In this class, we will practice yoga poses in a way that will give learners a full body workout, with emphasis on balancing poses. Improving a student's balance can have many benefits: injury prevention, performance enhancement, confidence improvement,  they even say it makes you smarter... But most importantly, it can be a fun and engaging workout for young learners. We fall out of a pose and we get back in! :) This is a flexible (FLEX) learning course - There will be no live meetings. This flexible class is ideal for learners with busy schedules, those that cannot commit to the same time each week, and learners living in other time zones.

Each yoga class will include the following:
- 2 breathing exercises
- warm-up and gentle stretching
- balancing poses
- back bending postures
- gentle stretching and cool down 
Guided story meditation and mindfulness practice will include: 
- visualization meditation and mindfulness practice (using "Relax Kids" by Marneta Viegas)
- stories will cover a wide range of themes (a new story will be read each week)

This class will include a list of activities that learners will be asked to submit:
- 1st week worksheet describing learners' goals in yoga and meditation, their previous experience (based on this information I will customize the lessons to address the students needs)
- recorded videos or pictures of 3 different poses from the yoga practice
- journaling and/or painting activity (descripting learners' visualization and experience in the meditation practice)
- last week worksheet describing the goals achieved and areas that might require additional practice

Each week a new video will be posted, in which the teacher will describe and show the yoga poses. Learners will be asked to follow along, practice, practice and practice some more. After watching the video and practicing along, the learners will be asked to take pictures or videos of 3 different poses from our practice and submit them into the classroom, along with the journaling and paining projects (completed after the meditation). Other learners will be able to view their results and comment with words of encouragement or suggestions on how the pose can be improved, comment on the paintings or journaling submissions if their experience was very different or similar. 
Learners can watch the video and practice along as many times during the week as they would like, because practice makes perfect! :) 

TEACHER INTERACTION: 
- weekly check-in with students (depending on students' preference: via typed messages, audio or video), opportunity to ask questions, express their likes/dislikes and their feelings/experience
- feedback on all the work submitted by the student

PEER INTERACTION:
- interaction/chat about the work submitted (learners will be encouraged to comment with words of encouragement or suggestions on how the pose can be improved, comment on the paintings or journaling submissions if their experience was very different or similar - in a positive, encouraging environment)
- group discussions about the favorite yoga posses/ least favorite, most challenging or least challenging
- group discussions about the meditation visualization and experience 

This class can be a great compliment to other activities/sports but can also constitute an amazing exercise on its own. Students will be offered different variations for poses, so that everybody can find what suits their body and experience level best. In other words, no experience is required and all body shapes are very welcome. Because we all can use a little bit of yoga! Please join us!

This FLEX class does not have a topic/theme schedule, as all the classes will be similar in nature, however not identical. Each class will have a different peak pose, so in each class learners can feel challenged and are learning something new.