Raising Joyful Yogis: The Power of Yoga for Children and the Adults Who Guide Them
/By Ashley Winger — Last Updated: May 8, 2025
“Play is not a break from learning. It is endless, delightful, deep, engaging, practical learning. It’s the doorway into the child’s heart.”
As a yoga teacher and elementary educator, I’ve witnessed firsthand how yoga lights up the hearts and minds of people of all ages. Adults often turn to yoga to manage stress, heal from injury, or reconnect with their bodies. It helps them regulate emotions, build self-awareness, and find balance. The same is true for children.
Yoga brings quiet children out of their shells, while helping high-energy children become more focused and grounded. Yoga is a transformative practice that meets each individual exactly where they are.
In today’s fast-paced world, children are more overstimulated than ever before. They’re busy, constantly bombarded with information, and many face real mental health challenges. Yoga offers them a path to stillness and self-regulation.
Since I began teaching yoga to children both in and out of the classroom, I’ve seen kids apply the techniques on their own — just like adults do. But they need to be taught how and when to use them, what it feels like in their bodies, and that they don’t need to wait until they’re overwhelmed to slow down.
The benefits of yoga for kids are powerful and wide-ranging:
Physically, yoga improves strength, flexibility, balance, coordination, and body awareness — all of which support development and translate readily to other sports.
Mentally, yoga enhances focus, self-regulation, resilience, and emotional awareness — skills that support mental health and academic success.
Socially, yoga fosters empathy, confidence, and a sense of community.
Yoga is especially valuable for children who aren’t drawn to traditional sports. Its non-competitive nature gives those kids a way to move their bodies joyfully, without pressure. At its core, yoga helps children navigate the chaos of the world with greater calm, presence, and joy.
Summer Kids Yoga Camp at Green Lotus
This summer at Green Lotus, we’re hosting Kids Yoga Camp, offering young yogis a nurturing, fun, and inclusive space to grow physically, emotionally, and socially. Each day features an exciting theme and includes yoga, meditation, breathwork, storytelling, mindfulness games, crafts, and outdoor play.
We’ve created this camp to help children:
Learn to regulate emotions
Build self-awareness and confidence
Connect with others and make new friends
Develop a lifelong love for mindful movement
I’ve hosted yoga camps before, and the transformation is often remarkable. I remember Cleo, who started the week quiet and reserved, barely taking up space. By the end, Cleo was moving freely, using their voice, and joyfully expressing themselves. Another child, Frankie, was full of energy, skeptical about yoga, and constantly interrupting. By the end of the week, Frankie was calmer, patient, and gleefully participating.
What might yoga help your child overcome? Or perhaps it’s something they could embrace more fully — a new confidence, a deeper sense of peace?
Teaching Kids Yoga: A Joyful Journey for Adults
Perhaps you’ve wondered what it might be like to share yoga with children. Kids need emotionally grounded adults who model regulation, presence, and self-compassion. Yoga teachers can be those supportive guides — trusted adults who offer space for kids to be their full, authentic selves. Teaching kids yoga is playful, imaginative, and often reminds adults how to reconnect with our own sense of silliness and joy.
Green Lotus Yoga offers a meaningful way to step into that role through our Little Lotus Kids Yoga Teacher Training. Whether you’re a:
Parent or grandparent
Daycare provider
School, gym, or special education teacher
Occupational or physical therapist
Yoga teacher or longtime student of yoga
...this training will give you the tools to bring yoga to the children in your life.
You’ll learn how to design fun, engaging, age-appropriate yoga classes for children ages three and up. The 14-hour, Yoga Alliance-approved training includes yoga history, philosophy, energetics, postures, games, sequencing, and class planning. You’ll also gain practical insight into integrating yoga into school programs, community education, therapeutic settings, and more.
My Personal Experience with Little Lotus Training
I’ve taken this training twice — once in my early twenties when I worked at the YMCA, and again as a seasoned second-grade teacher who had recently become a yoga teacher. The first time, I was just curious about how I could share yoga with kids. The second time, I was ready to bring mindfulness into my classroom and tutoring sessions.
Each experience gave me new tools, confidence, and inspiration. I learned how to build thoughtful lessons, use age-appropriate language, and adapt practices to fit the unique needs of children. It helped me understand my students more deeply — and reminded me to be playful and present.
Now that I no longer teach in a traditional classroom, I use what I learned in this training to lead inclusive, student-centered yoga classes for kids with and without disabilities. Over the years, my approach has evolved into something deeply child-led. Young yogis leave class feeling seen, joyful, and empowered. They come to yoga knowing it's a safe space where they can just be themselves — no competition, no expectations, just connection and movement.
If this sounds like how you’d like to show up for the children in your life, sign up for Little Lotus Yoga Training at Green Lotus. You might be surprised by how both you and the kids in your world begin to grow and thrive.
At Green Lotus Yoga & Healing Center, we’re passionate about planting seeds of resilience, peace, and joy in the next generation through yoga. Whether you’re interested in sending your child to our Kids Yoga Camp in June or July or stepping into a mentorship role through our Little Lotus Training, these offerings are powerful pathways to growth — for kids and adults alike. Let this be a summer you both remember.
Explore Little Lotus Offerings
Ashley has been practicing yoga since 2010, drawn to its non-competitive nature and the deep connection it fosters between mind and body. Her practice is rooted in Gentle, Hatha, and Vinyasa flows, reflecting a commitment to both strength and serenity. During the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, when life felt particularly stationary, Ashley realized that teaching yoga was her next step. She completed her 200-hour yoga teacher training at Green Lotus, where her love for yoga deepened.
A teacher at heart, Ashley is passionate about building community and guiding her students toward peace and mental clarity through grounding, meditation, and breathwork. She is dedicated to teaching in a way that cultivates compassion and love towards the body, leaving her students feeling empowered and connected. Outside of yoga, Ashley finds joy in exploring the outdoors with her husband and dog and embracing the balance between movement and stillness.
