Yoga kids

Susan Kramer's website is so cute!!
Kids are definitely good with yoga though. I've been having the kids do Wai Lana Little Yogi DVDs for ages now and they still love it.

* Presented are 15 poses that stretch and strengthen while promoting balance, coordination, the ability to concentrate and an increase in vitality through energetic practice.

* The axial movements (moves with the body in place) include forward bending, backward bending, twisting and sitting erect, all of which should be done gently without straining.

* Practiced in order, each one leads smoothly into the next.

* All poses and meditations can be done on carpet. Alternately, practice outdoors on a grassy spot on a blanket or mat. It is best to exercise before, rather than right after eating.

* Breathe in to begin the pose, and breathe out to finish the pose. In between, breathe evenly.

* Children should remain quiet during practice to maintain personal concentration.

Note:
Yoga practices are non-competitive.
Each person begins at their current level of fitness and ability,
and progresses at their own rate.
This makes these gentle yoga poses and exercises,
with adaptations as needed,
appropriate for those challenged.

I guess it's just like how I still love doing Wai Lana hello fitness after over 3 years of doing it.

Red Cross Offers Flu-Prevention Tips for Kids

Red Cross Offers Flu-Prevention Tips for Kids

Wednesday, April 29, 2009 —

As parents and teachers know, children have a way of picking up colds and other illnesses at school. As the number of swine flu (H1N1 Flu Outbreak) cases increases in the U.S., it becomes even more important to teach kids how to stay healthy.

Teach Good Health Habits
Proper and consistent hand washing is one of the easiest ways to prevent the spread of flu. Teach kids by example by showing them proper hand washing technique:

* Wet hands with water and apply an amount of soap recommended by the manufacturer to hands.
* Rub hands together vigorously for at least 20 seconds, covering all surfaces of the hands and giving added attention to fingernails and surfaces where jewelry is worn.
* Rinse hands with water.
* Dry thoroughly with a disposable towel.
* Use towel to turn off faucet.

For younger children who may rush their hand washing, have them sing a short song such as "Row Row Row Your Boat," or the "Happy Birthday"song, which will ensure they wash for at least 20 seconds. Placing hand-washing reminders at children's eye level will also help them become consistent hand washers.

Teach kids to adopt these other healthy habits in order to prevent the spread of germs:

* Avoid sharing objects such as utensils, cups, and bottles.
* Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze and wash your hands afterwards. If tissue-less, cough or sneeze into your elbow or upper arm, not your hands.
* Keep your hands away from your eyes, nose and mouth to keep germs from entering your body.

Parents should also prepare for the potential spread of swine flu by talking with family members and loved ones about how they would be cared for if they got sick. Also ask your child's school or day care if there are plans to encourage sick children to stay home to reduce the spread of the disease.
The Scrub Club

Educational Tools
Parents and teachers can reinforce kids' hand-washing habits by using tools such as The Scrub Club®, an interactive Web site that offers free materials to raise awareness about the benefits of hand washing to fight germs and prevent illness. The fun, Web-based experience is complete with educational materials, music, games and cartoon "Webisodes."

The Scrub Club® is being used by hundreds of schools nationwide, and teachers continue to integrate the Scrub Club educational activities into their daily curriculum. These educational materials are currently available in French, English and Spanish.

The American Red Cross and NSF International (NSF) have collaborated to help protect public health. Collectively, NSF, the Red Cross and seven "soaper-heroes"are teaching children the importance of proper and consistent hand washing through the Scrub Club®. Through this partnership, the two organizations are helping educate communities across the nation about the benefits of handwashing to fight germs and prevent illness.

Japan's 'Exam Hell' Hits Preschool

Wen ids are this stressed out, they should also balance out the pressure and the fun. The best way to let them loosen up and relax - which in turn, will help them do better in their studies, is through Wai lana's Little Yogis Daydream kit. Happy learning! Happy resting!

Japan's 'Exam Hell' Hits Preschool

By YURIKO NAGANO
TOKYO, April 26, 2009

It's a quiet afternoon in suburban Tokyo as a well-dressed boy and his mother enter Nikken, a cram school for kindergartners and preschoolers. The mother bows to staff, confirms a pickup time, and drives off in her Mercedes as the boy hunkers down at that most iconic of Japanese institutions: the cram school.
Japan's 'exam hell' now reaches into preschool
In Japan, the pressure to get onto the right path in life now extends all the way down to preschools. Parents and kids stress over exams and suit up to make a good impression and get onto the right track early.

Japan's juken, or "exam hell," has long evoked images of stressed kids competing for slots at top universities in an all-or-nothing exam. But this approach has increasingly moved down the ladder.

Now, in what is known as ojuken, nursery-schoolers are doing worksheets and attending special classes to secure a seat in primary school that their parents hope will ensure their long-term success.

The reasons for the shift are complex. Japan's youth population is declining, and many colleges are scrambling to fill seats -- something that should make it easier to get into all but the most exclusive schools.

Instead, many parents are ever more relentlessly seeking competitive advantages, especially as the economic downturn makes competition for jobs more intense.

"The low birthrate does seem to be pushing parents to give all they can to the one child," says Makoto Kobari, an associate professor at Doshisha Women's College of Liberal Arts in Kyoto. "It's an act of selective extravagance."

"There's definitely an ojuken craze heating up," says Naoki Ogi, head of the Practical Education Research Institute in Tokyo. But, he adds, "we're talking about a very limited part of society that this is happening in."

No formal data exist on the ojuken population. But the competition for the schools parents are targeting can be fierce: For the class entering Tokyo's Keio Gijuku Yochisha elementary school in 2008, for example, there were 2,468 applicants for 144 spots. In recent years, applicant numbers at Keio have steadily increased, up 10 percent over 2006.

The examination process itself takes place between November and December, with the school year starting in April. But ojuken is a year-round business. At Nikken, most families enroll children for two years and typically spend $22,000 on tuition.

Continue reading

Fun Songs for the Kid in All of Us

Fun Songs for the Kid in All of Us

November 18, 2005

Get ready to dance, laugh, and sing your way through each day. This week, Wai Lana, popular host of the long-running PBS series Wai Lana Yoga, gives us her Little Yogis Fun Songs. The perfect Christmas present, this charming CD offers 12 catchy tunes with intelligent, playful lyrics that will warm everyone’s hearts. This gem of an album is a stocking stuffer you can truly feel good about giving.

Perfect for kids aged 3 to 99, Fun Songs combines Wai Lana’s beautiful, inspiring vocals with some of the world’s finest musicians. You’ll bounce, giggle, and roar through a musical adventure that takes everyone through the mighty jungle, stormy mountains, and fabulous yoga fun. These engaging, imaginative tunes really do create a healthy, happy world for kids to thrive in.

“Kids always want to have fun, so I really wanted to give them entertainment that moves them in a positive direction,” says Wai Lana. “But as I worked on this CD, I realized it was something special—that it wasn’t limited to just children but was for anyone who wants more laughter and energy in their life.”

Fun Songs comes with a delightfully illustrated songbook filled with favorite Little Yogis characters and complete song lyrics. The Fun Songs CD is the latest addition to Wai Lana’s growing Little Yogis line, which already includes exercise and relaxation DVDs, music CDs, books, mats, kits, and games. She’ll follow her CD release with a slew of Fun Songs goodies, including puzzles, game cards, activity books, paper dolls, cartoons, and more.
Press Contact:
Angie Smith
angie@wailana.com
Tel. 800-624-9163
Fax 805-986-5447

Consumer Orders:
Tel. 800-228-5145
Wholesale Orders:
Tel. 800-624-9163
www.wailana.com

How to Help Your Child Enjoy the Benefits of Yoga

How to Help Your Child Enjoy the Benefits of Yoga
Anna Montage, Health and Wellness Editor

With the new school year underway, many kids are experiencing new teachers, new classes, and new friends. This is also a great time to start your child on a healthy new habit—yoga. Children today often face the same obstacle to health and happiness that all of us face: stress. Yoga not only helps relieve stress, it provides so many other benefits for children:

* Strengthen, stretch and tone muscles
* Improve balance and coordination
* Increase bodily awareness
* Learn to listen and follow directions
* Laugh and have fun.

This month we’d like to offer some helpful tips for starting your child off on the energizing, calming, and fun path of yoga.
The Younger, the Better

Children are just like little sponges, soaking up everything around them. The earlier you’re able to influence them to engage in healthy activities, the more likely they are to enjoy and stick with them over a lifetime.

Even children as young as one year can learn simple poses like Stretching Dog. Kids naturally stretch, twist, and bend. If you see your tot doing something that resembles yoga, you can tell them, “Yoga!” It becomes a fun thing that’s easy and natural for them to do.

The Wai Lana Little Yogis videos and DVDs were made just for the purpose of getting kids into yoga; the bright colors, fun songs, and yoga cartoons act like a magnet for your child’s attention.

In the beginning, children may enjoy just watching the video. As they become more familiar with the poses, they’ll gradually begin to attempt them on their own.
Set an Example

If you practice yoga, even if only occasionally, your child will be that much more likely to practice yoga too. As your child comes to love yoga, it will also make it easier for you to do your own yoga practice; you may quickly find that your child is doing yoga right alongside you. You may also find that your desire to set a nice example increases your motivation to practice yoga regularly.
Make Yoga a Social Activity

Children, especially those age 5 and up, love being with their friends. You can encourage your child to invite friends over to do yoga together. They’ll laugh and giggle as they watch each other learn new fun poses.

The Wai Lana Little Yogis coloring books, Fun Songs CD, stickers, and other fun stuff provide more enjoyable ways for children to have fun together while promoting a lifelong love of yoga.
Give a Little Personalized Guidance

Every child learns differently. Especially if your child is very young, he or she may benefit from occasional guidance to help them master the Little Yogis yoga poses. Even attempting the yoga poses offers tremendous benefit for your child, so there’s no need to worry about whether he or she gets them just right or not. However, all children love encouragement and their parents’ attention.
A Healthy Yoga Diet Makes It Easier to Do Yoga

Most of us have such hectic and busy schedules that it’s hard to eat as healthy a diet as we would like. However, especially for children, a balanced yoga diet, with emphasis on fruits and vegetables, dairy products, legumes and whole grains, will make it easier for your child to have the energy and enthusiasm for regular yoga practice.

Practicing yoga will naturally make your child more attracted to eating healthy foods, and the opposite is also true—eating a healthy diet will naturally help increase your child’s attraction for yoga.

Our mission at Wai Lana Yoga is to help you and your little ones enjoy the wonderful lifelong benefits of yoga.

Wai Lana Yoga

Healthy Yoga Fun For Kids

oooh!! My neices will be sure to love this one!

Coming Soon: Wai Lana's Little Yogis™
Eco Tote Kit

Healthy yoga fun your kids will love!
Kit includes:

* Little Yogis™ DVD: Award-winning DVD delights the whole family!
* Little Yogis™ Eco Mat: Fun, colorful, durable, and completely free from phthalates, phenols, dioxins, and furans
* Cartoon Yoga Poster with 21 poses
* Handy Tote Bag made from recycled materials
* Silly Cartoon Stickers

Wai Lana's Yoga Store

Wai Lana: Yoga CD Helps Kids with ADD

Yoga CD Helps Kids with ADD
October 27, 2004

With ADD and ADHD rates skyrocketing in the United States over the past decade, it is critical to find natural ways to help our children achieve a state of balance and relaxation—without a prescription. Wai Lana, host of the long-running PBS series Wai Lana Yoga, provides a solution for tired or troubled youngsters with her latest CD, Daydream. Using techniques from the ancient art of yoga, Wai Lana helps kids find natural relaxation and relief from stress through soothing sounds and songs.

“Rest and relaxation is essential to our well-being, no matter how old we are,” Wai Lana emphasizes, “and learning to relax when you’re young will stay with you for the rest of your life.”

Wai Lana’s Daydream CD is the latest product in her Little Yogis line, which includes videos, DVDs, music CDs, mats, kits, games and books. The Daydream CD includes two tracks, each containing a guided relaxation, original songs, ambient music, and soothing sounds of the oceanside. Track 1 lulls listeners to sleep, then ends with a song called “Wake Up, Sleepyhead” to lure them out of their slumber in good spirits. Track 2’s relaxation session fades out with the sound of ocean waves, letting listeners continue resting peacefully.

“When my kids were small, they never wanted to nap or settle down,” laughs Wai Lana, “so I was crafty about it. I’d relax my kids by singing to them, with simple visualization techniques, and with yoga relaxation. I’d get far better results than by announcing ‘Kids, it’s naptime!’ or telling them to calm down. The approach I used was more subtle and enjoyable for us all—and far more effective. Since my children were young, they’ve appreciated the importance of relaxation and have used yoga’s techniques to achieve not just physical health, but mental health as well.”

Having raised three children herself, Wai Lana knows well the benefits kids can experience through yoga relaxation. And with her Daydream CD she shares yoga’s gift of relaxation with the world’s growing population of little yogis, helping them deal naturally with stress, anger, and other turbulent emotions, now and in their future years.

Press Contact:
Angie Smith
angie@wailana.com
Tel. 800-624-9163
Fax 805-946-5447

Consumer Orders:
Tel. 800-228-5145
Wholesale Orders:
Tel. 800-624-9163
www.wailana.com

Source

Yoga for Children

Yoga for Children

Wholesome is a word we often associate with our children's well-being. We feed our kids wholesome food to nourish their growing bodies. We encourage wholesome activities to help them develop good habits and useful skills.

Yoga is not only wholesome, but holistic as well. In other words, it's an activity that develops the whole child—physically, mentally, and emotionally. What's more, kids of all ages have fun doing yoga and watching their balance, flexibility, and strength improve. They also learn to focus and relax. This positive experience is likely to keep them practicing yoga as adults, reaping yoga's many benefits for years to come.

Many types of exercises help children develop strong muscles, but the strength they gain is rarely balanced with increased flexibility. Yoga postures, however, improve both strength and flexibility, giving kids an ease of movement that helps them improve their performance and prevent injuries. They develop balance, coordination, and the ability to focus. Even kids who aren't athletic enjoy yoga. Because yoga is a gentle, noncompetitive form of exercise, they can practice, do well, and build confidence in a nonthreatening environment.

On a deeper physical level, yoga's focus on good posture helps young spines grow straight and strong. The poses regulate and balance the production of hormones, which is especially important as children approach and pass through puberty. Yoga also improves their digestion, nutrient absorption, and elimination while helping to strengthen the immune system.

In yoga, kids get their bodies and minds working together. They concentrate on positioning and moving in a slow, controlled manner. Sometimes they focus on holding a pose, on their breathing, or on the animal they are imitating. This ability to focus carries over into other aspects of their lives, making it easier for them to concentrate on schoolwork and other important tasks.

Yoga also gives children valuable tools to help them cope with the stress they often face. This stress may be in the form of academic pressure, sports competitions, problems at home, and so on. Yoga postures, breathing, and relaxation techniques teach them how to calm the mind and release excess tension from the body.

Yoga is a wonderful activity for children. It builds strength, stamina, and flexibility and teaches patience, perseverance, and concentration, helping kids become happier and more productive. Whether children are dealing with tight muscles, obesity, divorce, fear, or anxiety, they can use yoga to bring them relief not only throughout their childhood, but also in their adult live

Relax with Wailana Music

When I've been really stressed out, can't think right, and am really irritable, usually what works to calm me down is when I pop in one of Wailana's music CDs. It just changes my whole vibe, my whole outlook, makes it much easier, better.

Ahhh.. and for her Little Yogis cd and songs? OH the kids just love it. :) They're good fun for the rest of us too. I love singing along with them when my nieces and nephews listen and sing them.

Wailana for Kids

It's always good fun to have your kids join you and enjoy doing what you're doing- be it signing, cooking, or hey- doing yoga! I think that it's just great that Wailana has made all that possible with her Little Yogis series and materials. I think it's a great way to get kids to get to know their bodies, and get into the habit of doing yoga too. I hope that this will help them stay healthy for the rest of their lives. I guess there really isn't an alternative to developing good habits early on.

Thank you Wailana!