For as long as I have known Curtis he has done some form of yoga. It has always been a good activity to get his body to calm down even when his body seems beyond his control. When he was younger, we did one of his Yoga Kids DVDs almost every evening to wind down. In the past year or two Curtis had not spent nearly as much time doing yoga as he had previously
- until now.

This past Halloween, Laura and I took Curtis to his first Kid’s Yoga class. Laura knew the teacher and spoke to her beforehand to let her know what to expect. We told Curtis that he could just observe this first class to get a feel for it. When we arrived at that first class, we happened to be the only people that showed up for the session. Curtis spent the better part of 20 minutes regressing into some outdated behaviors like bolting and hitting. He wasn't prepared to be the only student in the class and the circumstances likely proved too much to handle. Eventually we decided it would be best to remove Curtis from the situation and go home.

On the next visit, we raised the expectation for Curtis that he was to participate in three poses. Curtis ended up doing more than three poses that night but eventually got a little rascally and was rude to his yoga teacher. He also refused to participate in any conversations with anyone there. When we returned the following week it was pretty much the same scene as the
previous week with the exception of the conversational pieces. Curtis and I practiced some questions and answers after school that day and participated in 2/3 of the discussion.

By the fourth week Curtis was no longer fighting us to get through the door. He had a rough start to the class but after I pulled him out and talked to him about the other kids there he did better. It just happened to be the only other student’s first time doing yoga so Curtis was able to pull together to help the other kid. He also resisted the relaxation exercises at the end of class up until this point. When he did participate this week you could visibly see his whole body go calm.

Today marks the fifth yoga class and I can honestly say this week I enjoyed the entire hour at yoga with Curtis. This class had many more children than previous classes. He was crowded in and the teacher changed the 7 core poses that they had been practicing in the past classes. Curtis tried his hardest the whole time and for the first time was the teacher in “Yogi Says”, a game where the students lead the class through poses. With any new structured activity Curtis had a rough start, but hopefully these past two classes are an indication he is turning the corner and will look forward to yoga in the future.

Jamie, 1:1 Home Support