There are now lots of kids who do Cosmic Kids yoga regularly and there’s lots of ways to get started. If you’re a parent who wants to encourage some Cosmic Kids in your house, you might be able to glean some tips on making it happen here:
Provide a yoga mat!
If you can, provide a yoga mat. It’s a special place for them to do their yoga, and much more comfortable than a wooden floor.
Let them pick their favourite episode
Getting your child involved in selecting the episode they want to do is a really effective way of encouraging the yoga to happen. We have an episode list in a PDF format here – you can flick through all of them and click through to the episode on YouTube.
Make it bedtime extender
A lot of parents use Cosmic Kids before bed. Its a great way of winding down ready for sleep. In the negotiations before bed, a number of kids we’ve heard about have realised they can extend bedtime by half an hour if they spend it doing Cosmic Kids…
Why not do it together?
Cosmic Kids is quite a workout for grown ups too – and a great way to encourage your kids into it. If you’re along side them showing them how to do it, they’ll value it even more.
Get a fan round
One of the most effective ways of discovering Cosmic Kids is when another kid who is doing Cosmic Kids wants to show off their new hobby.
Start it at school
Many new Cosmic Kids fans start at school, and then come home and ask for it (often to quite mystified parents!) We have also hear many stories about parents whose kids do Cosmic Kids at home telling their teachers about it so that it becomes part of the school day.
Have your own yoga practice – and let them have theirs
Many kids get into Cosmic Kids because it’s their equivalent of their parents’ yoga practice. So while mum or dad might enjoy Yoga with Adriene or Yogaglo or similar, this is their own special version. They can be like you, but in their own special way. We know of quite a number of parents who do their yoga at the same time as their kids are doing theirs.
Let them just watch if they want to
Every child is different. Many children love it immediately: you just put it on on and Jaime takes it from there. They’re up and moving. Some take a little longer to get into it though. They enjoy watching for a while and just do the occasional move. Let them. It’s part of the process of familiarisation. It can feel strange to be moving around in front of the TV. Also, some of the poses are quite challenging. It can often be several weeks of this (especially among 2 to 4 year olds) before the movement becomes part of their repertoire. Let it happen at the speed it needs to happen.
Select the steadier adventures
The pacing of Cosmic Kids can be a little brisk for some kids, especially when they first start. Jaime is always trying to strike the balance between keeping the kids attention by keeping the story moving, and making it steady enough for them to participate. We have created a playlist of the steadiest yoga adventures here – pick from these to help a new Cosmic Kid into their yoga.
