In honor of Mother’s Day, this month I invited my dear friend and fellow yoga teacher, Diane Michaeli, to write about her experience teaching and practicing yoga with her daughter Carmela. I think you will love Diane’s fun and practical yoga ideas. Enjoy! ~Annie

I became a yoga teacher in 1995. The benefits that yoga brings to my life never cease to amaze me. As life’s inevitable stresses and challenges come along, yoga always helps me center and heal. But it wasn’t until I had Carmela, my daughter, that I realized how determined I was to pass my love of yoga on to her.

When she was three, some playgroup moms asked if I would teach a small group of children. I thought it may be a little early but I said yes. We started one day a week in my friend’s living room. I brought mats and we basically rolled around with the babies and then had snacks. I continued this until I was offered the opportunity to teach a kids’ class at a yoga center nearby.

It’s important to me to keep my yoga classes fun and light. Yoga freeze was, and still is, one of Carmela’s favorite parts of the class. We put on her favorite songs really loud and when the music stops we do a pose. There are endless variations you can use for yoga freeze. Instead of running in a circle have them skip until the music stops or hop until the music stops or walk like cats until the music stops. Children at this age don’t need to stand still for very long listening to instructions. What they respond well to is a safe environment where they can run around crazy to burn off all the energy they have. After that they are ready to lie down on their matt and listen to a soothing song to rest.

These days I have the fortunate opportunity to teach yoga every Monday at The Wisdom Arts Laboratory in Pasadena. Now Carmela is six and I can see all those years leading up to now have been setting the ground work for a healthy love of yoga. Our classes now almost always have sun salutes at the beginning, trees, handstands, headstands, warriors (warrior three is one of her favorites.) I recently began including different types of dance like tango, can-can, waltzes, and ballet. The kids really seem to respond well to change and I often go off ideas Carmela has for the class. Last week she had the idea to “design your own sun salutations” What a great idea!

When she was little, I remember getting frustrated when she wouldn’t listen and would run around wild while I was trying to teach her “yoga”. Now I realize this whole process is yoga and that there is a bigger picture at play. By keeping our yoga practice a consistent part of our lives for the past three years I have succeeded in holding a fun safe space for Carmela and some of her dear friends to laugh, run and breath in peace.

—Diane Michaeli

Popularity: unranked [?]