Yoga during homework time continues to be a lifesaver in our house.
It keeps Lily centered. It honors her frustration, which is very real and very normal. And it keeps me sane (I breath right along with her).
You can read about where we started here.
The past two nights we added a little Brain Gym to the mix. Brain Gym is this amazing system of exercises that help activate different parts of the brain. I learn a few techniques from the program in my Radiant Child Yoga Teacher training with Shakta Kaur Khalsa.
Lily has spelling tests each week--and she is a pretty good speller. Even so, she gets frustrated when she does not get the word right the first time and wants to throw in the towel. We started with this activity called The Thinking Cap. The movement stimulates short term memory, helps with silent speech and thinking skills and helps screen out distracting sounds from relevant ones. It also helps with decoding and encoding words: the skills you need to spell, unscramble letters and read.
And the pose relaxes cranial muscles--it is like a mini-massage!
We love The Thinking Cap.
Here's how it works:
As always, start every yoga pose (or brain gym pose) by sitting comfortably and taking a couple deep breaths. I also always, always, do the pose with my child. I want to be the model and let them learn by my example. Plus, I need centering and thinking as much as Lily does to stop myself from losing my cool at homework time.
Use your thumb and index fingers to pull the ear gently back and unroll your the ear lobes. Begin at the top of the ears and gently massage down and around the curve, ending with the bottom lobe. Repeat a couple times. This is a self massage, so help your child with the finger placement and do The Thinking Cap together.
Happy Yoga-Homework Time!
Stay tuned for more yoga homework tips nest week as the experiment continues in our own household.
It keeps Lily centered. It honors her frustration, which is very real and very normal. And it keeps me sane (I breath right along with her).
You can read about where we started here.
The past two nights we added a little Brain Gym to the mix. Brain Gym is this amazing system of exercises that help activate different parts of the brain. I learn a few techniques from the program in my Radiant Child Yoga Teacher training with Shakta Kaur Khalsa.Lily has spelling tests each week--and she is a pretty good speller. Even so, she gets frustrated when she does not get the word right the first time and wants to throw in the towel. We started with this activity called The Thinking Cap. The movement stimulates short term memory, helps with silent speech and thinking skills and helps screen out distracting sounds from relevant ones. It also helps with decoding and encoding words: the skills you need to spell, unscramble letters and read.
And the pose relaxes cranial muscles--it is like a mini-massage!
We love The Thinking Cap.
Here's how it works:
As always, start every yoga pose (or brain gym pose) by sitting comfortably and taking a couple deep breaths. I also always, always, do the pose with my child. I want to be the model and let them learn by my example. Plus, I need centering and thinking as much as Lily does to stop myself from losing my cool at homework time.
Use your thumb and index fingers to pull the ear gently back and unroll your the ear lobes. Begin at the top of the ears and gently massage down and around the curve, ending with the bottom lobe. Repeat a couple times. This is a self massage, so help your child with the finger placement and do The Thinking Cap together.
Happy Yoga-Homework Time!
Stay tuned for more yoga homework tips nest week as the experiment continues in our own household.
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