Through fidgeting and bathroom breaks, a Trinity woman guides kids in the ancient art of yoga.
By MOLLY MOORHEAD
Published October 19, 2003
[Times photo: Brendan Fitterer]
Daniel Frederici, 4, yawns and relaxes on his yoga mat next to classmate Sophie Devlin, 4, during a yoga class for children at the Longleaf Learning Center.
NEW PORT RICHEY - Most of Sharon Tanner's yoga students need help tying their shoes. They take frequent potty breaks, except the tiny blond whose pull-up diaper peeks over the top of her turquoise pants.
Tanner, a longtime preschool director, recently took her 15 years as a student of yoga and moved to the front of the classroom.
At the Longleaf Learning Center, that classroom is decorated with posters about reading and cutouts of small children's hands. A sustained din seeps in from the playground.
Even 3- and 4-year-olds, Tanner says, can reap the benefits of yoga: reduced stress, improved circulation and immunity, better concentration and a sense of well-being and calm.
"There's so much going on in today's world," said Tanner, 54, who lives in Trinity. "This teaches them at an early age how to be in charge of their own behavior."
Tanner has six students at the Longleaf preschool. She also teaches a class at a Palm Harbor center and is marketing her services to other area schools.
She starts by having the students put their hands over their hearts and take three deep breaths through the nose.
"Relax your body," she tells them.
Their bite-sized attention spans keep them bouncing around on their mats and running back and forth to the potty. One girl can't resist the temptation of a set of markers on a nearby table.
But Tanner just calmly repeats her instructions until the children respond. Her lessons are age-appropriate: instead of telling the kids to follow her movements, relax and breathe, she likens each pose to an animal, even letting the youngsters bark like seals and roar like lions.
As they go through the movements, Tanner reads from a book about animals and nature and passes around pictures.
"It just all helps with the dramatic play and imagination," she said.
Victor Oppenheimer, who runs the Web site yoga.com and has trained as an instructor in India, said yoga for young children has limited benefits beyond that of normal exercise.
"They're not developed in a fashion that lets them be contemplative and inner-directed," said Oppenheimer, who has been teaching for about 25 years. "But they are pretty flexible and strong and usually like physical things."
And, he added, it's a good habit to start.
"It's learning poses that are thousands of years old and are pretty healthy physically," he said, "It keeps kids strong, limber, and gives (them) a healthy outlet for energy."
Learning the basic postures at a young age gets kids in the practice for later, Oppenheimer said, when they are old enough to experience the spiritual side.
"My experience is that yoga eventually becomes more than just physical exercise," he said. "It also is ultimately a way to achieve self-knowledge."
Self-esteem, Tanner said, is another target.
"There's a theory of yoga (that) you don't have to be perfect," she said. "I always want them to feel successful."
She makes a point of explaining - on a basic level - the purpose of each posture. The lion pose, for example, opens up the throat and is believed to prevent colds.
"I like children to be knowledgeable," she said. "I want them to realize that it's fun and beneficial."
Kelley Bates is director of the Longleaf school. She said the children in the yoga class seem better able to focus.
"It brings them in a little bit," she said. "It seems to really kind of settle them."
During her 17-year career as a preschool teacher, Tanner said she encountered only one child with a true attention-deficit disorder. Where there might be a tendency to medicate hyper children, yoga can offer an alternative.
"It's very easy to put a child on medication because they're not focused," Tanner said. "I think a lot of times it's just kids being kids. They just need an outlet."
On that point, Oppenheimer agrees.
"For normal kids, yoga is going to leave them slightly pooped and more relaxed in the sense that they're tired," he said.
At the end of class, with the lights low and everyone lying quietly on their mats, Tanner repeats the breathing exercise with hand over heart.
And just before she dismisses each child with a sticker of his or her choosing, she tells them, "Thank you for coming to yoga class. Have a happy and peaceful week."
- Molly Moorhead can be reached at 352 521-5757, ext. 21 or toll-free 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6108, then 21. Her e-mail address is moorhead@sptimes.com
To learn more
For information about Yoga for Children, call Sharon Tanner at (727) 372-9020.
