Perhaps you have been practising Camel pose or teaching Camel pose in your Adult classes and wonder if you could teach it to you children ? As you know, Camel pose is a tricky pose, and safety considerations and proper warm-up should be given. However like all things Yoga, we can always make it work, offering fun and safe variations for children to have a go is the way to go.
So where to start ?
First, find a fun and engaging theme for your session, such as ‘Making a Rainbow’ (Camel Pose) and taking time to discuss your Theme. Ask engaging questions to children and ask them to contribute their thoughts. This is important as you will be able to use these later on in your relaxation. They should come up with things such as Colourful, Energy, Happy, Exciting, Wonder, or event Treasure or Sad! Hold that thought!
Secondly start warming up the spine, hips and shoulders, in any way you like. I like to include a couple of sequences to the rhyme of perhaps ‘Beautiful Rainbow’, which could take you to your front to practice prone back bend such as Sphynx, Cobra and Half Bow pose.
Thirdly, start including Partner poses such as a Partner Lunge when the hands are touching and you can deepen the lunge in turn. You may want to rehearse this first individually as this is a small movement which needs a big stance so that the front heel does not take off the mat when lunging deeper into Crescent lunge (knee on the mat)
Fourth, why not include an extra lunge in your usual Sun Salutation rhyme, this is a great way to warm up more dynamically and to show children that it is okay to vary from the norm in a controlled and purposeful manner.
Firth in this lesson plan, now is the time to add a Partner Balance such as Dancer pose, which is a very similar shape to half Bow or half Camel pose. You could also practice some Partner shoulder extension poses when children take it in turn to either assist or practice. A nice variation or demo would be to face away from a table, hold the table with your hands with arms back (in extension), and press the hips forward whilst looking up. This is the time to just look up but teach NOT dropping the head back, this is the most important safety contra-indication.
Finally practice Camel kneeling in Partners facing each other with one person assisting and one practising in hands. This time the hands will be forward of the hips. Another couple of easier variations to practice in turn could be half Camel from kneeling, turn to one side to grab one heel then push away from your feet into half Camel, pressing hips forward and reaching the chest to the ceiling and the gaze in the same direction. The final variation would be Camel with the heel of the hands on the lower waist, fingers pointing downwards, press the hips forward, reach your heart up and keep your head in neutral (bar a very slight tilt of the chin). Do not tilt the head much as you must maintain tension (and control) of the neck muscles. The heart goes up and if your gaze points to the ceiling, the neck won’t drop back, this is what you want ! Do not drop the head back.
For your Closing poses, perhaps move to simple reclined on your back Poses, which will counterpose nicely. Follow with a guided relaxation (starting with awareness of body and 3 deep breaths) then ‘Walk Through A Rainbow’ and quote each colour, then bring back the words that the children had offered at the beginning of the session.
Nicely done!
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