Yoga with a twist
by Charlotte Coyle
Yoga has been growing steadily in popularity for years, but one Auckland woman has taken her love of the ancient Indian art form to a whole new level – yoga classes for preschoolers.
Rebecca Oliver has a passion for all things yoga and has started two new yoga classes for three to five year olds in Mt Eden and Eden Terrace.
Ms Oliver says the main way she gets the preschoolers to practise the yoga positions is to base the classes around a story or an imaginary adventure, like travelling to Africa.
“There are monkeys in the trees. Can you reach up and touch the monkeys?” she asks her class of Remuera preschoolers as she stretches her hands up to the ceiling.
The classes, also held for school-aged children, incorporate a variety of yoga positions and stretches into the songs and activities that go with the adventure.
Gowri Lyer says she enjoys going to the classes with her five-year-old daughter Rhea.
“It’s a nice way of getting children to exercise,” she says. “Rhea loves all the songs and stories.”
After training as a children’s yoga instructor in England, Ms Oliver realised there was also a need for children’s yoga classes in New Zealand.
“In the UK 45,000 kids a week are doing yoga. But when I came back to New Zealand I realised there was nothing here for children,” she says.
The yoga instructor started classes as soon as she returned home and says she now has between five and twelve children in each of the seven sessions she runs every week.
Ms Oliver says the benefits of yoga for kids are endless.
“It helps them to become more aware of their bodies, and also to keep that natural strength and flexibility that they often loose by sitting at desks and in front of the TV or computer all day,” she says.
Sheena Hendon says that since coming to the classes, her son Dylan, 4, has found it easier to concentrate.
“It also teaches him to relax. It’s not often that boys his age actually get a chance to wind down and be still,” she says.
The new kids’ yoga classes will run on Tuesdays and Thursdays and will be held at the Mt Eden Methodist church hall and the Marco Trust building in Eden Terrace.