Try out yoga with your kids! How-to tips for yoga at home.

Danielle Drury teaches kids' yoga at YOUYOGA.

Kids naturally love to move, and they still have their natural flexibility and suppleness that we start to lose once we spend hours sitting in chairs, like in school! Yoga for kids encourages this natural love of motion and facilitates adventures in which kids can further explore their bodies and the amazing things they can do. Yoga adventures also stimulate young imaginations by encouraging the visualization of various animals/creatures for poses: “Make your body into a little ball like a tiny mouse! Or let’s put our legs up the wall and stand on our hands like upside down spiders!  Can you be a peeing dog? Try to lift one leg behind you in the air from dog pose?!” 

In addition to being a whole lot of fun, yoga for kids also creates kinesthetic awareness that promotes the development of good co-ordination and the fine and gross motor skills so important to the developing child.  Kids’ yoga helps to boost self-esteem and confidence and provides an environment  where positive peer relationships are fostered, and healthy life style habits encouraged.

Typically, kids’ yoga classes are based around a story or adventure, and the children’s bodies become the characters, the things they encounter, even the modes of transportation for the adventure – boats, bicycles, airplanes….and as with adult yoga, a time for quiet stillness and reflection is part of kids’ yoga too. Relaxation and deep breathing are coping tools that can be as important to children as to adults.

Some tips for encouraging our kids to do yoga at home:  Try Being Trees!

• Take time to be trees in a forest (vrksasana/tree pose), letting littler children just balance the toes of the raised leg on the floor next to the standing foot.  
• Talk them through noticing how their one foot is rooting into the earth. Let them imagine roots growing from the foot, deep down into the ground, to hold them there.  Draw their attention to the strong and firmly held trunk of the tree –the leg and torso (abs and pelvic floor muscles engaged to help balance). Let them wave branches (their arms and fingers) in the breeze.
• And then take a moment to sit down quietly, close your eyes and imagine you are in a forest. What sounds can you “hear”? Birds chirping? Wind rustling?  Encourage children to make the sounds they imagine hearing for you.   
• Talk about how trees are important to life on earth, how they clean the air for us to breathe and provide homes for birds and animals and how we can look after trees – e.g. recycling paper.
• Then do some deep breathing, lying in savasna/relaxation pose, imagining that you are lying in a beautiful forest. Describe the forest for your children to visualize, focusing  on all the senses – what can you hear, feel, see, smell, taste as you lie there. Or if there is an older child, perhaps have them describe the forest – great creative writing practice!
• Once you have had a few minutes of quietness, encourage the children to draw the forest they pictured and the animals or birds they heard in it. 

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Find out more about Danielle Drury's kids' yoga classes (and wonderful classes for moms and seniors too!) at www.youyoga.net

Do kids even know what to do when the screens are off?

Read more from Deb Clem-Buckert
at www.debcb.com.

We were on our way to one of the busiest joints in Johnson County to watch some basketball and celebrate the birthday of one of Rosie’s friends. The kids had been talking about it all week. Big discussions surrounded the ribs vs. steak for dinner dilemma and the excitement of having root beer bubbles tickle their noses. It was a much anticipated event.

I looked forward to a little adult interaction that didn’t involve my computer screen. (Because I work for an internet marketing company and blog on the side, I spend a great deal of time communication via keyboard with five windows open. Interaction? Yes? Human? Not so much). A fun night out with friends and a little conversation were on my agenda.

The restaurant was packed and loud and I looked forward to listening to the kids shout at each other and tell jokes. But, it was clear when we got to the table that all the Tweens had different plans. As Rosie squeezed into her spot on the backside of the table, she reached in her purse and pulled out her Nintendo DS.

“Hey,” I yelled. “What are you doing?”

She looked at me like I was the dumbest person on the earth and motioned to her friends. I took a good look. Both of them had their faces buried in their DS’s. I sat for a moment and waited for the two of them to interact, thinking maybe they were playing the same game. No such luck.

“Absolutely NOT!” I said to my child. “We’re out with friends. Put your DS away.” This quickly gained support from the other parents. All the electronics disappeared.

“But what are we supposed to do?” my child asked a little frustrated.

This struck me as an odd question. What should they do? Well, talk of course. Have a conversation. Share a little about their day with each other. Talk about their week.

And then it hit me. They don’t know how to do it. They’ve never had the chance.

When I was a kid, the dinner table was sacred as it was the only time that we as a family could spend quality time with each other. With the television off, we’d share a little about our day, talk about upcoming events and our dog would eat a quality meal of all my meat and my sister’s veggies. Brings back great memories.

Flash forward thirty years and we’re lucky to get all of us at the table once a week. With Kelly and I working different schedules and Rosie’s dance, meals for us have become out of necessity, not an occasion to enjoy. I know we’re like most families out there and, it’s a shame.

It’s also a shame that our kids have been bombarded with so much technology. Multiple television channels geared just towards them. When they can’t find what they want to watch, Netflix and Hulu can help. And, now you can rent DVD’s for just over a buck from a big red box.

When not indulging in TV, there’s the computer, DS and I Pod to fill the gap. And, we can’t forget our friend the Wii, where kids can play games for hours. There’s so much out there for kids that they no longer have to find what I consider to be normal ways to entertain themselves.

 We plan to go screen free next week as I think it’s important for Rosie to know that there are other things out there for her to do (yes, I am prepared for multiple eye-rolls). The good news is that she dances so much, that she’s only used to an hour of screen time during the week. But, the weekend may be a killer.

Parents, I urge all of you to follow suit. Take the time this week to sit at the dinner table and share your day with your children as you listen to the magic that makes up this short time we call childhood. Could make a difference in all of our lives.

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Deb Clem-Buckert chases great offers that make Mom's day, and lots of tennis balls when she has time. She is the area Regional Manager for www.PlumDistrict.com, and mom to daughter Rosie. Read about her adventures as a mom at www.debcb.com.

The Week I Discovered True Relaxation

Last month I got on a plane with my mother to visit our 88 year-old aunt in Florida.  Before I left, I had mixed emotions about going.   My feelings ran the gamut from excited and ready for a break to maybe I should just let my mom go.  After all, I was fortunate to take a little trip last summer with my mom and my sister while my husband held down the fort with our three young children.  I knew it was his turn – he deserved a trip away with the guys to fish or hunt.   

And then there was my business I run when I’m not swamped with mommy hood -- what if my clients have some crisis or a prospective client wants to meet.   Plus my daughter kept telling me she was going to cry each night I was gone and miss me.   Am I really that much fun, I asked?   Don’t think so.

The self-analyzing began to grate and the excitement about the trip started to wane.   Was I crazy – I was about to experience sunny skies, beautiful waves,  white sandy beaches,  precious time with my mom and aunt and a six day break away from meals to cook, carpools to run, laundry to fold and a house to clean.    6:00 a.m. – the alarm sounded and I was out the door with my mom bound for Florida.

The trip was glorious.  I slept in and went to bed early, started and finished an amazing book,  stared at the gorgeous ocean, mesmerized by the vast view each morning,  shared and listened to fascinating stories about my family’s generations, daydreamed, journaled, walked the beach, shopped and ate the most incredible fresh fruit and fresh seafood.

When I returned home, I was one refreshed, renewed and rejuvenated momma.   I had just experienced the mother of all respites.   My husband later said that my break away from the kids and the daily grind of housework was just what the doctor ordered.   But the more I thought about his comment the more I realized the time away from kiddos and never-ending work (house or business) wasn’t truly the reason I was able to relax and unwind.   Sure it was nice, but I have to admit I do get a little help (and sometimes a lot) with juggling the everyday life.  My generous mother lightens my load with the kids and my husband scores pretty well with laundry, dishes, and meals.

What was the key to decompressing and really relaxing?  It was what I didn’t do and what everyone else does every day.   I didn’t have a laptop or an ipad, and my great aunt doesn’t own a computer.   I didn’t watch TV nor was it ever on.   I didn’t email, text or play on my phone (I am one of the few who don’t have a data plan).   I never looked at a screen unless you count the screen on the window that viewed the magnificent ocean.

I detoxed from digital overload and in turn I filled up on the simple joys of life. Screen-Free Week number two here I come. Starting April 30, I am going to attach a family contract and - 'this screen is off' - sign to all of our electronic devices and turn on life. Disconnecting and powering down might just be the panacea for family connection. Wish me luck and I will do the same for you!

Read more here: http://www.mom2momkc.com/?a=profile&u=18604&t=blog&blog_id=4543#storylink=cpy

Ten Child-Tested Activities

Ten child-tested activities

by Maddi Walter

Turn off the television and let your children learn to:

1. Listen to books read by you or professionals on CDs. Ask them what they remember, then what they liked and didn’t like…..no wrong answers
2. Sing along with age-appropriate CDs….Justin Roberts has several that are fun
3. Make up stories with you… listen and use their ideas
4. Do jigsaw puzzles
5. Build forts with beach towels, chairs, old bedding….perhaps have a picnic inside the fort
6. Practice standing on one foot while you and they count to fifteen, then on the other foot
7. Play hide and seek in the house with you
8. Play Simon Says….take turns being Simon
9. Color place mats on 8 ½ X11 paper and use them at the next meal
10. Dance, silly, ballet, happy

Maddi Walter, children's author and grandmother, lives and writes in Kansas City.