Ahymsin Newsletter: Yoga is Samadhi
  AHYMSIN Newsletter, Issue - June 2013  
 
   
 
   

Yoga for Children

by Mónika Bertalan

It is a great opportunity to prove the importance of yoga teaching for children, integrating it to the every day education and watching the results in physical, psychical, mental, and social aspects.

Teaching yoga for children means not only passing knowledge;it is all about motivating them to live a healthy,  suffering-free and happy life, apply the adopted learnings in all areas and raising their future children in that way with utmost awareness and love.

And it is a big responsibility and honor that the Hungarian Yoga Academy invited me last year to share my experience with yoga teachers-to-be, who opt for “Yoga teaching for children” faculty. I would like to serve the progress in a pure way coming along with the teaching via my devotion and knowledge delivery.

Teaching yoga for children in Kinizsi Primary School, Debrecen

Teaching yoga for children was started in Kinizsi Primary School, Debrecen, Hajdu-Bihar County, in Hungary. Children attend the course which is based on karma yoga once a week,   free of charge. The education is grounded on Himalaya Yoga Tradition. In the classes, in addition to healthy children there are students with asthmatic problems, fine motor skills disorder and autism.

Breathing exercises, asanas, relaxation techniques and games significantly foster children’s health, spiritual and social skills development and help them to attain the principles of yama-niyama life guidance.

[Mónika was invited to lead this course by Kinizsi Primary School.] 

Special End-of-Term Feast of Yoga for Children

The children had possibility to make acquaintance with a dog at the End-of-Term Feast of Children Yoga Association of Debrecen [Hungary], by the help of a couplle of guests from the Animal Protection Association of Debrecen. The feast took place on 25th May. The Animal Protection Association’s representative told the children how to protect the animals and how to become volunteers.

The boys and girls presented a dynamic sun salutation and took part in a playful yoga class and presentation, then consumed vegetarian (meat-free, egg-free) foods.  To watch dynamic solar salutation: http://itodor.hu/evzaro/dynamic_sun_salutation.avi

The celebration was dedicated to the idea of Ahimsa. The mayor of Mikepercs, Hajdu-Bihar county, Hungary, was also invited. Mayor Zoltán Tímár expressed his opinion about the yoga for children:

“I was 12 years old when I started my yoga practice. Now, I am 39 years old. As an adult, I met my wife at a yoga class. We have two children. My wife gave birth to our children in a unique method taught by Miklós Zoltai, yoga teacher and yoga therapist. Thus, our children's births were quick and wonderful. My 9-year-old daughter does yoga as well and feels herself fine at the yoga classes. My little daughter is only one year old. I would like her to attend yoga classes as she reaches the age of 3.

“To my mind, the teaching of yoga for children should be a compulsory subject in every educational institution of the state. I find that early starting is required from the age of 3 in the kindergarten. This provides a great opportunity in the fields of prevention and living a healthy lifestyle.”

Intensive Yoga Course

There was an Intensive Yoga Course 10th – 20th July 2012 in Balatonkenese, Hungary The title of the video:  Sounds of The Love , singing and playing together with mental handicapped and disabled children: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NTtAnq2qhKo#!


Editor’s Note:

Mónika Bertalan is the president of Children Yoga Association of Debrecen. Mónika is a graduate student of TTP in Hungary and was received into the initiate family by Swami Veda Bharati in 2008.

We invite you to visit the website: http://www.jogagyermekeknek.hu/

Mónika was invited to be a lecturer at the Yoga Youth and Children’s Retreat 22nd -31st December 2011 at Swami Rama Sadhaka Grama (SRSG) in Rishikesh, India, with the lecture title of Teaching Yoga for Children in Water.

 

 

   
       
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