Cosmic Kids Yoga website
I may have mentioned once or twice than The Boy, like many (most?) three year olds is a tiny bundle of seriously high-energy, wired over-tiredness, a ticking time bomb of half-understood emotion and high spirits just waiting for a thwarting of his will to completely lose.his.shit. Preschool have suggested some strategies, The Man and I have done our research and read up a few parenting books and tried all kinds of different ways to help him regulate his emotions and behaviour. Banning television has helped, to a point, and I thought mindfulness might be a useful skill for him to learn, but when I tried it we actually ended up with our biggest meltdown ever – turns out the difficulty of teaching your own children anything starts pretty early.
Anyway, one day I was doing my early-morning yoga (Erin Motz 30 day yoga if you want to look it up) and, as usual, the kids were fascinated: using me as a tunnel, bridge and all-round climbing frame (yippee). Having spotted some childrens’ yoga on the menu I asked The Boy if he’d like to have a go at one and he jumped at the chance. We had a few trial and error fails (awful American accents, patronising instructors etc) but then I lit upon Cosmic Kids Yoga Youtube and I knew we were onto a winner.
The instructor, Jaime, is warm, friendly, straightforward and English – actually based in South Oxfordshire! Her enthusiasm is never failing, her approach is beautifully aimed at younger yogis without being condescending and, for a free-to-view channel, the production values are extremely high, with lovely animations and high-resolution viewing. They even have two age-group categories so there are film-based sessions for older kids (like this Harry Potter one below) and animal stories for 3-6 year olds.
The Boy, not known for his long attention span or focus, frequently does two or three of these in a row (that’s half an hour to 45 minutes of peace and quiet!) and even, occasionally watches the Cosmic Kids Zen Den, which focuses on mindfulness and meditation.
I love the way there is a wind down session at the end when Jaime helps kids deal with big emotions like fear or worry , and even discusses listening, focusing and concentration – all Big Topics, Chez Oxfordshire.
I really cannot recommend Cosmic Kids Yoga highly enough. I have not been asked to review them, I have received no money for doing so. I just think they’re the bee’s pyjamas, the dog’s knees, the cat’s bollocks and I had to do a review.
Leave a Reply