Yoga Craze Spills Over to Preschoolers

[Guest guest]

In a (much, much, much) lighter vein, here is a choice bit of candy

floss from today's CNN "Offbeat News":

 

NEW YORK (AP) --When the yoga teacher urges her students to stretch

like trees, Benjamin Wolfgang gets up on his toes. Jenna Katz opens

her palms to the ceiling.

 

Francis Karagodins, however, runs around the room and plays with the

curtains.

 

He can be forgiven: he's just 3 years old. Jenna is 4, and with two

years of instruction behind her, a veteran in an increasingly popular

activity, yoga for children.

 

For teachers like theirs, Jodi Komitor, it is a fast-expanding

business. Two years ago, she taught 50 children a week at her Next

Generation Yoga studio on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Now there are

150, paying $20 per 45-minute class.

 

Co-author of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Yoga with Kids," Komitor

hosts yoga-themed birthday parties for eight at $515, not including

food, and trains other instructors, 20 at a time, at $795 per person

for a four-day session.

 

She sells animal motif relaxation blankets for $75, and a collection

of yoga video tapes for kids ages 2 to 7 sell for $16.99 each. She

has her own video in the works, as well as a chain of studios.

 

"I'm starting a children's yoga clothing line next," she said.

 

As health-conscious adults discover the virtues of yoga, they want

their young ones to stretch, bend and squirm, preferably striking

yoga poses in the process.

 

"Yoga is good discipline," said Suzanne Koppelman, Jenna Katz's

mother. "She is a very active child and it is good for her to slow

down. It is good for her flexibility, too."

 

Starting young

Clearly, the children enjoy themselves as they slither like snakes,

bark like dogs and try to dodge the mist Komitor sprays on them,

saying "This is rain -- if you like rain, be a tree."

 

Whether classes like this help 3- and 4-year-olds grasp the

philosophical underpinnings of yoga is anyone's guess.

 

"With the older kids, we talk about breathing and meditation," says

Komitor. "With the youngest ones, we focus on a positive experience

so that they become curious about yoga. It is a visual and sensory

experience."

 

Toby Reiner, a yoga instructor at Yoga Sol in Delray Beach, Florida,

said the discipline offers a non-stress alternative to other sports.

 

"Parents are realizing that it is better for children to do yoga than

be involved in competitive sports or Little League," she said.

 

Reiner said most of her students' parents practice yoga

themselves. "They notice a major difference in the kids when they

take yoga -- they are calmer and their balance improves."

 

Helen Garabedian, who runs Itsy Bitsy Yoga in Marlboro,

Massachusetts, said the form of exercise is liberating for children

in a modern, restrictive world. Her classes cost $15 per session,

with younger siblings getting a 50 percent discount.

 

"Parents are paying more attention to the importance of movement as

children spend more and more time confined -- either in car seats or

small yards," she said.

 

Her business has quadrupled in the past four years. She says she adds

over 200 names a year, although she teaches only two days a week,

down from four.

 

She uses her spare time to train instructors for branches opening in

California, Florida and North Carolina, later this year. Forty people

have signed up for training at $650 per person.

 

Tanya Seaton, manager with Datamonitor, an information company

specializing in industry analysis, said a factor in the yoga trend is

an increase in the affluence and the age of parents. With money to

spend, they look for activities beyond the playground, and are more

likely themselves to be taking yoga classes.

 

"With 11.3 million children under the age of three in the U.S., yoga

instructors have plenty of opportunity to grow business," she said.

 

Copyright 2003 The Associated Press.

 

Find this article at:

http://www.cnn.com/2003/EDUCATION/07/25/offbeat.yoga.ap/index.html