YogaKids, Vol. 2 -- ABC's for Ages 3-6
🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop
- 🤝 Social Skills & Teamwork — Physical games with partners or groups teach children to cooperate, cheer for others, follow a leader, and recover from competitive disappointment — the social-emotional skills that classroom cooperation requires.
- 🎵 Rhythm & Timing — Moving to a beat, keeping rhythm in marching or clapping, and coordinating movement to music develops the temporal processing that underlies both musical ability and the phonological timing needed for reading.
- 🏅 Physical Confidence — Successfully completing a physical challenge — climbing something scary, jumping a gap, learning a new skill — builds physical self-efficacy: the belief that effort leads to capability, which transfers to all learning domains.
- ⚖️ Balance & Coordination — Activities that challenge balance — hopping on one foot, walking a line, navigating obstacles — develop the vestibular and proprioceptive systems that underlie all coordinated physical movement.
The YogaKids ABC's video is specifically designed for preschoolers -- with their interests, attention spans, and abilities in mind. YogaKids is a welcome addition to your preschooler's fitness activities, providing a great way to introduce the value of yoga to young children. The yoga poses are fun and imaginative, providing a perfect activity that promotes preschool fitness, especially flexibility.
Marsha Wenig is the instructor for the video and keeps things lively and fun -- not your typical poses, for sure. The great thing about the YogaKids video is that it keeps the activity moving along and will hold your preschooler's interest throughout. Each letter of the alphabet represents a different yoga pose, so your preschooler will learn about the letters as they participate in this fun routine.
Preschool Yoga Kids are Just Like Me!
The preschoolers in the yoga video represent different ages and abilities, with each demonstrating the poses to show how varied the poses can be, depending on flexibility. It's a wonderful variety of children, making it very easy for preschoolers to identify a child that is similar to their age, hair color, skin type, etc. The range of the preschoolers' abilities in the video also demonstrate that it's okay if poses are not done perfectly. This is especially encouraging if your child doesn't immediately master the preschool yoga poses.
Yoga Fun for the Whole Family
Get in on the fun with your preschooler -- you will enjoy it too, as will older siblings. For instance, see how fun it is to try out the following preschool yoga poses:
Hot air balloon -- fill up with air as you lift off and fly around the room, then land by deflating the air from your balloon
Kissing pose -- stretch and lean forward to kiss everyone around you
Tarzan -- who doesn't love to beat their chest and let out a Tarzan yell?
Volcano -- release any bad energy with this exercise in eruption
With practice, your preschooler will better perform the poses and increase flexibility. With the interests and abilities of young children in mind, this preschool yoga video is a fun way to introduce your preschooler to the benefits of yoga.
Helpful Tips for Parents
- Competitive sports are generally not appropriate before age 6–7. Preschoolers benefit most from cooperative physical games where everyone succeeds.
- The recommended minimum for preschoolers is 3 hours of physical activity per day — 60 of those minutes should be vigorous (heart rate elevated, breath quickened).
- Never use physical activity as punishment (running laps for misbehavior). This creates negative associations with exercise that can persist into adulthood.
- Outdoor play surfaces (grass, dirt, sand, bark chips) are better for development than flat concrete or carpet — uneven surfaces challenge balance and proprioception naturally.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is yoga appropriate for preschoolers?
Preschool yoga is not only appropriate but genuinely beneficial — it develops balance, strength, flexibility, and body awareness. More importantly, it teaches preschoolers the foundational self-regulation skills of breath awareness and still-body practice. Children's yoga programs (Cosmic Kids Yoga on YouTube is a popular free resource) frame poses as animals and characters, making the practice engaging. 10–15 minutes of child-appropriate yoga is appropriate daily from age 3.
What indoor physical activities can replace outdoor play on bad weather days?
Indoor physical activity options: dance party (5 minutes of energetic dancing), obstacle courses built from cushions and furniture, hallway bowling (soft balls and water bottles), yoga, freeze dance, balloon volleyball (batting a balloon to keep it off the floor), Simon Says with movement commands, marching or parade around the house, and indoor hopscotch on a rug. The goal is getting the heart rate elevated and the body moving — space limitations don't prevent this.
Related reading: See also our outdoor chalk activities and our obstacle course guide for more ideas on this topic.
