Wai Lana's Little Yogis
Award of Excellence
“… an award-winner! Charming, with beautiful scenery. Great for children—but adults who are newcomers to yoga can benefit from this video as well! Great exercises for all ages! What a beautiful tape. It’s her best! It’s great! It’s so sweet with the children. It’s great for adults too. For someone just starting out, it can’t hurt them. They can’t overdo themselves. Tell Wai Lana we loved it.”
—Elayne Blythe, Film Advisory Board President
Atlanta Parent magazine
If your child’s nickname is Wiggle Worm or Squirmy, take a look at this product. The Wai Lana’s Little Yogis Kit features a vibrant yoga mat, a poster with 21 illustrated positions, and a 60-minute kids’ yoga video—all in a convenient tote. After a few sessions, your little wiggle worm or acrobat can stretch her way into being a little yogi.
—Atlanta Parent magazine, December 2003
Aquarius
Wai Lana’s Little Yogis is a video to teach yoga to children ages 3 to 8 years. Combining cartoons and videos of Wai Lana working with the kids, the video teaches the importance of breathing fresh air and drinking fresh water, how to stretch muscles, improve balance and coordination, and strengthen young bodies. Wai Lana’s gentle, fun approach is sure to be a delight to kids, and the tropical beach scenery in the background is lovely. She makes yoga into a game, and her colorful costumes are so eye-catching. The kids all seem to be having a great time!
—Aquarius, December 2003
Amazon.com customer review
My aunt gave this to me and my little sisters and brothers a few months ago. We all love doing this and it is very much fun. It is very colorful and nice. The music is also nice. The memory cards of this tape are also really nice to play with!
—An Amazon.com customer
A New Generation of Little Yogis
It was only a matter of time before kids would start doing yoga too considering the surge in yoga’s popularity over the past decade. Especially when kids see mom stretching across a big purple yoga ball or hanging upside down on a turquoise mat; how could yoga not appeal to the curious child?
Wai Lana, host of the long-running PBS series Wai Lana Yoga, is now making it even more inviting for kids to take up the practice of yoga with a “Little Yogis Kit” specifically designed for children ages 3 to 8. Fun, safe, easy, and convenient, the kit provides everything a “little yogi” needs to get started on the path to a long, healthy life. It can be found in stores or ordered at www.wailana.com.
The Wai Lana “Little Yogis Kit” features a 60-minute video with the warm and personable Wai Lana and several “little yogis” pretending to be cobras, bears, butterflies, bridges, trees, bows and arrows, and lots of other fun things as they perform various yoga asanas. The kit also includes a “kid-size” yogi mat styled with little cartoon yogis in action; a colorful, sturdy yoga mat bag complete with an extra pocket for water and snacks; and a large, full-color cartoon poster with 21 yoga exercises. Wai Lana will also be releasing a Little Yogis CD featuring 22 of her original songs perfect for kids to dance to, do yoga to, play to, and even fall asleep to.
Wai Lana’s new “Little Yogis Kit” is a dream for parents. It engages, entertains, and delights children while simultaneously stretching and strengthening their bodies, sharpening their minds, and improving their balance and coordination, all without the kids even realizing they’re exercising. That yoga seems to have a calming effect on children is a secret parents are now wisely embracing.
“If kids are going to watch TV, they may as well watch something that’s good for them,” says Wai Lana, “and with child obesity a growing worldwide problem, what better way to get kids exercising than making it fun for them? You truly are helping them develop healthy habits that will continue benefiting them for the rest of their lives.”
With entertaining yoga videos like Wai Lana’s Little Yogis, it’s clear that yoga is fast becoming a fun, bonding, and de-stressing activity for both kids and parents. This thought was echoed by Elayne Blythe, president of Film Advisory Board, in presenting Wai Lana’s Little Yogis video with its Award of Excellence for quality family/children’s entertainment. Ms. Blythe said, “This tape is great for children, but adults who are newcomers to yoga can benefit from this video as well! Great exercises for all ages!” Ms. Blythe went on to say, “What a beautiful tape! Charming, with beautiful scenery. It’s her best!”
Visit their website and pick up your “Little Yogis Kit.”
—amomslove.com, November 3, 2003
Yoga!
If you’ve ever wanted to try yoga, you have to check out this video. Call 1800 640 524 (toll-free in Australia) or go to www.wailana.com.au.
—Barbie Mag (Australia), January 2004
Your kids will never know they’re exercising
For years Wai Lana has been passing the benefits of yoga and meditation along to adults. Now she introduces the entire family to yoga with her video Little Yogis. With cooler weather just around the corner, parents are eager to find ways to keep their youngsters active indoors. And once they flip on this video, your kids will never know they’re exercising—they’ll be too caught up in the fun of pretending to be cobras, bears, butterflies, and bridges. With this playful workout, your kids will not only stretch and strengthen their bodies, but they’ll sharpen their minds and improve their balance and coordination. And you might even feel compelled to get into the act as well!
—Dane County Kids, September 2003
Yoga Video Puts Kids on Path to Lifelong Fitness
“Feel like doing something a little different? Not something we typically feature?” This was the email that I received from the editors of ADVANCE recently.
What? A pediatric yoga video? What interest would physical therapists and PT assistants have in that? Surprisingly, this video MAY interest you.
Yoga is a Hindu discipline aimed at training the consciousness for a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility. Yoga is also a system of exercises practiced as part of this discipline to promote control of the body and mind.
Wai Lana’s Little Yogis is aimed at teaching basic yoga exercises to children. According to her website, Wai Lana is a modern-day yoga advocate, a highly energetic artist, and one of the most well known yoga teachers in the world today.
She has published several books on yoga, recorded musical albums in a variety of different styles, and produced and hosted nearly 200 half-hour television programs of yoga instruction.
In this 60-minute video, Wai Lana uses a combination of cartoons and real-life action to introduce children and their families to a playful, creative, and fun yoga workout. There is a prologue of basic questions and answers about yoga that is handled with soft, colorful cartoons. Then each section preceding each different yoga pose is again introduced with the cartoon format.
In her workout group, there are nine children from ages 3 to 10. Wai Lana encourages the children to pretend to be cobras, bears, butterflies, and bridges as they stretch and strengthen their bodies. The children have no trouble following Wai Lana’s instructions and are really enjoying the exercises.
The children use yoga mats and work out on a beautiful expanse of lawn with a sandy beach and scenic rolling surf in the near background. They are pictured at the picturesque Ko Olina Resort in Oahu, HI.
As Wai Lana likens each pose to something that the children are familiar with, she incorporates information on what the activity is doing to facilitate the body with breathing, strengthening, balance, conditioning, and the like.
How could PTs and PTAs use this video at work, at home, or to benefit their children?
It would be a natural for pediatric therapists to incorporate some of the yoga activities into their routines. It could then become a mainstream activity that many children could do with peers and siblings. It could be done in physical education classes.
Therapists who work in outpatient facilities might be able to have a program for children who accompany parents to treatment. The video is so self-explanatory that most children could do the yoga without direct supervision.
Gyms and fitness facilities also could have a program for children who accompany parents to treatment.
Parents who homeschool could add this to their endeavors. After-school clubs could use the routines.
Wai Lana’s yoga exercise videos have had success in increasing the appreciation of the beauty and benefits of the ancient art of yoga, and have played a significant part in the recent substantial growth in the popularity of yoga.
The field of physical therapy is increasingly striving to promote the pursuit of wellness endeavors. Wai Lana’s Little Yogisis a playful way to get kids into yoga exercises, to begin to teach healthy habits that will improve their strength, balance, and coordination, and to sharpen their minds as Wai Lana shares the ancient, timeless technique of yoga.
—ADVANCE for Physical Therapists & PT Assistants, February 16, 2004
Yoga: The Next Generation
Wai Lana’s Little Yogis Kit entertains and delights children while leading them through stretching and strengthening exercises. Specially designed for children ages 3 to 8, this kit contains a 60-minute video, a kid-sized yoga mat, a sturdy mat bag, and a colorful poster with 21 yoga exercises.
—Idea Health & Fitness Source, November-December 2003
Yoga News
Wai Lana is well known as an expert at teaching yoga through videotapes and public TV series. The series is for adults and can give experienced practitioners a challenging hour.
In the Little Yogis video she applies her knowledge of yoga moves and how the body works to helping kiddies enjoy the pleasures of yoga.
There is also a complete kit for gift-giving that includes the video, a decorated yoga mat, a cool chart of poses, and a CD of music.
—Yoga News (on Amazon), Summer 2003
