Volunteering & Volunteer Students

Smaller Surya in Sukhasana

Monday was my first volunteer teaching experience.  I have been wanting to offer my time for quite a while but until recently had not found the venue that felt truly right for me.  I recently learned that the school that my daughter Surya goes to, had a yoga teacher volunteering for every class except the youngest class, and because the school does not have enough funds to pay a teacher I seized the opportunity to offer my time in service of the little ones (including my little one).  Although I had never taught anyone under 15 before, after a bit of research I realized that with a lot of enthusiasm and an equal amount of fun it would be a rewarding experience for both the children and myself.

So this past Monday was our first class together.  The class head teacher had divided the class into 3 groups of 8 children, ranging in age from 3 years to 6 years.  The children seemed to be excited to see me and I heard a few saying “theres our yoga teacher” in hushed whispers as I walked past their outside lunch area to sign in at the office.  I went into the class, set up the yoga mats, turned one the music and walked outside to get the first group.  I must admit that I did have a slight feeling of apprehension prior to the class, wondering whether I would be able to hold 8 young one’s attention long enough to practice something and whether they would even want to practice.  Anyways, we got into the class and everyone got seated on a mat.  We began by sitting nicely, with the children’s little legs crossed and their little hands in Anjali mudra, reciting the Maha Mantra aloud together.  We then became little volcanoes, our prayer hands were the lava and as we inhaled the “lava” rose up to the top of the mountain and exploded down the sides over and over again.  We were cats and dogs stretching and grew from a little seed into a tree (vrksasana) with finger leaves and branches that blew in the wind.  Warrior was extra fun with our legs in Virabhadrasana II and our arms becoming a bow shooting arrows.  Adding to the fun the children picked a favorite warrior with a bow from the Mahabharata and we were all Arjuna shooting his bow Gandiva for a couple minutes.  We then sat and became butterflies, flapping our “wings” and telling the class where we were flying.  We relaxed in Savasana with the children laying on their backs, hands on their bellies, breathing in to make their belly big and breathing out to make it small again.  Finally we ended as we started, seated cross legged and chanting the Maha Mantra again together.  The class was only 15 mins long and a couple of the children said they wanted a longer class, and so did I.  I had so much fun playing with the asanas and the children and am really happy that they actually enjoyed the class.  The next day when I went to pick up my daughter from school, a few of the little girls were noticeably friendlier to me, smiling and waving.  I was speaking to one of my friends little girls, who mentioned that her group’s class was shorter that the others and when I told her there would be no class next week as it is spring holiday for them, she promptly said “you can come to my house and we could do yoga.  There is space in my living room.”  I now kind of wish I could teach the children more than one day a week and have spoken to their teach about getting longer class times…next class with be almost double the length .