Top 7 Yoga Poses for Kids and Grandparents

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For Grandparents' Day, we’re excited to honor the cherished role that grandparents play in our lives. Many grandparents share caregiving responsibilities — and understanding today's childhood is often a challenge. Connecting across the generational gap with changes in media and technology can be tricky, so it's more important than ever to find ways to engage together.

Yoga is a great way to bridge that gap because children and seniors need to be active to stay healthy and grow — or at least not shrink! Only do what feels safe and breathe.

Here are the top 7 yoga poses kids and grandparents can do together:

Butterfly pose: sit with the souls of the feet together and gently flap your wings. Tell each other what color your wings are. This opens the hips.

Cat/Cow pose: on hands and knees arch the back and look up for cow. Then curl the back and look at your belly for cat. Crawl and stretch your paws/hooves by lifting one limb at a time. Do make the animal sounds! This creates mobility in the spine.

Downward Dog pose: from cow pose, curl toes down to the floor, lift hips up and wag your tail. This pose lengthens the spine, strengthens the arms, and stretches the legs.

Monkey pose: from dog pose, walk your feet and hands toward each other to stand. Relax your head and upper body toward the floor and swing your arms side to side. This stretches your back.

Sun pose: from monkey pose, slowly stand tall and reach your arms to touch the sun. On you tip toes, turn your sunshine all around in both directions. This lengthens your whole body and strengthens your calves.

Tree pose: stand on one foot with your other foot on your shin or ankle. Hold hands to keep the trees steady. This strengthens the standing leg and promotes better balance.

Cobra pose: rest on your belly and pretend to be slithering snakes in the grass. This strengthens your back. Then, take a rest together and be sleepy snakes.

Remember to listen to your body and get trained because there’s so much more you can do together to promote physical fitness and mental health.