1. You Don’t Need a Certificate to Teach

Yes, there are organizations like Yoga Alliance, but these are voluntary registries who started to establish yoga industry standards. Some people follow them and some people do not. But is is not mandatory to have this type of certification or any certification at all (with the exception of getting insurance if you are starting a kids yoga business).

The main thing worth sharing here is that knowing how to teach an engaging kids yoga class is more important than certificates.

2. A Mindful Classroom Starts With A Mindful Teacher

One of the pioneers of Mindfulness, Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh said,

“Mindfulness is a kind of energy that we generate when we bring our mind back to our body and get in touch with what is going on in the present moment, within us and around us. We become aware of our breathing and come home to our body, fully present for ourselves and whatever we are doing.”

When a teacher brings their own mindful energy to the classroom, things change. A huge part of kids yoga involves a teacher keeping up with their own mindful practices.

3. Create The Environment You Want Children To Have

The world can be big and scary. It can also be beautiful and profound. All kinds of things are going on at the same time. We only have control over so much of it in each moment. Being a mindful teacher helps you stay in the moment so you can create the classroom environment you want children to be exposed to when they attend class. That’s the power we always have!

4. No Kid Wants To Sit On The Sidelines

Once in the summer intensive practicum in the children’s yoga training, the trainees were divided into small groups to teach actual children at a daycare.
In one group, there was a non-verbal autistic child who had a support staff provided by the facility. The assistant and child sat at the back of the yoga class. The assistant told us, “they just like to watch.”

Fortunately, one trainee in our group had a lot of education and experience working with children with autism. After we finished the practicum classes, we debriefed what happened and our trainee let it rip!

“No child wants to sit at the back and watch life go by! If someone tells you that, don’t believe them! It’s our job to figure out how to engage this child so she can participate in life, not watch it from the sidelines.”

We started working on a strategy for the next day.

And eventually, that trainee became the trainer in our Inclusive Yoga module when we moved the kids yoga training online!

5. It Takes Time to Build Your Business

You’ve probably heard that many businesses fail after the first few years. So, if you want to make a business of teaching yoga to children, yoga better be your passion. You might be doing it for a while!

Occasionally, people build their business in the first few months, but it often takes years to find a schedule that is sustainable and that you enjoy.

I’ve been self-employed as a yoga teacher since 1998. My goal now is to help new teachers share the gifts of yoga. But so much of my business comes back to my passion for yoga, for keeping my own practice going as it changes over the years.

I still take yoga classes and learn new things too. My newest hobby is songwriting where I explore yoga in this new way.

Learning helps keep things fresh and supports your passion to keep your business going!

6. Kids Yoga Makes A Difference

I got this letter out of the blue from a former student. You can read about it here. Bottom line, she is now 30 years old but still returns to what she learned in kids yoga.

7. Training also Makes a Difference

You don’t need a certificate to teach yoga to children but that doesn’t mean you stop learning. Training gives you tools to enhance the way you teach yoga to children. It gives you fresh ideas, confidence, and it refills your tank to help prevent burnout.

Training helps in so many ways which is why most successful teachers are lifelong students.

Our next training cohort starts soon. Check out the details here.

The post 7 Things Worth Sharing About Kids Yoga appeared first on Young Yoga Masters.

Here’s what her message said:

I’ve been thinking of you lately and wanted to let you know I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy this month. I did a lot of prenatal yoga and breath work and set some positive intentions for the birthing experience, and I feel like I already knew so much from the years of yoga classes with you.

I wanted to share how grateful I am for your presence in my life and everything you have taught me over the years. I do think of you often, always warm and lovely thoughts. I’m sending you lots of love and some pictures of my little one.

Charlotte said I could share this picture of her and baby from last week.

I share this because you may wonder if teaching yoga to kids makes a difference, and it really does!

There are so many ways yoga helps kids now and later in life.

If you’re thinking of teaching yoga for kids, go for it!

You’ll be glad you did.

The post Why I’m So Grateful I Started Yoga as a Child: How Early Practice Shaped My Adult Happiness appeared first on Young Yoga Masters.

Every month I offer a free kid’s yoga teacher training. They’re a fun workshop with insights in to one of the elements of teaching kids yoga.

Recently, I had a few emails about how the free training works.  People wanted to know how long they would have access to the replays.

The short answer is, you have until the next free training to watch the replay, which could be between 2 – 4 weeks. Then I replace last month’s replay with the most recent one in the Free Training.

If you miss the free replay, you can catch up in the 95 Hour Certification.

Here’s the story behind how the Free Kids Yoga Teacher Training works. 

Why give Training away for Free?

A little history of the free monthly kid’s yoga teacher training, I offered the first one in December 2020 so there have been over 50 free workshops!!!

It started as a coping strategy during the COVID lock downs. That was a tough time, very lonely and difficult for so many, including those of us who are used to seeing a lot of students every week!

Connecting live with people about my passion for bringing yoga to youth helped me get through. The silver lining was that a very focused community of kids yoga teachers started to form around the monthly event.

Running a Successful Yoga Business

However, it wasn’t all silver linings.  Like many yoga teachers, I worked hard pivoting online and got hit financially when the lock-downs ended. It was a tough time for everyone, including me, as a self-employed yoga teacher.

Yoga teacher training also changed completely.  Prices dropped significantly and Yoga Alliance changed the training requirements and people no longer had to attend a training in person.

I started working with a business coach to help me get perspective and see what opportunities might be available.

Pivoting the Free Training

One opportunity was the replays I was creating each month.

When I first offered the Free Monthly Kids Yoga Training, I had EVERY replay available in the free course. At the height, it was over 30 hours of free training, the only cost was giving an email address.

With some business coaching, I began to think about opening a membership site for kids yoga teachers. Here’s what resonated with me about it:

• The free replays weren’t organized by topic or category. It was getting unruly!
• Instead of the free training being a quick win for people, it was more of a monumental task because people didn’t know where to begin. Plus all that training didn’t count towards certification,
• There was a gap in my business model and not a lot of support available for people after they graduate to build their classes. Those who were already teaching kids yoga were often on their own too. This membership would help.

Yoga Alliance Certification Changes

But the biggest motivation came when Yoga Alliance changed their training rules for 2024 onward.

The 95 hours Certificate now requires a minimum of 14 hours of real-time training. This is up from 1 hour of real-time training during COVID, and down from 87 hours of real-time training required before 2020.

With just a little more structure, the free training also could count towards the real-time training requirement.

Business Coaching

You can listen to the business coaching I had with Mado from the Yoga Teacher Resource Podcast here.

How the Free Training Works Now

For a while the membership site was running, but as people moved back to in-person training, there was less interest in more training outside of the Certification.

For 2025 – 2026, the training now includes:

• A replay available until the next free training date (usually about 2-4 weeks),
• The one hour live training also counts as a real-time training hour for those registered in the 95 Hour Certification,
• The replay is available long-term in the 95 Hour Certification!

Free Kids Yoga Teacher Training and Certification

If you’d like to get some helpful tools for your teaching toolkit, check out the Monthly Free Kid’s Yoga Training here.

And if the time comes where you are looking to earn a Certificate (or perhaps another Kid’s Yoga Certificate if you already have one but like learning!), please check out the Young Yoga Masters training!

The post How the Free Kids Yoga Teacher Training Works appeared first on Young Yoga Masters.

I can’t tell you how many requests I get for business support from people after graduation. We’re talking the roll-up-your-sleeves and get-stuff-done kind of support, and people want it with someone who’s done it before.

Having business mentors has been instrumental for my business growth. I’m currently a part of two paid yearly memberships to support my business development! 

Enter: Yoga Alliance’s New Training Requirements

Since the COVID provisions ended on Dec. 31, 2023, Yoga Alliance (YA) announced new requirements for 2024 onward.  These include a minimum of 14 hours of “real-time” training (zoom or in-person both count) in the 95 Hour training.

As I tried to figure out how the Young Yoga Masters training would pivot, once again, with this announcement, I went to one of the paid business programs I support and where I go for help. I had a one-to-one personal coaching session with one of my mentors, Mado, from The Yoga Teacher Resource Podcast. She encouraged me to consider starting a membership site. Since my training was developed, I had the courses ready to go. I could focus on offering real-time support every month that could be really helpful for kids yoga teachers. You can actually listen to that on-air coaching call here.

Business Support for Kids Yoga Teachers

Why would I need to be part of a business mentorship program when I’ve been in business for 25 years?  

Well, I see that question the other way around: What business programs have helped me stay in business for 25 year? I’ve been in business that long BECAUSE I get support and work on my business. 

My Personal Mentors

When I started teaching yoga as my business, it was really difficult to find a mentor who was willing to share their strategies. This was back in 1998 and there weren’t that many yoga teachers who were also business savvy.

I’ve made both good decisions and mistakes and learned to choose a mentor by looking for someone who:

1. Shares my values.
2. Knows more than I do about my business aspirations.

Are Your Looking to Grow Your Business?

If you’ve been thinking of growing your business and planning for the future, I hope you get support from someone who meets these criteria.

A business mentor who in not going to sugar coat things. That’s my plan in this program too. Share what I’ve learned, what’s worked for me, and how I’ve seen others succeed and fail.

I’m going to help people set goals and think of their long term strategy too. Now that I’ve been teaching for 25+ years, I know how important a long term strategy is for a teacher. There are things I did many years ago that set me up for success now. You want to consider both short and long term business growth.

This is a new chapter for the Kids Yoga Teacher Certification, I’m so excited to share all the details with you this weekend!

The post Business Support for Kids Yoga Teachers appeared first on Young Yoga Masters.

Yearly planning is an important part of a kids yoga business. Planning starts with looking back on what worked, what didn’t, and what you will do differently next year. Here’s a business review from Young Yoga Masters you can use for inspiration.

I have a yearly planning ritual. Everything I do in my business happens first with a wall full of post-it notes and a journal full of planning notes. Eventually a plan takes shape for the year ahead.

End of year might be a quiet time to reflect, so if the time feels right, take whatever inspiration you can from this summary to help you with your own conscious business planning.

5 Highlights from 2023 at Young Yoga Masters

1. 12 Hours of Free Kids Yoga Teacher Training!
   
   January: Mindful Planning for Kids Yoga Teachers
   February: Planning Checklist for Spring/March Break Camps/Classes
   March: How to Become a Kids Yoga Teacher Q + A
   April: Trade Show Booth Results and Putting Yourself Out There
   May: All Abilities Yoga with the Yoga Alphabet
   June: Ask Me Anything (Teen Yoga, How to Keep Kids Attention)
   July: New Yoga Alliance Requirements for Kids Yoga Teacher Training
   August: How to Support and Include Trans and Gender-Diverse Students in Your Yoga Class
   September: Teen Yoga Leadership Program
   October: Halloween Yoga Obstacle Course Lesson Plan
   November: Mindful Family Yoga Lesson Plan
   December: How to Host a Yoga Party at End of Year or Series
   
   Committing to this free training each month has created content for the micro Continuing Education courses coming in 2024. If you can choose a manageable schedule and format to help you create content, go for it!
   
   
2. Survey and Mail Out: My spring survey got over 90 responses and I mailed Yoga Alphabet Cards as a Thank You! I got important feedback to plan for the year ahead and went another year without giving my marketing budget to Meta or Google. There are a lot of ways to put yourself out there that don’t involve social media.
   
3. Training Scholarships and Cohorts: We provided 16 Partial Scholarships and saw over 40 kids yoga teachers graduate from the training. Making the offerings accessible led to more representation in our training community, and partial scholarships became an income stream for the business from people that wouldn’t be able to take the training.
   
4. Yoga Alliance (YA) Training Updates: I spent far too much time wondering about the 2024 training provisions. The highlight was the actual announcement from YA, waiting till August for it was a low-light. I was happy self-paced training is still allowed because so many students want it. I was also pleased with the real-time training required because I enjoy the connection and personal aspect as a trainer. Finally, I liked that schools have the choice to offer real-time training either in-person or online. Overall, I liked the direction YA took with training and the move away from temporary training provisions.
   
5. Personal Business Support for Me: I decided to join The Impact Club last December for business support. Little did I know that Mado herself, podcast host at the Yoga Teacher Resource, would encourage me to open up a membership site! Getting live support was essential for my business growth and enjoyment this year. You can listen to Mado’s advice in the live on-air coaching call I had with her here.
   

3 Low-lights of 2023

1. In-Person and Real-time Training Flop: In the spring of 2023, I advertised 3 training formats (in-person, real-time, and self-paced) and two out of three flopped. People asked for in-person training, but were not willing to pay the extra cost and no one signed up for the in-person. A couple signed up for real-time on zoom, but not enough to run it. The majority wanted self-paced. It hurt to lose the time I invested in planning the schedules, sales pages, graphics, and emails only to cancel them. However, this is not the first time I’ve had a flop in my business and probably won’t be the last. At least I can put the question of in-person training to rest for 2024.
   
2. Cost Cutting: Like many yoga teachers and trainers, my business has been suffered with COVID changes. I even considered getting another job at one point. After 20+ years of self-employment I’ve learned ways to weather business storms. 2023 had me combing thorough my expenses and making some hard cuts. The hardest was letting go of my virtual assistants. Hopefully, I’ll be able to buy back some of my time and get support again in 2024. For now though, it was a relief to reduce costs and still have a business.
   
3. My Training Stolen: The final low-light is one I’ve been sitting on for weeks, while I figure out how to approach it. A graduate of my Children’s Yoga School (RCYS) training has started their own RCYS, that’s to be expected. But in their training preview, my training manual has been copied line for line. That was really disappointing! The entire training is not the same, I can see that from the outline, but I do wonder how much of my material is copied behind the paywall. I’m sitting with this one till I figure out how to approach it. If you have any suggestions leave them in the comments.

Lessons Learned

1. Risk Management: When something is risky, take steps to reduce the amount of risk. For example, the venue for the in-person training required a deposit 2 months before the event. To reduce my risk, I advertised a super-early registration deadline 4 months before the event, timed for when the deposit was due. When no registrations came in, I moved quickly and cancelled the training, without losing a deposit on the venue. Plus the venue still had time to get another booking. Lesson learned: Reduce risk where ever possible.
   
2. Pivot Quickly: Planning is especially difficult after the COVID lock downs, it’s taught me to pivot quickly. I used the feedback from the survey and registrations to pivot my business. Lesson Learned: Being unattached and flexible let’s you move quickly in business and saves you a lot of frustration and struggle.
   
3. Just-In-Time Planning: Have you ever heard of PRE-crastination? It’s kinda the opposite of procrastinating. It’s when you plan things too far in advance you end up doing unnecessary work or having to re-do work because of new info/circumstances. I don’t want to procrastinate, but I was grateful I hadn’t done more work than necessary for the training that got cancelled. Lesson Learned: Don’t overplan. Plan Just-in-time to create space for input to come in before you do the work. I’m exploring this Just-In-Time Teaching approach for the Mastermind Circle. You’ll see more about it in my plans for 2024.

Kids Yoga Plans for 2024

Stay tuned for the Kids Yoga Plans for 2024 coming in the next blog post.

The post 2023 Kids Yoga Year in Review appeared first on Young Yoga Masters.