Yoga Cat: Free Download

May 1, 2020May 1, 2020Leave a comment

Looking for a little in-home inspiration?

The quarantine cycles are real and I find myself drifting between extreme bursts of creativity and heavy lethargy. The past week has been a bit brighter and I want to share some of its fruits with you all.

Meet Yoga Cat — your guide through a 20-30 min at home yoga practice for 3 to 10 year-olds. This little printable yoga book was created for those at home looking to incorporate some playful movement with their children.

Using a visual aid for yoga is especially helpful with children under the age of seven or for those who are trying yoga for the first time. Try printing it in color, cutting each page in half and binding for a little yoga break in your child’s day. You can also print the book in black and white and let them color it in and add their own personal details.

With repetition, you may find your little one sharing poses with you throughout the day.

❤ It’s FREE, fun and filled with love for you and yours.

Download it now:

Yoga Cat Color & Play Book

Quarantine To-Do’s

April 3, 2020April 15, 2020Leave a comment

Whew, is it getting real enough out there for you?

The days go by and we know that coming up with inspiring projects to keep your little one active is no small task.

That’s why each day on the Kids Yoga Garden Facebook page I have been sharing a resource that can be used as a part of your homeschool / unschool / or online schooling routine. Some of the shares have been activities we do at our learning center, and others have been more directed towards our parents and caregivers to offer extra support in this time of need. I’ve also tried to highlight teachers and communities that have a wide breadth of online materials available for use so you can use these projects as a starting point for online searches.

To keep things simple, I will collect all the project links here organized by category and update as this project continues. If you’d like to see something in particular, like more art projects or cooking recipes, please let me know so I can keep it tailored to your needs.

Quarantine PLAYlist:

Art Projects:

God’s Eye Weaving Craft. Video
DIY Play Dough with Kru Georgie of Chiang Mai Drama Centre
Draw Along with Me “Happy Sun” with Deep Space Sparkle
Magical Thailand Coloring book by Magical Thailand
Crafting with Shabby Tree Paper Plate Hats
DIY sidewalk chalk photobooth from Kids Yoga Garden

Yoga and Movement for Children:

Rub Your Hands Yoga Warm-up Song by Karma Kids and Kids Yoga Garden
Wiggle Like a Worm Sun Salutation Song by Yogiful
Full free yoga classes with Cosmic Kids Yoga – Pokemon Episode
Chair Yoga Video with Calm Classrooms and worksheets
KidFit water bottle workout video and KidFit Easter with Reenie Brooking
Sun Salutations for Kids Video by Kids Yoga Garden
Gratitude Relaxation by Yoga 4 Classrooms

Cooking:

Papaya Salad Recipe by Kids Yoga Garden
Banoffee Recipe by Eco Logic Thailand
Taste the Rainbow cooking class by Sunny Days Organic
Tiny Green Chef Free Cooking Lesson

Science:

Mystery Science Adventures with Doug. Mini Lesson on Viruses
COVID activity book: “Why is this virus making me stay home” printable
Daisy Creek Farms regrow your vegetables video tutorial
Imagination Tree 5 Things to Do in the Rain activity list
Bird Snacks by Sprouting Wild Ones
Earth Day Printablesby Little Bins for Little Hands

Math & Music:

Andrew Bird 8s Times Tables song

Storytelling:

The Princess and the Pea with Fairy tales with Belle by Cascadia Cosplay

Parent Resources

Free Adult Yoga classes by Yogamour
Free Live Streaming Yoga Classes with Chiang Mai based Annie Bliss.
Supporting Children’s Emotional and Mental health with mindful meditation, free 3 part online workshop by Divine Light Yoga.
Parent and Teacher Resource Center by Dictionary.com

We’d also like to remind you that when all else fails and you are feeling overwhelmed, take a deep breath and create some boundaries that create space for both you and your little. Maybe its a little play and dance break together, maybe its 20 minutes of “independent” time where you can both try something you love, maybe its learning how to fold clothes like Maria Kondo and getting some house work together. The biggest way you can support your child is by spending time with them, it doesn’t need to be completely structured and educational to aid in development. You are already doing enough. ❤

More to come! Take care out there and share your pictures with us, we’d love to see how they look through your eyes.

Yoga at Home: warm-up song

March 19, 2020March 19, 20201 Comment

Today we’re sharing our favorite song for creating the space for our yoga classes, “Rub your Hands” by Karma Kids Yoga.

* Ask your kiddos to find their yoga seats and settle into a comfortable seated position with lots of room around their bodies. They can sit on the floor, a yoga mat or a pillow for a bit more support. Offer them variations of their yoga seat like cross-legged pose (Sukhasana), Hero’s Pose (Virasana) or Half Lotus (Padmasana).

* Talk with them about practicing yoga, what it means and create some safety agreements before you begin.

* Start the song and do a motion for each part of the song: you don’t need to explain the motions, just demonstrate and your little yogis should be able to follow along.

– “Rub your hands” – Rub hands together creating friction and warmth.

– “Sit up tall” – Lightly press hands into knees, lengthen the spine and roll shoulders down.

– “Take a deep breath” – Bring hands to prayer pose, close eyes and inhale to allow chest to expand and shoulders to rise.

– “Om” – Exhale by chanting the sound “Om” bring hands back to knees.

* After a few times, you can vary motions to include side bends, forward folds, any poses you like. This works especially well with older kids who may tire of the repetition of sitting in cross-legged pose for an extended amount of time.

Benefits:

Chanting helps develop concentration, calm the nervous system, and helps bring balance to the body.

Rhythmic breathing alleviates stress, oxygenates the brain, strengthen lung capacity and build respiratory endurance.

Yoga poses help build good posture habits, stretch the knee joints and build flexibility and strength.

Try it out and let us know what you think!

,
Kru Rosie

Low Season Savings

March 7, 2020March 7, 2020Leave a comment

There’s no denying it, the smokey season is back. Thankfully this year with more press and awareness, we are seeing changes in our community that support more options for maintaining a healthy lifestyle indoors.

At Kids Yoga Garden we’ve got our air purifiers running all day during this time of year and have loaded up on board games, new books and a recycled art creation zone to keep our students active indoors. To make it easier on the families who stay in town during this time of year, we’ve also started promotions to make our programs more accessible to those living locally.

March Promo

Visiting Chiang Mai

November 14, 2019November 14, 20191 Comment

Each year we are visited by new students from around the world and this last year was no exception as kids from Korea, Spain, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Singapore, Germany, the United States, Mexico, Canada, the UK, France and more came to join our programs.

Chiang Mai is a magical intersection of intersections and in recent years the offerings for children and families have risen substantially. Full day trips, new play-friendly cafes and an abundance of special course offerings help offer families creative options for education and childcare while travelling.

If your planning a trip to Chiang Mai we highly recommend these guides by local writers and long-time residents:

64580624_884477775243631_1329690809343148032_n

Of course you are also welcome to come by and see us and we’ll have plenty of recommendations as well!

More opportunities to join us!

September 1, 2019Leave a comment

We’ve been listening to the input of our families and are ready to bring some adjustments to our weekday schedule. Starting October 9th 2019, Kids Yoga Garden will be open for full day activities each Wednesday – Sunday, giving you more opportunities to join us each week.

The weekday activities will be geared towards our home school learning group with options to study 2-5 days per week. All days will be open to drop-ins but members of the homeschool group will have priority booking to ensure our regular learning group is able to thrive.

This is our first major schedule change since opening and we hope that it will bring more fluidity and consistency to our staff and families. Monday and Tuesday our office will be closed but prior bookings for private sessions may be made during our regular office hours Wednesday – Friday 8 am – 4 pm and Saturday and Sunday 9 am – 5 pm.

Leading up to this shift we will take a 1 week break to reset and prepare.

Please let us know any requests or questions leading up to these shifts!

❤

Summer of PLAY

June 30, 2019June 30, 20194 Comments

This month we are open each and every day to give you lots of opportunities to try something new, hone creativity and enjoy movement. Our weekday activities are completely booked but we welcome you to come join our weekend workshops which will feature a blend of traditional Thai cooking, baking, crafting, tie dying and more. As this will be a busy time, please send us a message or email to reserve places for your children.

Click the photos to join our Facebook Events!

June Workshops

May 28, 2019May 28, 2019Leave a comment

It’s a new month and we are ready to make, move and create our way all the way to summer camp. In addition to our weekly classes on Tuesday and Thursdays, we have special weekend camp workshops each weekend in June. Join us for one or all of them by sending us a message to reserve your place.

Children ages 3-10 are welcome.

Acro yoga workshop

A Weekend View

December 1, 2018December 1, 2018Leave a comment

Creativity syncopated by the joyful beat of play, that’s what weekends in the garden feel like to us and what we hope to offer the 3 to 10 year olds who come from around the city and world to interact with us each weekend. Take a look and see what we are up to.

“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”

― Maya Angelou

Yoga at the Project World School Summit

October 29, 2018October 30, 20181 Comment

Living in a small transient city demands a nature of flexibility necessary to ride the waves of hellos, goodbyes and bumping into dear friends in public places at every turn. Every season we get to meet new sorts of travelers in our learning space and offer them a place to connect with our community that is in constant practice of inclusion.

In fact, this has become a very audible practice as we end our yoga classes with a chorus of thank you’s from all the languages present. Among the languages are also different learning styles, those that attend traditional school and visit us on the weekend, those that are a part of our homeschool group, those that are parts of nomadic families and world schooling their way around the globe, those that are on school breaks. Yoga, along with our other creative workshops, helps us establish connection with our bodies and others in shared space. It’s a foundation on which we can encourage non violence, truthfulness, and other values that foster community.

This fall we were honored to team up with Project World School to bring some yoga into their week long kids camp and summit in Chiang Mai. Thanks to Sarah Lorimer Photography for these beautiful snaps that peer into the world of a kids yoga class with students from around the world.