Thursday, September 13, 2007

Yoga in Kindergarten

I know that yoga is good for us adults; to help us relax. To create a stress free, balanced life. Kids needed to relax, too. They get stressed out like we do. And they need balance, too. Then, why not introduce yoga to them early in life? It would not only benefit them, it would also help to keep the harmony in the family as a whole.

The pre-schoolers would be having a yoga course for kindergarten this year. I am happy that MC would be one of the first few who would enjoy the benefit of this course.

Yoga would help them develop better body awareness, self-control, flexibility and coordination. These skills could be carried beyond class and into their daily routines, too. Read here for more infomation about yoga for kids.

Yoga pushed through because my husband, as the president of the parent's council, heard a lot of complaints about the past pre-schooler programs. As usual, the programs from the five kindergartens were dissected and compared. It seemed that our kindergarten is the least active when it comes to pre-schooler programs.

Our kindergarten is doing the usual, normal things i.e. weekly visits at the baker, to the police station, to the fire station, to the public library; regular hiking in the woods; checking out the schools; watching shows, etc. But most of the parents agree that these are not enough. There are a lot of possible things; visits to the museum, to a popular park or historical castle, etc. Exposure, the kids must be exposed to such things, too.

I mean, not that we dont bring them to those places; but not all kids get these kind of exposures. Just an example, a little Turkish girl who cant barely speak Deutsch, was so excited to join the hiking to the woods last year that she cant barely contain herself. Despite repeatedly falling on her knees and hurting herself, she kept on babbling that it's the first time that she walked into the forest, and that she loved it!

Anyway, my husband worked with the whole parents council and the kindergarten group for a better pre-school program this year. He also got a lot of support from the parents, the kindergarten teachers are not yet 100% sure. Oh yeah, more work for them and more costs, huh?

I dont think so. Most of the additional works are from volunteers. The playtime English course, which I introduced last year, would continue. Yoga would be facilitated by one of the parents from kindergarten, too. Another program would be the introduction of right traffic behavior for pre-schoolers. This is supposed to be arranged by the kindergarten's directress. Although my husband is ready to pitch in if nothing's being done about this.

Tomorrow, I would be meeting with the whole team. I have heard a lot of rumors that the stated programs would be scrapped. How can they scrap them when all the new programs are being offered for free and volunteers from outside would be helping them out? How can they scrap them when these programs are for the benefit of the kids? I am ready to fight tooth and nail for the pre-schoolers' right to have these programs implemented. Wish me luck!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

wow! I like the idea of yoga in pre-school is nice. This is something new :)

auee said...

Yoga for preschoolers, now that's something new. Normally it's babies di ba?

Goodluck ha! You got me thinking about my son's nursery here. We're not really consulted on most of their decisions, their "curriculum" is already set. We do meet with the keyworkers to highlight some concerns or ask them to go in another direction, that's it. They do not take our kids out farther than they're garden and playground.

Anonymous said...

Hi Raq,
It's great that Yoga is being introduced in your Kindergarteners. My daughter was showing me Yoga poses she learned watching Jojo Circus. The poses are very relaxing and easy for the little ones. It's also a good thing to get them introduced to this kind of physical fitness so they don't end up as fat lazy bums.

PS. Sorry ngayon ako naka-visit. super busy ako tapos mahirap tanggihan ang mga PPP. $50 isang post pa naman! Saan ko pupulutin yun?

TCM said...

Hi there...

raqgold said...

mom - other kindergartens have been doing it for years already, late pa nga kami e, :-D

auee -- yoga is for everybody na, hehe. hmm, wow, mas dictated pa pala ang program dyan sa inyo. at least here, you get to be involved talaga. yun nga lang, when you want a program done, you should make tutok or else, wala din.

KK -- yoga is good esp for their inner balance. to eliminate tantrums, hehe- wow, you are earning, congrats!

evo -- hi there, too!