Kid’s Yoga

Kids Yoga Classes by Lotus Yoga:

Manitoba Childrens’ Museum Weekly After school Program runs from January-May and September-November.

Drop in for a seasonal “give it a try” day where you are invited for free to come with your kids and see what we get up to at the weekly classes.

Please email Diana: dhyana.justl@gmail.com
or The Children’s Museum at: BrienneSantos@childrensmuseum.com
for more information.

The Children’s Museum also offers an Arts Club where Lotus Yoga offers yoga and theatre activities as part of a fun filled after school program.

The Arts Club is an after-school program that is part of our Access initiative for students whose families may not have the financial means to register them in extra-curricular activities. It is free for the students who participate. Arts Club runs throughout the year as a series of five-week blocks, each with their own theme. The students receive instruction in an art form from local arts professionals. As well, the students receive free play time in the museum’s galleries, a healthy snack and passes to the museum for their families.

The sessions take place once a week from 4-6 pm, with an hour of instruction time from 4:30 to 5:30.

Why do yoga with your kids?

I have found that yoga can quickly and effectively bring a sense of ease, focus and cooperation into any group. When children learn ways to take care of themselves through relaxation, and inner fulfillment, they can face life’s challenges with more ease and confidence. Yoga at an early age encourages self-esteem and body awareness with a physical activity that’s noncompetitive. Fostering cooperation and compassion instead of opposition is a great gift to give our children.

Doing yoga, children not only exercise and play, but connect more deeply with their inner selves. Yoga can bring an awareness of children’s relationship with the natural world around them. It validates what they already know-that a bee is as important as a tree or human bee-ing 🙂

Our children’s lives are effected by an increasingly busy world with busy parents, school pressures, continuous lessons, video games, malls, and competitive sports. We usually don’t think of these influences as stressful for our kids, but often they are. The fast pace of our children’s lives can have a profound effect on how they develop and sometimes not for the better.

Taking time to breath and connect with our kids in simple, flowing and creative movement can help counter these pressures.

What Lotus Yoga can offer:

A playful, dynamic flow practice with space to breath, relax and meditate.
Benefits include:
-Physical: enhancing flexibility, strength, coordination, and body awareness.
-Mental: concentration, a lasting sense of calmness and relaxation.
-Emotional: fostering acceptance, compassion, and encouraging our children to be who they are.

The aim of Lotus Yoga is to connect children to a bigger picture: we are an interconnected global community and can live more in harmony with nature.

I have a strong background as an actor and director of theatre and have undergone over 14 years of training in this art. I began my theatre training at the age of 14 and it completely changed my idea of myself and what I could do, aiding in my confidence and reclaiming the power of my imagination. Blending these imaginative and storytelling skills with yoga (my second life changing passion that I discovered when I was 16) I found a potent platform from which to exchange wisdom with others, share ideas, and work collaboratively to express those ideas. This laid the foundation for a lifelong practice that I love to share with kids.

In my experience as a kid’s yoga and theatre instructor, I have been inspired by the ability of all the kid’s I’ve worked with to take the poses and games we play to new levels I couldn’t have come with on my own.

I am deeply moved by children’s innate intelligence and honesty and it is my intention to tune in to how they are instructing me to instruct them. I really feel we co-create our classes together. We use the yoga postures to explore many other areas of education: how animals live and behave, music and playing instruments, storytelling, indigenous wisdom, learning about other cultures, environmental stewardship and awareness, etc.

These classes are a truly interdisciplinary approach to learning. Together we weave stories with our bodies and minds in a flow that blends magic with education. I feel this is the best way to learn and create life changing relationships and experiences.