Something that I LOVE to do in my business is to review my business and life seasonally.
I live by the wheel of the year and so I use the seasonal shifts as key times to reflect. The Winter Solstice is a really useful time to reflect, especially as it is so close to the end of the calendar year. I’m very lucky to have a close friend who also works like this and we meet up at the Solstices and the Equinoxes as a pause point to reflect on life, business and everything else. This is a really special time for me and I believe that it is key to my mental health as it helps me to keep my business and life aligned with my values. Sometimes at these reviews, I discover something that I hadn’t realised and I end up changing my focus or pivoting completely because I realise that it doesn’t ‘fit’ with me and what I truly care about. This process just seems to suit me, my brain and my lifestyle more than the usual ‘business quarterly review’ type activity. Today, I wanted to share with you the document that I use at this time, in case it is useful to you. You can simply make a copy of the google doc and adapt it to suit your own needs. Take what resonates and leave the rest! 🎁Here’s the link for the google doc 📽️I’ve done a video that talks you through it here If you’ve got any questions, or you’d like to work with me, reach out - I love connecting with others.
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Do you ever feel exhausted and drained? Does it make you feel like a hypocrite because here you are talking about well-being and here you are struggling with your own? If so, this video might be useful to you. I’m going to be sharing why we experience burn out as kids yoga teacher, ways to prevent or address burn out and also signs to watch out for. When I was a Primary Teacher I experienced burn out. It was something that I felt ashamed of at the time. I was embarrassed, I felt like a failure and didn’t want to talk about it. During my research for my MSc for Mental Health and Well-Being in Education, I discovered just how prolific it is for educators (very!). I left full time teaching because of the stress, anxiety that I felt, the juggle of work and home and feeling like I was failing everyone and so, I became a yoga teacher. Problem solved right? Wrong? I quickly found myself hurtling towards the same old familiar feelings. So yeah, burn out happens to us kids yoga teachers too and today I’m talking all about that because it is hard and it is shit and I think it is something that we SHOULD talk about! While teaching yoga to children is often joyful and rewarding, it can also be physically, emotionally, and mentally taxing, especially when managing behaviour, meeting expectations, or juggling multiple sessions in a day. Why Do Kids Yoga Teachers Experience Burnout? I think that there are many aspects that can contribute to burn out, here are just some that I've experienced personally at various times over my yoga teaching career. Emotional Exhaustion Teaching requires constant energy, patience, and adaptability, which can leave you feeling drained, particularly with energetic or challenging groups. This can be a lot, especially if you also have other relational commitments -such as young children or caring for other family members. Physical Fatigue Demonstrating poses repeatedly and moving around to support children can take a toll on your body, especially if you’re teaching several classes in one day. Too many frog jumps is usually the cause of this for me! So fun at the time... Behaviour Management Stress Managing a group with varying attention spans, energy levels, and needs can be overwhelming, particularly without additional support. This can be made even worse if you have adult 'support' that is less than supportive! High Expectations Parents, schools, or organisations might have unrealistic expectations about what your sessions should achieve, which can add unnecessary pressure. Or perhaps those expectations come from within ourselves too (where are my fellow perfectionist idealists?!) Creative Drain Continuously coming up with fresh ideas, themes, and activities can feel like a constant challenge, leading to mental fatigue- followed by mild panic! Lack of Support Unlike classroom teachers who often work in teams, yoga teachers can feel isolated, with fewer colleagues to lean on for advice or encouragement. School teachers have line managers / supervisors / senior teachers who can offer mentoring and ideas to try. This isn't common in the kids yoga world- which is why I offer mentoring and also why I set up the community for School Yoga Teachers. Financial Pressure Kids yoga isn’t always highly paid, and balancing finances with a packed schedule can lead to stress. I think that also money can be a taboo subject in the yoga world sometimes, some people think that wanting to earn money isn't very 'yogic' which can lead to feelings of shame around this topic. This is just ridiculous, we all need to live, there is nothing wrong with earning money in our businesses. In my opinion, money is neutral, how you choose to spend it isn't! Neglecting Self-Care Teachers often pour all their energy into their students, forgetting to prioritise their own well-being. This is a habit that I bought with me from my teaching career and had a hard time 'un-learning' it. How to Prevent or Address Burnout Ok, we know it happens and some reasons why, but is it unavoidable? I think that with a lot of self awareness and conscious choice, we can make moves to avoid burn out. Here are some things that I have found vital in my own journey: Set Boundaries This is hard and it's personal to you, your life, your family and your preferences, but some ideas are:
Prioritise Self-Care I find using my calendar or diary really useful here! For some reason, if I've written it there, I'm more likely to do it. Also, maybe getting accountability from friends could be a fun way to ensure that you do this.
Seek Support
Plan Efficiently
Celebrate Small Wins
Ongoing Professional Development
Honour Your Body
Some signs of Burnout to Watch For Are you concerned that you might be experiencing burn out? Here are some signs to be mindful of:
If you’re concerned about burnout, addressing it early is key. Small adjustments like reducing your schedule, seeking support, or prioritising your own needs can make a huge difference. Would you like any help finding ways to streamline your work or focus on self-care? Here's two things that might help: 💞Join my free community and talk about it there! Consider it like a staff room! 👩🏻💻Get some personalised support and work with me. Are you finding some sticking points in your business? Why not make 2025 the year you invest in yourself and your kids' yoga business? If you're looking for the guidance and support to grow your confidence, skills, and business in a way that feels authentic to you, this is for you! Sign up in December, and you can kick off your mentoring package in January while enjoying immediate access to all my courses and resources. That’s a whole month to dive into my trainings and tools, getting a head start before we officially begin working together. Sound like your kind of thing? ✨Get instant, lifetime access now or 👩🏻💻Book a free no pressure chat with me to see if we are compatible to work together Do you have a question? Would you like me to talk about anything in particular? 📨Email me at [email protected] I love hearing from other kids yoga teachers! Are you a kids yoga teacher who teaches mixed ages?
Perhaps in an after school club. Sometimes it can be tricky to know how to manage these dynamics and meet such differing needs, ages and developmental levels. In today's video and blog I’m talking all about how to manage mixed ages in your kids yoga class, I hope that you find it really useful. Mixed age classes are something that I used to experience a lot in my after school clubs. I had some extra curricular clubs that were grouped by year group, or ‘phase’ but most were mixed age and that meant a range from reception to year 6. I did find this hard at first but found some little strategies that helped to make this manageable and I’ll share those with you now. Structuring the class The structure of these classes usually looked like this:
Pose play for different age groups and abilities When teaching poses, I always give lots of different variations so that each child gets what they need. So, for example, in tree pose. Some children will benefit from having one foot on top of their other foot and hands and arms in one position. Other children may be able to place their foot on their lower leg, they may explore with a different arm position. There may be children in the same group who would benefit from a challenge, such as placing their foot on their leg and moving their arms around- or perhaps even experimenting with balancing with their leg out to the side. So, you can see how the same pose can support a range of different abilities through use of variation. This is just like it would be in an adult class, with people of varying abilities doing the same pose, but different expressions of the pose that best suit their body. I may also offer support through use of props, or options such as leaning on a wall or holding hands with a partner (assuming both children are happy with this). If I have a mixed age group of children, I stick to poses that are appropriate for the youngest children and add challenge through adapting the pose for the more able ones. This is a safer option than including more challenging poses. I have found that if I include more challenging poses, then those who aren’t really developmentally ready for this will still try to do it. Being creative with groupings I would generally start and end my club in the same way, with all children together. For creation time, I’d get creative with the groupings. This worked really well as most of my classes were large (about 24/ 25 children). Here are some different grouping strategies that I tried and had success with. Choices Here I allow the children to choose who they work with and be really flexible with this in terms of number of children. I say that I don’t mind who works with who as long as they are following our rules and nobody is feeling excluded. This actually works really well and I was often surprised who worked with who! Random Groups This is where children would be grouped randomly. I would do this by getting them to each pick from a bag and in the bag would be either mega blocks (big lego) or pegs (yep, clothes pegs) of different colours. If it was blocks, the children had to find their other group members by finding those with the same colour brick and build a tower together. If it was pegs, they would need to find a piece of card that was that colour and all peg their peg onto it together. This also worked well with scarves of different colours too. Random Partners Similar to random groups, but I used two piece puzzles and the children would have to find each other. For example a picture of a penguin and a word of a penguin would be partners Buddies This is where I would decide who would work together and would partner up older children with younger children. I might make it obvious that I had decided or I might give children name cards of who they were working with so it appeared more random than it was. Whole group Simple as that, the whole group together. Ability groups This is where I group children together by their ability. Obviously you need to know the kids pretty well for this because it isn’t necessarily the case that children of the same age will have the same ability. Again, I will either make it obvious that I am selecting who works with who, or I’ll manufacture it, by giving children specific colours for them to group together. When children are grouped in this way, it is possible to give each group different poses that suit their ability best. Mixing it up each week ensured that there wasn’t the opportunity for cliques to happen. This did happen at first! Don’t be afraid to change the groups if they aren’t working and if the children are clashing! Not everyone will like everyone and that is ok! Tasks for creation time- what the kids actually do! Choices After introducing the poses of the week (and maybe playing some games with them), I’d give the children some suggestions of things that they might like to do in their groups/ partners. Kids are really creative and imaginative and usually LOVE being given the freedom to choose what they do. I’d observe and keep an eye out to be ready to support where groups were having problems or needed a bit of extra guidance. One job This is where I would give everyone a task to do in their groups, it could be to create a flow or group pose or play a game that we have learnt. Everyone is in groups, but everyone is doing the same thing. Rotation (obstacle course style) This is a fun thing to do at the beginning or end of a series of classes and kids love it. They rotate around the activities having a turn on each one for a specified amount of time. Supporting and extending When the children are working in groups, I make the most of that time to go and individually support and extend the learning where I see that the children need it. This could be by going and giving some specific pose cards to individual children, or chatting and suggesting alternative movements that might better suit their bodies. What about those children who are odd ones out? Sometimes, we get a random older child who is the only one of their age in the class. This is totally fine and probably a really nice experience for them to be ‘the older one’. Again, you might get a random ‘young’ one who doesn’t have their friends there. This can be a great new way of building their social network. If you notice times when someone is looking like they are feeling left out, it is a great time to give them a bit of one on one time. I always used to have something in my bag for this scenario. It could be:
Bringing it all together For me, the key to making a class fun and challenging for everyone, is giving some free creation time and observing what the children are doing and giving individual attention where it is needed. All the children in our classes really want is to feel seen, heard, understood and safe. That’s something that all of us can do. I hope that you found that useful, I’d love to know your thoughts. Is there anything that you will try and integrate into your own classes? Is there anything that you do in your classes that I haven’t mentioned? We all bring our unique gifts to our classes and I’m only sharing my own personal experiences and views, these are not ‘the ultimate’ or ‘the correct’ ways of doing things. Would you like some extra support? Did you know that I offer mentoring programmes. Imagine getting my support for 6 months?
If you know that you want to boost your kids yoga business in 2025, why not buy a mentor package now? You can receive your support from January onwards but get instant early access to all e-courses and resources as soon as you buy. Such a great way to up-skill over the holidays to prepare you for your classes in January! Currently just £750 this will be increasing (to £1000) in February -when all courses will be updated. Are you a kids yoga teacher who would like to work in schools but are wondering how to manage such large groups? Perhaps this is something that you already do, but don’t feel confident with it? If so, then this might be the blog for you, as I’m sharing my top tips for teaching large groups. A question that I often get asked by other kids yoga teachers is “How do you teach such large classes and keep them all involved and focused?” Most of the classes that I teach are within curriculum time and are with classes of about 30 children. Here’s my preferred set up (although not all schools have such lovely big halls!): I should share here that my background is in education and before doing what I do now (Children’s Well-Being Specialist), I was a primary school teacher.
Since 1997 I’ve been working with large groups of children and for 5 years of this time, I was a school senior leader, often leading whole school assemblies. So, big numbers of children is something I’m really comfortable with. That said, teaching kids yoga to large groups is a whole other kettle of fish (that’s a weird phrase isn’t it?!) It’s different because the relationship between yoga teacher and pupils is usually different to the typical teacher - pupil relationship. It actually took me quite a while to adjust to being different with large groups of children. However, I do MUCH prefer being “Julia, our well-being teacher” than “Mrs Hankins” Ok, I said I’d give you some tips and now I’m just waffling on- so lets get to it. Have a clear and simple plan! This might sound obvious, but taking time to create the plan for the lesson and ensuring that you know it well means that you will feel calmer. I prefer a ‘less is more’ approach here and don’t use to many words on my plan, this is so that I can refer to it quickly and see what’s coming without having to read lots. You can get a copy of the planning grids that I use here 🎁. You might also find these videos useful: 📹 3 types of plan 📹 Love your planning process 📹 Make your plan work for you not against you If you aren’t sure what to teach then I highly recommend the e-course Structure for Success (which is soon to be increasing in price so now is a great time to get it!) Set up your space Ideally this is before the children come into the space. Whenever I have to set up ‘with the kids’ it also starts a little bit chaotic, I find that I am dysregulated and that impacts upon the lesson. This might not be true for you though, so if setting up with kids is working for you, then obviously ignore me- but I personally find that setting up before the kids and giving myself a little moment of calm before it begins sets the tone for the lesson and it runs more smoothly. Use mats (or some way to identify personal space) - one per child. I have heard other kids yoga teachers say that this isn’t necessary, but for me, the lessons that I teach where every child has a designated space go a WHOLE LOT better than those where space is not defined. Why is this? When the children have a designated space that is clearly defined, they find it easier to concentrate- they are less likely to be distracted by or distract others and they feel safer and more confident. Imagine going to an adult yoga class and there being no mats and someone on one side felt ‘too close’ and the person on the other side had no awareness of their own space and kept waving their arm in your face. Sounds horrible doesn’t it? That’s because it is- let’s not do this to our kids! Have clear expectations and rules I’ve talked about this before - you can: 📹 watch the video Boost Behaviour here or get 🎁 my free rules poster and guide here Rules and boundaries are key for everyone. If you feel like you need more here, the training Tame the Crowd without being Loud is for you! (This is also about to go up in price, as it’s about to get updated) Introduction EVERY TIME! No matter how long you have been working with a year group, before the lesson starts:
Consider your props! Make sure that:
I talk much more about this here: 📹 On this free video, Top Prop Tips You can also get 🎁My free guide here where I share my favourite props and how I use them in my classes. 🧠Don’t miss the e-course Props like a Pro which teaches so much more about using props within your classes to support and extend learning and excite your students. Use Cards My classes always include using cards, these support the learning, help children to remember poses, help you to structure the class and are fun to use. 🎁Here are some tips for using cards 📹There's also the free video Top of the Props! which you might like to check out. If you’d like to get your hands on the cards that I created to use specifically with large groups and learn how to use them in all of your classes, check out Captivate with Cards Training and Resource Bundle Start at the side This is something that is so small that it feels like I shouldn’t mention it, but I really have noticed a difference when I haven’t done this! I always like to greet the class as they come into the hall and get them sat at the edge of the hall (in some halls there are benches at the edges which is just perfect!) This is where:
Only after all of this do we walk to the mats and the main ‘space’ of the lesson. This means that when we do get to the mats we have a shared understanding. Be interactive To me this is crucial. I use lots of opportunities to get children to interact within the lesson, this could be:
It’s all about YOU As the adult in the room, the energy will largely be impacted by you and your state. If you are anxious, the kids will pick up on that, if you are confident - the kids will be led by you. If you are irritable- you can bet that this will play out in some way. Therefore, the best tip that I can give you to have successful kids yoga classes with large groups, is to manage your own energy/ nervous system/ mood first and all else will come second! I could talk / write ALL day about this because teaching large groups is what I do and I love it! I’m going to stop here though! You can: 🎁 get any of the freebies that I mentioned here 📹 watch any / all of my free videos here 🧠 access all of my e-courses here If you'd like to save yourself some money, The School Yoga Teacher Bundle is a great way of doing this as you get 5 e-courses for just £147 - this is increasing in price soon though. If you would like some personal support here, why not book a one to one mentoring session with me here. There are options for one off meetings and also a 6 month mentoring programme (where you get lifetime access to all of my current resources and e-course included). Ready to make 2025 the year you invest in your kids' yoga business and take it to the next level? If you're looking for the guidance and support to grow your confidence, skills, and business in a way that feels authentic to you, this is for you! Sign up in December, and you can kick off your mentoring package in January while enjoying immediate access to all my courses and resources. That’s a whole month to dive into my trainings and tools, getting a head start before we officially begin working together. Sound like your kind of thing? Get instant, lifetime access now Would you like an informal, no pressure chat with me to see if we are compatible to work together? Book it for free here Do you have a question that you'd like answered? Email me at [email protected] - I would love to hear from you! |
From Julia
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January 2025
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