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Some practical considerations for before school, lunch time and after school yoga and mindfulness clubs.
 
Extra- curricular clubs can be great in your kids yoga business,  but there can be a lot to consider which can be really overwhelming when you first set them up.

I wanted to answer some questions that I’ve been asked about this subject. Do get in touch if you have more questions about this or anything else to do with kids yoga or children’s well-being email me at [email protected]
 
Financial considerations-
Who pays you?
Usually parents/ carers or the school. This varies from school to school. I have done both, but the model that I am most used to is parents paying me directly.
I have also worked in schools where the majority of the parents/ carers pay me directly, but some children are paid for by the school with the Pupil Premium funding.
 
How do they pay you?
If I am being paid by the school, I invoice the school and they either send a bank transfer or pay by cheque (old school, but it still happens in some schools!)
 
If the parents/ carers are paying, there are many options here: bank transfer, having the term as an item on my website that is ‘click and buy’, you can set up a payment link in stripe or in Paypal, some people still take payments by cheque, or you could use a booking system like Bookwhen. If you are using a system like Bookwhen, make the description really clear, especially if you teach at different schools or have different classes, include the name of the school or the name of the year group so parents know which one to choose.
In all cases, make the process as easy as possible for both you and your client.
 
When do they pay you?
This depends on your business and how you want it to work for you. Also, it depends on how the school operates, they may have a system in place that they want to stick with.
I would recommend either half termly or termly, I prefer termly as this means that I only need to do this job 3 times a year rather than 6. But this also means that I only get paid for this work 3 times a year, so I need to manage my money!
 
What systems can you use to support this?
To make things easier on yourself, it’s good to have a system in place for things like this. It could be as simple as having a folder with all of the documents in that you need for you to just edit each term. Planning in a day each term to sort out the admin involved can be a great way to manage this and not feel overwhelmed by it all, having dates on your calendar of what you’ll do when really helps here.

Also, creating ‘Standard Operating Procedures’ that you refer to each time can really help streamline how much time you spend on this. This sounds complicated, but it can be really simple, such as a checklist that you refer to each time you do the job. If it is only something that you do a few times a year, it can be really easy to forget how you do things, which means that it will take longer than it needs to. Simply write a list of everything that you do at the point of doing it, then it will be there for you to refer back to next time.
 
Documents-
It can feel really overwhelming ensuring that you have all of the documents that you need in place. Here are some important ones for extra-curricular clubs. You might also find this checklist handy.

Terms and conditions- It’s important to have your terms and conditions written somewhere and shared with parents at the point of booking, this could be that you share a link to a google doc, or a page on your website, or even that you email an actual copy of them. Make sure that it outlines your rules for cancellations and refunds etc. If you are taking the booking from parents directly, this can be easier to share, but if the school are arranging it, you can give them a document to put on their website or send via parent mail.
 
Health and safety- When children are booked on to your class, it’s really important that you have information shared with you that is pertinent to the child’s health. This might be via a google form, a paper form or an understanding that parents will email you. You may also need emergency contact details, depending on the schools policy here, some schools have office staff in the school at the time of the class, so this may not be needed.

GDPR and Privacy- Make sure that you are only gathering and storing the information that is vital for you to fulfil your role and that you are saving it in a GPRR compliant manner.
You might find this website useful for this.

Communication
With schools, make sure that you are clear about who your point of contact is and how to contact them. Ensuring that everybody is on the same page about what is happening when and who is responsible for what, is really vital. For example, what are the expectations for the end of the class or sending the children home after? What is the procedure forif a child is not collected? Who’s responsibility is first aid etc.
When communicating with parents and carers, again it is really important to check that you have the right contact details. Ensure that you have clear information that is easily accessible about dates, times, expectations etc. So that everyone knows what is happening when.
 
Extra- curricular clubs can be a great source of fun and finances in your kids yoga business, but it can feel like a big thing to organise.
If you would like some support in setting up your extra-curricular classes, email me at [email protected] I will share with you some options of ways I can help you.

                                          🎥 Watch the video for this here 🎥

*Disclaimer! I know not everyone has the same home and business set up as me, many kids yoga teachers still work over the summer holidays. I’m just sharing my own experience as someone who built my business around my family life with the intention of not working much in the summer holidays*
 
As I have children myself, I have historically not worked much in the summer holidays, apart from delivering the odd family workshop or family yoga camp.

I’ve noticed that, when I stop working over the summer and pick it all back in September, I feel really overwhelmed in September!

I’m going to share with you in this blog 5 things to do over the summer so that you don’t get that big old ‘Uhhhh!’ feeling in September.


Schedule in a day for you to review of what is working and what isn’t –
Both in your business and in your life. You might find these resources helpful here:
🎁Really useful reflections freebie: https://julia-hankins.ck.page/e428109605
🎥Really useful reflections video: https://youtu.be/9j2L9MUnE6I?si=O14a-wjDzleHTEJq
🎁Create an ideal life journal prompts: https://julia-hankins.ck.page/7fa8dfaa1c
Or, simply just ask yourself “what do I want more of, what do I want less of?”
I like to do this on one of the last days of term.
 
Spend some time with your diary / calendar
Plan when you are going to do your lesson plans for next term, so you know when you are going to do it and it isn’t hanging over you. Again, I like to do this at the end of term, rather than in the holidays.
 

Have a big sort out
Get rid of props/ books/ resources/ documents that are no longer aligned with what you want to do and where you want to go. This is something that you can fit into small pockets of time write a list of tasks/ areas you want to sort and then work through them in mini pockets of time.
Ask yourself “Is this going to get me closer to where I want to go?”
I like to do this as an ongoing task over the holidays, half an hour here or there when my kids are occupied with friends, or screens!!
 
Invest some time learning-
Summer can be a great time to do some upskilling on your own terms- an online course or reading a book. Make sure your learning is aligned with your goals (refer to point 1).

💻If you would like to learn how to use yoga/ well-being cards I’d love to invite you to the live training on 27th of Aug with replay after. This training is complete with the yoga cards to use too. Book before 23rd of August to get your spot for less than half price!
 
🧠If you would like to upskill on behaviour, structuring your lessons or using props you may benefit from the online development workshops that are available here.
All of my workshops are approved by Yoga Alliance Professionals, so you can log the hours

Take some real time off
Take a good amount of time, when you don’t look at your email, or do bits here and there. This is something that I think us yoga teachers can really struggle with!
I take two full weeks when I don’t look at any emails or do any work for my business at all- although I may still read a book that links to it (as I love reading!)
 
 
I hope that this was useful to you and gave you some things to think about.
 
What do you do in the summer holidays? Do you do any work at all?
 
I’d love to know what works for you and your thoughts about what I’ve shared here.
If you have any questions, comments or ideas for future blogs, email me at [email protected]
 
 

                                        🎥 Watch the video for this here 🎥

Whether your kids yoga classes are in school or not, the end of a school term is likely to impact on the children, especially if it is the end of a school year. This can impact your classes and you too.
 
Emotions can run extremely high at this time of year.
 
You might notice children feeling tired and wired, you may see emotional outbursts, defiance, or even some children just ‘checking out’.
 
Please know that this is all completely normal, as a primary school teacher of many years (and a parent too), I have witnessed many times over ‘end-of-term-itus!’
 
After many weeks of working in their lessons and having structure in their day, things may start easing off and the timetable may change.
 
Especially if it is also the end of an academic year. This means….
 
A lot of changes!
 
Many children and adults struggle with changes, things can feel different. For example, in school, the children may see that wall displays are being taken down, books and resources are being moved room to room, things are starting to look and feel very different.
There is likely to be events within the school day, like end of year assemblies, sports days, leavers assemblies, special experience days. This can feel very unsettling for a lot of children who sense change in the rhythm of school life.
When transition day happens- the children all meet their teacher for next year- this brings about a whole host of emotions, fears, worries, excitement! They know that life for them is changing.
 
All of this can really impact on many children as they try to come to terms with what is happening in their life. Their can be such a mix of feelings and thoughts that can be confusing and this, when combined with tiredness, can feel very overwhelming which leads to changes in behaviour or the ‘feel’ of our kids yoga classes.
 
Here are some tips for dealing with this:
 
Have compassion for yourself, children and any staff
Sometimes just understanding what is going on and expecting there to be some behaviour changes and big feelings can really help.

Recognise your own feelings- irritation, tiredness, impatience, sadness (as some children leave our classes) in amongst it all.

Holding space for compassion for what is going on here for you, the children and the staff, is a great way to live your yoga off the mat.  (By the way, I highly recommend Judith Lasater’s book ‘Living your Yoga’ for more on this.)
 
Speak to the changes and validate emotions around those.
It can be really tempting to ignore what is going on and the changes that are happening- for fear that it will make things worse- will everyone go crazy or cry?!

However, I think it is really important to give a voice to the thoughts and feelings that are happening at this time.

This might look like:

• In a yoga club (where there are likely smaller group sizes) giving some time to talk about feelings together and maybe express those emotions with poses to represent the feelings.
• In curriculum classes, commenting on all of the different feelings and thoughts that might be happening and normalising those as very human responses.

For me, emotion education is integral to my classes and I love to explore how emotions may feel physically in the body, how we can allow ourselves to experience that feeling and also, how we can support ourselves when the emotion feels too much.
 
Share tools for grounding and relaxation.
At the end of term it can be tempting to have a fun session, focus on the excitement of the upcoming holidays and celebrate the term that has passed.

This is great. I would also say that celebration and fun is necessary, but so is grounding and relaxation.

This is the time of year when children need these practices more than ever. This is when children can put their knowledge into practice in real life.

I would focus on regulating practices such as these

Also, tools like relaxation stories, body scans, and calming breathing techniques are especially useful this time of year..
 
What are your favourite grounding techniques?

Are you going to use them in your end of term classes?
 
I love hearing from other kids yoga teachers, do you have a question, a comment or an idea for a future video/ blog?

Reach out to me by email: [email protected]
 

                                           🎥 Watch the video on youtube

🤔Anyone else have an unhealthy obsession with yoga cards?
 
I have bought (and since sold!) pretty much every type that there is going!
In the end, I created my own because the ones that I had were either

• Too small in size for my big classes to really find useful.
• Too small in number of poses, so I had to combine cards from different decks, but that was confusing because the same pose had different names.

Or

• They were large enough but I didn’t find the pictures representative of the children in my classes, the kids couldn’t ‘see themselves’ in them. Which is really important to me.

Anyway, I LOVE my cards -I call them well-being cards because:

• They have so many different ideas on the back that aren’t just yoga.
• Some people have a tricky relationship with the word ‘yoga’ and their perception of it as a religion. I want my resources to be inclusive for everyone!

 
They are my number 1 prop and I use them in EVERY lesson.
 
Here’s why I think yoga / well-being cards are AWESOME and why you should consider using them in your kids classes (if you don’t already!)

Engage, excite and build safety
The children shown on the cards become familiar characters and part of the shared experience of the lesson. In my own classes, children have favourites- because of the clothes they are wearing, or the way that it reminds them of themselves or someone they know.
This familiarity helps to build on a feeling of safety. Having cards as part of the structure of the lesson builds predictability into the class, helping many children feel reassured. 

Valuable visual image
Whether the child is doing the version of the pose that is shown or not, having an image to attach the learning to is REALLY important.
As educators, we should be providing our lessons in a number of different ways to help different learners to remember and make sense of what we are teaching.
Having an image to ‘tag’ the learning to supports everyone. Children who have learning needs or language barriers especially benefit from having visual aids to support them.
 
Useful learning tool
The cards themselves are really useful to support children’s learning. The children can hold the cards and organise them to help them plan how a sequence may look. Students can compare poses, looking at the way the children in the images are holding there bodies. There are also numerous games that you can play using the cards.
 
If you would like to know my top 5 tips for using yoga / well-being cards in your classes, check out this freebie.
 
Come to my training!
I would love to invite you to my up coming training ‘Captivate with Cards’ on August 27th.  

Not only will you get to learn how to use well-being cards in all of your classes, but you will also get the cards as PDFs so you can print and use them!

This is the live round of a course that I will be turning into a self-paced e-course that will be available to buy online.

The benefits of joining at this stage are:

• The live round is less than half price at £97 when it is an e-course, it will be £197.
• You will get to shape the training with any questions that you have before, during and after the course.
• You will receive PDF versions of my cards so you can print them and use them as you need them in whatever format works for you.
• You will receive a PDF manual to support your use of the cards.
• When this gets converted into an e-course, you will get access to it for the life time of the course and any updates.

 
Details:
✨ Discount -less than half price available until 23rd of August.
✨ Live training on 27th August 10- 11.30 am (UK time).
✨ Recording will be emailed on August 28th.
✨ E-Course log in information will be shared as soon as it is available.
 
Book your spot now and get the training and the resources for less than half price!
See the gorgeous cards that you will get your hands on!