Making Yoga More Interesting for Children: 'Hands Up' Activity

When doing yoga with children, it is important to make the sessions more engaging and dynamic, integrating elements they can relate to. Avoid using words like peace, balance, and focus because they tend to be too abstract.

This post will follow through my 7-year-old brother's experience through a 20 minute yoga session. He started off in an irritable mood. Throughout the day, he was crying repeatedly and constantly fighting with his twin sister. I brought them both together in the evening and started off with an activity:

Hands Up

This activity is great if your child is unwilling to open up or express their feelings. You will go through a list of words that are positive or negative. Before both lists, instruct the child to raise their hand for each word that represents how they feel.

For my brother, this is how it went:

Happy Sad--HANDS UP

Cheerful Angry--HANDS UP

Surprised Nervous

Calm Stressed--HANDS UP

Excited Scared

Silly Embarrassed

Here, my brother could clearly tell that he raised his hands more on the words that were negative. We then did a yoga lesson involving the Hero Pose and Chakra Pose.

For the Hero Pose (see Yoga Session 9 for reference), I made a connection to my brother's current favorite Netflix series: Grizzy and the Lemmings. I asked him to bend over and touch his forehead on the mat, pretending he was a small lemming, and I instantly saw his face light up. He began acting like a lemming, bringing his hands toward his face like paws, and more readily understood what I was saying. It also created some lighthearted moments between him and his sister.

This is one example of how incorporating concepts children relate to can further their interest in yoga.

At the end of the 20 minutes, I tried the activity again:

Happy--HANDS UP Sad

Cheerful--HANDS UP Angry

Surprised Nervous

Calm--HANDS UP Stressed

Excited--HANDS UP Scared

Silly--HANDS UP Embarrassed

This time, there was a clear shift towards the positive words--again, another way for him, and other children, to clearly see what shifts their mood. In my brother's case, it was a Grizzy and the Lemmings reference.