Family Yoga

We do not currently have any workshops scheduled, but check back in the Fall.

Bring your family for an hour of playful yoga practice. Learn basic poses, partner yoga, games, relaxation and breathing techniques. No prior yoga experience necessary. For children ages 6 and up. Kids must be accompanied by at least one adult. Mark your calendars!

If you have any questions about this workshop, please call, email or use this form.

Family Yoga in the News!

Yoga Chicago had a brief write-up of Lela's Yoga for Young Women and Family Yoga in their May-June 2006 issue.

We were mentioned in Julie Deardorff's health column. See the excerpt below, or view the full article at the Tribune website (requires free registration).

Who can do yoga? Do gymnastics? Baby, it's you.

By Julie Deardorff
Tribune health and fitness reporter
March 16, 2006

My husband and I are both athletic, but when our son, Luke, was born, we agreed we wouldn't force him into sports.

Nine months later, I signed him up for swimming at the local YMCA because I couldn't get him out of the bathtub. When he began scaling the barstools and climbing on the kitchen counters, my husband enrolled him in park district gymnastics.

Before we knew it, our toddler was a regular at tot motion classes, which offer a wide array of choices for parents with newborns, crawlers, cruisers or walkers. In addition to swimming and gymnastics, there's baby and family yoga, parent and child indoor rock climbing and classes that combine movement with music and dance.

We hope, if he's interested, he will do them all. But it's really not about raising a Little Leaguer or getting a competitive edge in sports. It's about following his natural inclinations and exposing him to the joys and freedom of motion. Movement and activity is intertwined with learning. It coordinates the body with the mind, and some schools of thought say it's critical for overall development.

The classes, though, are primarily about fun and giving both parents and children an outlet during the cold winter months when playground time is scarce.

So we tried some classes and here's what we found:

...

FAMILY YOGA

The minute Luke turns 5, I'm taking him to White Iris Yoga in Evanston, where instructors Lela Schneidman and Nick Beem have put together a uniquely creative hour of playful yoga practice. Like regular yoga, the class offers basic poses, coordinates movement with breath and ends with a few minutes of relaxation. Unlike regular yoga, sound effects are encouraged during cat and dog pose, giggling and laughter is constant and the children are shown how to wrap themselves up like enchiladas during the final relaxation. It's clear the instructors love what they're doing. Especially nice was seeing a literal family tree: Chicago's Susan Coopersmith brought her mother, Marilyn Sneider, of Morton Grove and Susan's 7-year-old daughter, Becky Samet. At one point during class, the three generations linked arms as they balanced together in "tree pose."

...

jdeardorff@tribune.com