So how do Yoga and Montessori benefit the whole child? Most importantly, they both offer a mindful, non competitive approach to help children learn, develop and live harmoniously with others.

Maria Montessori once commented that ‘children are the makers of man’. By providing them with a foundation of love and respect, for themselves and the world around them, we help the new generation to create and live harmonious and satisfying futures.

She saw each child as a unique individual, who developed at their own rate, and believed in educating the whole child, with movement paramount to the education of the mind. “Movement, or physical activity, is thus an essential factor in intellectual growth, which depends upon the impressions received from outside,” she wrote in Discovery of the Child. “Through movement we come in contact with external reality, and it is through these contacts that we eventually acquire even abstract ideas.”

Yoga, like Montessori education, is a process of discovery.

A mindful, non-competitive exercise, emphasising movement and breathing and the connection of body and mind, it helps students of any age to understand our own nature and live harmoniously with others. In an age where technology means that children often spend long hours glued to a screen, this is more relevant than ever. 

In fact, Yoga and Montessori philosophies align seamlessly in many ways: 

• Both focus on exercising, educating and empowering the whole child 
• Both are non-competitive with the emphasis being on the process and not the end result – we encourage children to enjoy the poses without trying to perfect them
• Just as Montessori aims to build self-esteem, we modify the poses and give children the tools they need to complete them successfully 
• They both work to balance and calm the child
• Both begin simply and gradually increase in difficulty, moving from the concrete to the abstract 
• Yoga and Montessori both value movement as vital to the development of the mind 
• There are three parts to a yoga pose: going into the pose, being in the pose and coming out of the pose with control. These correlate with carrying a piece of work from the shelf, using the work and thoughtfully placing the work back on the shelf
• Just as the Silence Game is sometimes used in a Montessori classroom, meditation is introduced to children in yoga classes to help improve awareness and focus

Merging the Montessori curriculum into our children’s yoga classes we can stimulate all areas of a child’s development. 

Yoga for personal, social and emotional exploration

Yoga games, group and partner poses are a great way to encourage social interaction. We always foster a win-win attitude – there is no right or wrong or winning or losing in these explorations, just taking part and putting in your best effort is all that’s required. Emotionally we encourage not only interaction with others but also looking within to find your inner silence. Breathing exercises teach children to master their own emotions – breathing out stress, breathing in calm, exhaling anger and inhaling joy. We teach children to try and focus on the positive but also that all emotions are recognised and welcomed. The Volcano Pose is a great tool for noticing anger or anxiety in the body and finding a healthy way to channel these sometimes crippling emotions. 

Why not try this one at home next time someone in the family is feeling furious?

Volcano Pose – Good for all ages

Start in Mountain pose and jump your feet apart into Open Mountain. Bring your hands into Namaste right down at the bottom of your abdomen. As you inhale, rise your hands up to the top of your head and then exhale as you separate your hands and bring your arms up and out to the side. Really blow out your breath like a volcano exploding. Repeat this several times. This is a great pose to do if you are feeling really CROSS!! Imagine that angry feeling in the pit of your tummy – like burning hot lava. As you bring your hands up move this agitated feeling up through your body until you are finally ready to release it out of the top of your head and blow it a way. Fun to start with a really cross, scrunched-up face and as you let go of this feeling a happy peaceful calm feeling washes over you and a smile spreads to your cheeks. Now you could fill your volcano / pit of your tummy with happy thoughts and feelings or anything you love and imagine this bursting out of your volcano instead. 

Physical development with yoga

When moving through the poses, children become more aware of their bodies… noticing how they feel, learning correct anatomical terminology and becoming more spacially aware Yoga strengthens, stretches and loosens muscles. Senses are educated and each pose has a particular balancing effect on the body’s various systems – skeletal, muscular, circulatory, respiratory, digestive, nervous, lymphatic, hormonal etc. Body awareness leads to self care. This is something so many of us need to relearn as an adult… when the body is broken only then do we stop. Instead we can help children recognise when they need some time out, time to be still, to recover, to rejuvenate.

How about some family yoga at home? Partner poses are great fun to explore together:

Sit and Twist
Sit facing your partner in a comfortable cross-legged position making sure your knees are almost touching each other. Then both wrap your right arms behind your back. Now stretch your left arm diagonally across your body and try and find your partners right hand, which should be just poking out next to their left waist. When you have both found each other’s hands give your self a little spinal twist as you both look over your right shoulders. You might need a little help initially trying to coordinate this pose but once you have it you will see what a great twist this provides with a little help from a friend.