I started yoga  6 years ago as I embarked on my first pregnancy. My gynae told me that there are 2 exercises which preggers can do which are yoga and swimming. And I am very sure I will want a natural birth and want the labour to be as fast and “painless” , I decided to be very active during my pregnancy (even more active than when I am not pregnant). And that was how my journey with yoga began. And after delivery, I will go back to yoga and went on to challenge myself for hot yoga and vinyasa classes. And whenever I get pregnant,  I will indulge in my pre-natal yoga again. I cant say how much yoga has help me through 3 natural births but what I know yoga is one of the best forms of exercise at least for the lazy me who hates to run on the threadmill or do weights etc. It untied knots and stiffness better than even Thai massage! And hot yoga is even better than just being in a sauna.  I normally do lunch time yoga, after yoga and a light meal, I feel refreshed for the second half of the day!

I even did a pre natal yoga photoshoot during  my last pregnancy to commenrate my fantastic 5 year journey with yoga!

This brings me to OhmSantih Yoga. I have been on a lookout for kids yoga as I enjoyed it tremendously personally and wish to introduce it to my older kids. My kids even can do simple poses especially the tree pose as they are used to see my do it occasionally!   I was invited to an adult and kid yoga session with OhmSantih Yoga in partnership with Familicious SG.

OhmSantih Yoga was found by War War Lwin Tun who discovered the benefits of yoga as a mean of healing and a respite from the corporate life. The yoga studio is located at Kampong Glam neighbourhood, along the shophouses at Bussorah Street. It conducts classes at its 1600 square foot space comprising 2 studios and shower facilities.

My girl was thrilled to be following me for yoga for the very first time.

First, an introduction to yoga and its benefits to kids , and boy to they have the cutest yoga mats for the kids, I hope mine was as sunshine-y and as flowery as the kids’.

Some of the benefits of kids yoga:

1. Teachers and kids co create the storyline
2. Enhances flexibility
3. Strengthen body systems
4. Increases focus and awareness
5. Relieves stress and anxiety

In order for me to review both the adult yoga and kids yoga, I did half a session of adult yoga and continued with observing my girl at her kids yoga class. Both classes last for 1 hour.

As the adult class were mainly consist of beginners with no familiarity with yoga, Teacher Betty was slow and patient in explaining the poses etc to the beginners. It was done in a non-airconditioned environment (but not hot yoga type) and the class is kept to the maximum of 6 adults. As it was a beginner class, it was a good introduction to those who has not tried yoga before as the teacher and student ratio is low as compared to big operators like the one I go to, Pure Yoga, we have minimally 30 to 1 teacher. This is very important for beginner as the teacher is able to correct the poses of each student. Both kids and adults classes are based on a structured curriculum but at the same time, the instructors make necessary tweaks so that the instructors are teaching as how it is applied to the students’ individual needs, therefore it’s very customized. This is also the utmost reason why the classes are kept to 6 students.

photo credit: Ohmsantih Yoga

photo credit: Ohmsantih Yoga

photo credit: Ohmsantih Yoga

photo credit: Ohmsantih Yoga

I was more keen in being part of the kids yoga class as I have no idea how it is being introduced. From the initial photos taken (when I was in the adult class) , they started with some simple warmed up poses and exercises.

And the story telling began by Teacher Penny, who interweave yoga poses with the storyline of her story. Like when the king went to Egypt he saw pyramids, and the teachers slowly guide the kids into a triangle pose.

And the king feast on the table and the kids were taught the table pose. In order to capture the attention of the kids, the story was interesting and sometimes the kids get to have a say in the story too.

Every pose has a story so that they can go into the pose as part of the storyline. This kept their interest and attention in doing the poses for 1 hour.

1 hour passed by so quickly, before long, the kids were brought to the corpse pose in a dimmed condition. As fidgeting as they are, they couldn’t really stay still in their corpse pose but they were resting on their mat for good 5 to 10 min.

The session ended with a Q&A session of the story that Teacher Penny has narrated and little button badges were awarded as encouragement to the little newbies!

And does my girl enjoy it? As we make our way to our car, she asked me if she can come for class again? I definitely bring her again as I heard there are classes whereby both adult and kids are at the same timing. You can drop of the kids and still do a session yourself at the same time. This is such a perfect arrangement for busy mummies who need to do some workout and yet the kids are taken care of!

Ohmsantih Yoga has kindly sponsored a free kids yoga class (worth SGD 45) to a lucky reader. All you have to do is to follow the instructions in the Rafflecopter widget below.This giveaway is open to anyone residing in Singapore, and will end on Thursday , 18 December 2014, at 2359h. The minimum age for kids yoga is 3 years old and the class must be completed by 31 Jan 2015.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclaimer: We were invited for a free session of adult and kids yoga class. No monetary compensation was received, and all opinions are my own