- April 29, 2024
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Every Thursday at the Ormond Beach YMCA, kids learn how to calm down through the art of yoga.
BY EMILY BLACKWOOD | STAFF WRITER
Though many people don’t try yoga until adulthood, 4-year-old Isaiah Schenk’s took his first class last Thursday. And he had a lot of questions.
“Why is the room so big?" he asked. "Where are the animals? What is yoo–gah?”
Schenk got his answers from instructor Sharon Vandevender, who has been teaching kids yoga for four years. She said yoga has many benefits for kids, including body awareness, balance and focus, especially for kids with ADHD.
“Kids have stress, too,” Vandevender said. “Their stress is just different. The thing we work on the most is breathing techniques. Kids have a hard time coping and learning to deal with their emotions, so we work on breathing techniques to teach them how to calm down. We call it balloon breaths.”
Vandevender uses tools such as stuffed animals and cards with character-building words to teach the art of yoga to the youngsters. They do poses such as downward dog, the warrior and the turtle. Vandevender had been teaching yoga for six years before she decided to include children.
"I actually never wanted to teach kids yoga until I had my own kid," Vandevender said. "Then I understood."
Since September, the Ormond Beach YMCA has offered Kid Yoga classes 3 p.m. every Thursday, for kids ages 4-9.
Call 673- 9622.
Click here to see the Kids Yoga video!
