Welcome to Yoga Sprouts! Child & Caregiver Yoga Adventures.  The Yoga Sprouts method is designed to share the benefits of yoga with young children and their caregivers.  As an off-shoot of Lotus Roots Kundalini Yoga, Yoga Sprouts reaches out to our youngest yogis.  These classes are geared toward children ages 2 and up, but even younger yogis will have fun with the animal poses, songs, and movement that Yoga Sprouts offers.

Katie Marie Muschlewski teaches Kundalini Yoga to all ages and abilities in the Madison, Wisconsin area.  She founded Lotus Roots Kundalini Yoga in 2005 and launched her Yoga Sprouts! Child & Caregiver Yoga Adventures in 2007.  As a mother, she finds yoga to be an important part of her family's life.  Teaching our children relaxation and stress-relief techniques will help them throughout their lives.  Also, yoga has so many benefits on our internal systems.  We can balance our metabolism, stimulate the nervous system, expand the respiratory system, and so much more!  Furthermore, yoga is calming, and it helps us tune inward to explore who we really are.  For this reason our mantra in Kundalini Yoga is Sat Nam or True Name.  We hope to inspire you to share yoga with the children in your life.  Plant that seed of truth within your psyche and let your Self blossom! 

  

Our fist yoga manual will be released this summer 2009 so check back for more information!  Here is a sneak peak!

Excerpt from:  Yoga Sprouts! Child & Caregiver Yoga Adventures  by, Katie Marie Muschlewski 2009

Garden Adventure

 

Do you have a garden?  Many wonderful plants and creatures live in gardens.  Plants and flowers are very important.  They remind us to stay rooted in the earth, connected and grounded in all that is.  They also remind us about the importance of the breath.  Flowers and all plants help us breathe by recycling the air we breathe out and turning it into oxygen for us to breathe in.

 

Flower Pose

Sit comfortably with the legs crossed and the spine straight (fig. 2.1).  Lift the lower back, and lift the chest.  Roll your shoulders back, and relax the muscles in your neck and shoulders.  Pull your chin in with the head level.  Great job! This is Flower pose or Lotus Pose.

 

  

Figure 2.1                                                     Figure 2.2

 

Imagine you are a beautiful flower planted in the cool earth, and you can feel the warmth of the sun on your face.  Smile at the sun.  Feel a little breeze tickle your cheek (parents or caregivers can softly blow on the child’s cheek).  Take a deep breath in and hold it in gently.  Good!  Now let that breath out, and hold it out gently.  Relax.

 

Belly Breathing

Place your hands on your belly (fig. 2.2).  Breathe in deeply through your nose; feel your belly push your hands away from your body.  Good!  Gently breathe out through your nose as you pull in your tummy.  Continue this long, deep breathing.  Close your eyes.  Feel your body relax as you breathe in and out.  Listen to the breath, feel its rhythm as you breathe in and out, like the waves of the ocean rolling up onto the shore and pulling away again.