoga.

Free Online Yoga Classes for Kids

Also, check out these super easy to follow YouTube yoga videos for kids:

Cosmic Kids Yoga

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Soccer Basics Young Kids Need to Know

If you have a ball and some general knowledge about soccer, you are all set to teach your little one how to get started building up some exceptional skills. Grab a ball, get your kid, find a backyard or a park, and have some fun! We have found some great tips, some soccer DVDs and books that are an excellent resource for teaching kids everything they need to know.

The four skills you want to introduce to the child are:

Dribbling,
Ball Control
Shooting
Goaltending

Dribbling is moving the ball with your feet. This will be a little trickier than teaching your kids to shoot the ball. You can start by showing them how to move the ball around using different parts of your feet. Don’t get too crazy; just keep it simple and let them have a try. Remember to give them lots of encouragement and keep it fun if you want to create a little bit of a challenge; you can set up cones or obstacles for the child to dribble around.

Ball Control is receiving the ball by stopping its movement. This is an essential skill because you need to be able to set up a quick shot or pass when playing the game. To practice ball control, you can throw or kick the ball to your child so that they can stop the ball with their feet, and then when the ball is under control, they can take a shot back to you or into the net.

Shooting is just kicking the ball. To practice, start with a stationary ball and then work up to a moving balling ball. The shots can be taken from any part of the foot, but the top part of the foot gives the shooter the most power. If you are teaching a very young child, don’t expect too much in the way of accuracy. Practice making shots at the goal from different distances and angles and remember to keep it fun!

Goaltending is another vital skill that you can practice at home. Make sure your child is standing out from the net a little bit, and you can practice taking shots at them from different angles. You can also teach them or have them practice their kicking and ball throwing skills, which are a fun thing that Goalies get to do.

Once the child has gotten the idea of the basic skills, you can introduce them to how the game is played and some more advanced skills. A couple of simple things you can go over:

The object of the game is to get the ball into the net and score points.
The reason they need to learn the necessary skills of dribbling, ball control, and shooting is so that they can move the ball from one end of the field to the other.
Explain the concept of defense and why the goaltender is essential.

Soccer DVD’s for Beginners

If you are looking for DVDs to help show you kids some of the basics of soccer, you could try Soccer for Kids-Getting Started. It has Squishy, the animated talking soccer ball, leading an exciting journey, featuring fun sing-alongs and simple diagrams to help introduce kids to the fundamentals of dribbling, passing, shooting, and more. Or you could try The Littlest Leaguers: Learn to Play Soccer, which is another accessible introduction to the fundamentals of soccer.

If you are looking for something a little bit more advanced, you can try the DVD Soccer Training: Backyard Soccer Drills.

Soccer Books for Beginners

My Soccer Book (for ages 4-8) is a simple book that explains the fundamentals of soccer in basic steps and straightforward explanations for preschoolers.
The Everything Kids’ Soccer Book (for ages 9 +) gives kids tips and strategies for passing, heading, and defending. Kids also learn how to stretch before a big game, proper throw-in technique, rules of the game, dribbling drills, effective on-field communication, and the importance of teamwork.
Little Soccer is a straightforward board book for younger children. It has ‘riddles’ about soccer that the kids can answer. It is part of a Little Sports series that also has books for basketball, baseball, football, and hockey. My five year old loves this series. It’s a simple way to teach kids about some of the aspects of the game.

Teach Your Kids Basic Gymnastic Moves at Home

The moves that are covered in this guide are very basic and are ones that kids will probably try on their own if they see other kids doing them. This guide is meant to give you some pointers on how to help your kids perform the moves properly if they are trying them at home.

A couple of things to keep in mind before you get started. Make sure you are spotting your child when they are learning the moves. Most of the videos that are included in this guide show you how to do this. Also before having your child do any gymnastics, be sure to have them stretch for at least ten minutes in order to prevent injury and warm up their muscles.

Getting Started

For the following four tumbling exercises the (forward roll, the bridge, cart wheels and the splits) you should make sure you are not practicing on a hard floor or surface, you will need to use something as a mat. If need to use something as a gymnastics mat you can use an old mattress, sofa cushions, or any large pieces of foam you might have lying around that will provide enough support to prevent injury.

The Somersault/Forward Roll

When you are attempting to teach a child a somersault, make sure you are doing this on a soft surface. In some of the videos you will see the kids using incline mats or cheese mats (because they look like a wedge of cheese). These mats help children get started doing somersaults and other moves where they need help getting their head over their heels. You can make an incline mat by piling up cushions underneath a larger cushion.

The following video has good tips for spotting younger kids that you are trying to teach:

The next video has a good forward roll demonstration using an incline mat:

The Bridge

Have your child lie on the floor with their feet near his bottom and their hands by their ears and help him push up into a bridge.

Cartwheels

If you don’t have a lot of space in your house, have your child practice their cartwheels outside to avoid the risk of injury. The following video give you some good instructions on what to do for a successful cartwheel.

The Splits

The splits are a move that can be super easy for some kids, but for most it takes a bit of work to master. The key to doing the splits is to work on your stretches, so make sure your kids go easy on this when just starting out.

Handstands

There are a couple of steps to mastering the handstand. The following video shows the progression.

The Balance Beam

There are a few different approaches you can take for the balance beam. For very young children you can make a balance beam on the floor using masking tape. Create a masking tape balance beam that is about 8 feet long and 4 inches wide. As the child gets better at walking on the balance beam, they can try doing things like going sideways, backwards, cartwheels, hops, or somersaults. If you want to make something more advanced check out this blog post on how to make homemade balance beam at In Lieu of Preschool. If you wanted to buy a beam you could get something like this High Density Foam Balance Beam.

This video has a great demo on what small kids can do on a simple balance beam.

Warning The advice in this guide is not meant to replace a knowledgeable gymnastics coach. GradeInfinity cannot be held responsible for any accidents in gymnastics that may occur from following any tips that are included in this post.

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The Quick and Easy Way to Teach Kids to Ride a Bike

There are a few different methods for learning to ride a bicycle, and people have pretty strong opinions on what they think is the best method. We aren’t going to wade into that argument; instead, we are going to break it down into two different techniques that parents can use to teach their children how to ride a bike and show you some of the best instructions we could find for each method. Try them all and see what works best for you.

Learning to Ride a Bike the New School Way

This method focuses on learning to balance first and then worrying about peddling and stopping once the balancing has been understood. People are pretty keen on this method, and there are lots of videos that show you how it is done.

For this method, the key is to have a bike that is slightly undersized so the child can put his or her feet flat on the ground. If you have already bought a bike that is a little bigger than you were hoping they could grow into you could try and borrow a bike or check out garage sales or Craigslist, remember it doesn’t have to be the best bike around just something to help your kids learn to balance.

Once you have a bike that the child can sit on with their feet flat on the ground, you will remove the pedals, and the idea is that the child can learn to balance since their feet can touch the ground, and they can stop themselves from falling. If the child is comfortable, they can scoot along the pavement or use a slight slope to move them forward.

This video about a non-profit biking group in New York is a pretty good argument for this method.

Another great video is from the REI Outdoor School uses this method and gives an excellent lesson on everything you need to know.

Learning to Ride a Bike the Old School Way

The Old School Method is probably how you learned to ride your bike. This method involves taking the training wheels off your kid’s bike and running like hell along beside them, holding either the back of the seat or under the child’s armpits or shoulders until you can’t take it anymore and let go. Your child will either stop, fall, or keep on riding, and hopefully, at some point, will stop safely. Since there is a very high chance your child will fall, make sure they are wearing safety equipment (Especially a helmet that fits properly).

If you are using training wheels and don’t want to remove them cold turkey, it is possible to slowly move the training wheels higher and higher off the ground until they are hardly touching and so the child is weaned off them, and when the time comes to remove them, it isn’t as big of a deal.

If the child is having a lot of trouble with the balance, you can try taking a break from the bike and practice balance with a scooter. A lot of people find riding scooters to be helpful to learn to balance on bikes.

One of the big problems with this method is it is pretty hard on the back of the adult who is running along with the bike. A few people have come with some solutions to this problem using towels or bed sheets, or you can try a version of the grassy slope method.

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Simple Lessons That Can Help Your Kids Learn to Swim

If you are a parent who would like to teach your child how to swim, there are some pretty good tips and videos online that can give you great advice on how to help kids learn how to swim. We have rounded up some of the best websites, DVDs, and online videos to show you what to focus on.

Before you start, though, remember that water safety is the most essential thing, so kids under seven should always be within arm’s reach of an adult and NEVER leave a small child unattended near pools, lakes, rivers, streams.

If you are up for the challenge, here are some online swimming lessons to check out:

U Swim is an excellent free site that describes itself as the community service, which shows you how to teach children of all ages to swim. They break videos down by age and skill level, and this is a great place to start if you want to learn how to teach some necessary swimming skills. They also offer an iPhone app.
World Wide Swim School is another option for parents who are looking for online lessons. This site was created by Laurie Lawrence, who is Australia’s water safety advocate, infant aquatics pioneer, learn to swim expert and gold medal Olympic swim coach (Gold!). You download the lessons in this program, and they cost around $100 each, this is a bit pricey, but there are some free samples so you can try the program before buying it.

If those aren’t quite your cup of tea, have a look at these online video series:

Robert Bina’s “Learn how to swim” series is pretty great if you can get past the funky music and the old school graphics. The videos in this five-part series are very informative and very strong on teaching safety tips. This is a good series for ages 5 -9.
Phillip Toriello’s video series are short lessons on things like floating, treading water, big arms, and diving. They are very watchable and give lots of useful tips.

If you want a DVD check out:

The Swimming Lesson This series was made to teach children the basics of swimming and water safety in the pool. This is a guide for a fun interactive under five-year-olds swimming lesson. You can download this program to your computer for $9.95, or there is an iPhone version that is also $9.95 that might come in handy if you are traveling and maybe trying to teach your kids to swim at a hotel pool.
Waterproof Kids DVD is another DVD that has step by step lessons to help parents teach kids how to swim with a strong emphasis on safety. The reviews are generally very strong for this DVD, with people finding it well organized, easy to follow, and it has useful age-appropriate techniques.

Websites

Teach Your Kids to Swim is a site with tips and tricks for fun-for-everyone swimming lessons.

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