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Baby yoga – a bedtime ritual

August 30, 2013 By Anna 16 Comments

Establishing a smooth, calm, happy bedtime routine that concludes with the heavy breathing of a sweetly sleeping babe by 7:30pm – ish  has been more than a journey! (Someday I may have the energy to document a few highlights of our experience. Who knows, there may come a day when I’ll want to look back, smile and laugh at these epic, sleep deprived days!!)
One of our special bedtime rituals, which the whole family loves, is baby yoga! 
We have found that 2 year old B settles much easier when he has used up a good deal of energy during the day. If, after his bath, he is still jumping and dancing about like a crazy, little puppy… we often pull out one of our favourite bed time books: Sleepy Little Yoga, by Rebecca Whitford and Martina Selway.
baby-yoga.001

It is such a gorgeous book, which calms B down page by page, through a series of animal poses and ‘goodnight sounds’. From a sensory processing perspective, I believe this book is a fabulous tool for encouraging B to experience the tactile (deep touch) and proprioceptive (heavy work) sensory input he seems to be seeking to help him calm and focus on preparing for bedtime and sleep.

sleepy-little-yoga

Copying the animal yoga poses provides many great opportunities for kids including:
– practising visual motor organisation (coordination) skills,
– working on balance skills,
– gaining a greater sense of body (spatial) awareness,
– listening and following instructions,
– establishing  a wonderful routine for your family’s daily rhythm, and
– practising how to slow down, focus and self calm.
baby-yoga.002
We introduced this book to B not long after his 1st birthday and it did not take him long to learn the different animal poses and sounds! Now at nearly 2 1/2 years old, he still absolutely loves it and either points at the book shelves, asking for “Baby Yo–gahh” if it is out of reach, or just helps himself to it any old time of day ‘just because’. It is the most adorable thing to peek on a quiet, content toddler, expecting some trick like a canister of hand soap to be dispensed on the floor, and instead, to find him curled up like a porcupine or humming like “a sleepy bee”, imitating whichever page has fallen open.
baby-yoga.003
Although it is probably best read through cover to cover to follow the series of poses as intended, I often take a more child-led approach, and encourage B to choose which animal pose he feels like doing …[read: to avoid bedtime tantrums and carry on pre-bed when he insists on flipping to his favourite pages, I am happy to follow suit:-)!!]
This book has been around a while (since 2007), and we are not the only ones who love it! You can follow the link here to check out Lauren from Tutus and Teaparties‘ cutest little one performing some of the poses from Sleepy Little Yoga too. 

We also have a copy of “Little Yoga: A toddler’s first book of yoga” which the same authors published two years earlier, in 2005. This book is a favourite of Kate from An Everyday Story who has documented some wonderful outcomes of her son practising the yoga regularly here.
 
Whilst I am not a yoga expert by any stretch of the imagination, Giselle Shardlow from Kids Yoga Stories is! Giselle is a big advocate of kids enjoying yoga anytime of the day and has this to say about why yoga is so good for kids to do at bedtime:
“Your child’s sleep habits will potentially affect his or her health, academic performance, and emotional well-being.  Creating a consistent and positive bedtime ritual that your child looks forward to each night will benefit not only him/her, but the whole family.  Adding yoga to the bedtime routine invites calm and stillness to their busy lives through yoga postures, relaxation techniques, and breath work.  Everyone gets the benefit of the enjoyable and relaxing experience.  Calming poses are forward bends, restorative poses, gentle twists, and some inversions.  Try a few postures or read a kids yoga bedtime story together.  Treasure these magical moments and know that you are giving your child the gift of healthy sleep habits for life.”
Having had such great success with our first couple of kids’ yoga books, we are keen to explore more! If you have not checked out Kids Yoga Stories‘ yoga inspired books for 3-8 year olds – you simply must! They are beautiful, educational and fun additions to every family’s book collection and daily routines. Watch for a review of  Luke’s Beach Day coming soon to Kids’ Play Space!

But wait! There’s more!…

Marnie at Carrots are Orange also loves to incorporate yoga in her kids’ day, and has a great list of yoga books for kids on her post here.

And here are a couple of other sites to check for those of you who are interested in kids practising yoga:
Kids Yoga 101
Just For Daisy – How to do yoga with a toddler
 
Remember: 
– Every child (person) has their own particular sensory profile, requiring their own ‘sensory diet’. Our routine includes some ideas, carried out in a particular order, which seem to be well suited to our 2 year old. For specific sensory processing advice for your child related to calming/settling, an individual paediatric occupational therapy assessment is recommended.

For more of our bedtime ritual fun, you may like to check out Star Gazing and Possum Hunting…

 

 

 

 

 

 

…or our guest post on the fabulous Housing A Forest website: a  fun Nocturnal Possum Small World – in a window sill activity, learning about the night time creatures and offering a temporary indoor possum hunting alternative on stormy, nasty nights!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for visiting Kids’ Play Space!
’til soon,

Anna 🙂 
PS: I’d love to hear your experiences, ideas or book recommendations with bedtime yoga!

Follow Anna @ Kids Play Space’s board Kids’ Yoga Resources on Pinterest.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. yoga in india says

    April 26, 2017 at 9:06 pm

    Hey Anna, nice one.. Seriously , you have explored the baby yoga very well and it was very good to read it. 🙂

    Reply
  2. yoga in rishikesh says

    January 15, 2018 at 5:33 pm

    Hey dear thanks for sharing great post about kids yoga with us. i am very happy to read this.

    Reply
  3. Rishikesh Yoga says

    May 16, 2018 at 5:49 pm

    Namaste,
    Great & unique article. thanks for sharing with us. keep up the good work.

    Reply
  4. Shiva Tattva Yoga School says

    May 19, 2018 at 4:02 pm

    Hey, this is such a very nice post about baby yoga. Thankx for sharing with us, Thankx again:)

    Reply
  5. Rishi Yog says

    July 16, 2018 at 6:24 pm

    Nice Post Anna. Thanks for sharing the information.

    Reply
  6. krishnamachary healing and yoga foundation says

    July 17, 2018 at 12:17 pm

    Thanks for sharing. Nice post.

    Reply
  7. yoga teacher training in Rishikesh says

    October 11, 2018 at 7:28 pm

    Great ! very Informative Article…Thnx for Sharing .

    Reply
  8. Meditation types says

    January 18, 2019 at 4:06 am

    Great article ANNA! I think we need to teach our young children different types of focusing meditation techniques for better mental health and yoga for better physical posture and yoga will also help them in growing faster and keep them active.

    Reply
    • Anna says

      January 21, 2019 at 10:31 pm

      I agree!

      Reply
  9. Elina Smith says

    February 4, 2019 at 1:35 am

    Hello Anna, Great article. Firstly I would like to congratulate you for this useful information. Yoga is beneficial for the development of the child. thanks for sharing a great post about kids yoga. looking ahead for the good articles from you.
    thanks

    Reply
  10. yoga classes dehradun says

    March 10, 2019 at 12:25 am

    it is so nice post. You have explored Dream Yoga in a very good way and really I felt very good to read it. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
  11. Yoga teacher training Rishikesh says

    March 16, 2019 at 7:05 pm

    thanks for sharing such a great post. well written article.

    Reply
  12. yoga ttc in rishikesh says

    March 19, 2019 at 6:42 pm

    Thanks for sharing the information..

    Reply
  13. MDVTI Yoga Institute says

    May 16, 2019 at 3:15 pm

    Hey Anna,
    Thanks for sharing this article.You have explored baby yoga in an excellent way.

    Reply
  14. Himalayan Holistic Yoga School says

    June 3, 2019 at 9:13 pm

    Hi Anna, this is such a beautiful article on kids yoga. Thanx for sharing with us. 🙂

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. How to Get your Child to Sleep Better - Kids Yoga Stories | Yoga stories for kids says:
    September 18, 2018 at 1:08 am

    […]  Add yoga to your bedtime ritual. Kids Play Space […]

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