Product Description

Designed to involve every member of the family, the yoga program in this book focuses on those children who are ready for a challenging and fun group of movements that involve both mind and body. Children are guided, using pictures and words, into poses with siblings or friends, with parents, grandparents, or caring adults. Children are first encouraged to do a series of stretching postures that escalate into vigorous warm-ups to energize the body, focus the mind, and strengthen the spirit. Other exercises are designed to give children an experience of inner strength, allowing them to develop concentration and stimulate the creative abilities innate in every child. Parents are encouraged to play with their children rather than watch them play.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1370881 in Books
• Published on: 2002-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 112 pages

Review
"You can show off your flexibility while the rest of your family ties itself up in knots." -- Dance Spirit Magazine, July 2003

"[Yoga students will] enjoy this book . . . It is designed to involve the entire family, stimulating the creative abilities of children." -- The Dancing Times, January 2003

About the Author
Teressa Asencia has practiced yoga since 1969 and has taught yoga for 20 years. She has written and produced several yoga videos and three yoga television series. Her series Welcome to Hatha Yoga was shown daily on CBC-TV in Canada. Her Yoga for Stress series was shown on the Women's Network across Canada daily for two years. She lives in Montreal, Quebec.

Customer Reviews

Best Yoga Book
Playful Family Yoga: For Kids, Parents and Grandparents
by Teressa Asencia is a remarkable book that is as inspirational as it is engaging.

I am a professional yoga teacher and have yet to see a more accessible book appropriate for all levels and all ages. The text is clear and the pictures are helpful. The book reads smoothly as a cohesive unit or you can have fun reading various chapters depending upon your interest or mood. The author is clearly an expert in her field which is crucial especially in a field where so much is published without experience and expertise to back it.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the practice of yoga no matter what age or level of expertise. It reinspired my practice of over 23 years and yet would make a great gift for someone who has never come into contact with yoga before either.

Playful Family Yoga
Teressa Ascencia's book "Playful Family Yoga" is a fresh guide to yoga that can bring you deep into the poses using the path of childlike simplicity.

Just open this book and you will feel yourself being drawn in by the inviting poses and the darling captions that speak to the child in us all. I found myself aching to try the 'starship', the double stretch opening my shoulders and the 'feeling of expanding into the universe' (and to have Scotty beam me up, as says the cute caption.) And then the 'table pose' and the yearning to 'feel my body as still as a mountain and my breath flowing like a river'. Then there's the 'olive press' and the 'flying angel' just to name a few. As my teen-age daughter and I were practicing "Playful Family Yoga" we found ourselves inventing new poses, which I'm sure will always spontaneously happen since inventiveness is a natural progression of playfulness.

Each pose is presented in a playful manner using enticing photos of two family members, imaginative titles and quotes, and a sidebar of the amazing benefits for the inquisitive mind. There are simple instructions that not only guide the physical movements but also engage the breath, the mind and the imagination in an almost seemingly effortless way. For this reason the book is a gem. I remember doing yoga poses as a child and the poses were as easy as standing. Only when the mind and breath are introduced are you doing yoga.

This book is not only for the young family but also for friends of all ages who like to play and stay young at heart.

great ideas for yoga classes
i am a yoga teacher and will use many of the ideas presented in this book for my family and kid yoga classes. very creative.