Tatty Bumpkin's Rainbow Pose for your child- Encourage them light up their imagination as they stretch out their body

This week’s Tatty Bumpkin Yoga Activity is Rainbow 

In all the Tatty Bumpkin poses we encourage parents and carers to do the pose along with their child. This is because:

• Your child will learn a great deal from watching your movements. 
• Moving with your child is a great way to strengthen the bond between you both. 
• Finally it gives you a chance to have a break and a stretch!

However, do look after your own body - if anything hurts do stop. If you are not sure whether Fish pose is suitable for you - consult a health professional. 

To Start ...

Firstly find a non-slip mat, or an area of carpet, where you can both do Rainbow pose. Make sure you both have enough room to avoid bumps and knocks. Take off your socks and shoes- it’s far better to do Rainbow pose with bare feet :-).

Pose Pointers..

You and your child can do Rainbow pose in many positions - here are our suggestions: sitting back on your heels, kneeling, standing up or lying down! We will start sitting back on our heels.

Sitting back on heels is easier - kneeling needs more coordination

• Guide your child to sit back on their heels opposite you.

• Start by saying “1, 2, 3, rainbow!” to your child. As you say ‘rainbow’, do Rainbow pose so your child can copy your movements i.e.

• Stretch your arms up above your head so your elbow are straight
• Bring your palms together and look up at your hands.
• Then, slowly take your arms, in wide arc, down to your sides, and look straight ahead.
• To make this pose even more effective and relaxing for yourself – try taking a deep breath in as you stretch your arms above your head and then breathe out as you take your arms down to your sides. 

• Now reverse your arm movements - bring your palms back together above your head, once again encouraging your child to copy.  You are now both back in the starting position - ready to do the pose again. 

• Repeat Rainbow pose several times so your child has a chance to learn the movement and enjoy doing it with you – Finally give them a hug!

Older children - Want to make Rainbow pose harder? 

• If your child is older you can sing or say the colours of the rainbow together as you do Rainbow pose lying down – repeating the pose seven times. I always remember the colour order by the phrase “Richard Of York Gained Battle In Vain!”

Older children can do Rainbow pose themselves whilst lying down

• Then imagine it’s starting to rain... guide your child to stretch their arms out so their hands are above them and then to point their index fingers. 

• See if your child can now bring their pointed index fingers down to touch their nose one at a time - like raindrops! 

• To make it even harder, encourage your child  to ‘have a go’ at doing the same 'raindrop' movement - only this time with their eyes closed - be careful!!  You can also do this 'raindrop' game sitting up. 

Younger children 

Young children may find Rainbow pose easier to do standing up

• Younger children may enjoy doing Rainbow pose standing up.  

• Start sitting back on your heels with your child standing opposite, see picture.  

• Take your arms out to the side, bring your hands together above your head, then take them back down to your sides - encourage your child to copy you. 

• Make the activity more fun by making a ‘rainbow ribbon’ for your child to hold and wave. This is easily done by attaching several short, coloured ribbons to a shower ring.  Remember - always use your own common sense about what objects may be dangerous for your baby. Whilst they are playing with the suggested props supervise your baby closely and NEVER leave them unattended, or with another child. Ribbons and streamers over 25 cm long can pose a strangulation risk.

Rainbow Ribbon Ring

Why not make a ‘ribbon ring’ for your child to wave and shake about! These can be made from a selection of coloured ribbons and a shower curtain ring - see http://blogs.babycenter.com/life_and_home/rainbow-ribbon-rings/ for ideas. Your child will love to hold these above their head and wave them across their body – developing their ‘midline’ skills. See ‘Why it is good for me’ section. 

A rainbow ring! 

Why Rainbow Pose is Good for Your Child

Rainbow pose will give your child the opportunity to:

1. Stretch out and activate their shoulder muscles 
Even young children can spend a great deal of time sitting, this can result in them adopting a poor sitting posture.  Rainbow pose offers your child a great opportunity to carefully stretch out their neck, upper back, shoulder and arm muscles. After doing the pose they will have a clearer idea of how they should be sitting or standing. 

2. Activate their tummy muscles
As your child raises their hands above their chest and takes them back down to their sides they will be gently using their tummy muscles. Active tummy muscles are essential for good posture and more complex physical skills. 

3. Increase their awareness of their ‘midline’
Your child will be taking their hands towards and then away from their ‘midline’. This is the imaginary ‘line’, down our body, which separates our left and right hand sides. Interestingly, it is quite hard for children to move their hands away from their midline and back down to their sides. Activities, like Rainbow pose which encourage children to work in their ‘midline’ area are great for developing pre-writing skills 

The Tatty Bumpkin Multi-sensory Yoga Adventure This Week ..

Our qualified Tatty Bumpkin Teachers are fully trained in aspects of child development and Yoga and are kept fully up-to-date by our professional team of paediatric physiotherapists, Yoga teachers and musicians. All the Tatty Bumpkin stores are aligned to the Early Years Foundation Stage (England) and  the Curriculum for Excellence (Scotland) this means the sessions not only enhance your child’s physical skills they also develop their communication, social and thinking skills.

This week Tatty Bumpkin finds herself way up in the sky, amongst the clouds. As the wind blows around her, so the clouds change shape … what cloud shape would you be, I wonder? But Tatty Bumpkin is not alone  … there are also some very busy fairies flying around her hanging out their washing! 

This is perhaps one of my favourite Tatty Bumpkin stories. In this story your child will have the chance to: 

1. Improve their awareness of their ‘midline’ - to aid their early writing skills, and to stretch out tight muscles - all as they do Rainbow pose.

2. Use gestures or words to express their thoughts i.e. 

• Feeling ‘excited’ with Tatty Bumpkin when she finds herself on a cloud!
• Feeling a bit ‘anxious’ with Tatty Bumpkin when it starts to rain.
• Feeling ‘amazed’ with Tatty Bumpkin when she sees the fairies.

3. Come up with their own ideas and feel confident to talk about them i.e.
Which cloud shape they are going to be?
Wondering which item of washing the fairies are missing?

4. Become more aware of their breathing pattern, and progress their sense of rhythm, as they blow different coloured butterflies to the Tatty Bumpkin Butterfly song. 

But most important of all - to have fun with their friends as they: change shapes as clouds, fly with the fairies, and make rainbow shapes across the sky. 

Relaxing under our rainbow!

Find out about your local Tatty Bumpkin class at http://www.tattybumpkin.com/classes/find-class.html. Or, ask your child’s nursery if they are doing Tatty Bumpkin Yoga activity sessions as part of their day. 

Love Tatty Bumpkin x

A New Start with Tatty Bumpkin?  

Or, maybe, you are thinking of a new career which gives you:

• The opportunity to work with kids
• A great sense of job satisfaction and
• Flexible working to fit around your own family
• Find out how you could be trained to deliver Baby and Tatty Bumpkin classes in your area at http://www.tattybumpkin.com/business/index.html. 

Tatty Bumpkin’s Yoga Activity Fish Pose. A chance for your child to refine their vestibular system

By Sue Heron – Training Co-ordinator Tatty Bumpkin and Paediatric Physiotherapist 

This Week’s Tatty Bumpkin Yoga Activity is Fish

If possible we encourage parents and carers to do the Tatty Bumpkin poses along with their child. This is because:

• Children learn a great deal from watching and copying
• As you move with your child you nurture the close bond between you both 
• It gives you a chance to have a stretch!

However, do look after your own body - if anything hurts do stop. If you are not sure whether Fish pose is suitable for you - consult a health professional. 

Firstly find a non-slip mat, or an area of carpet, where you can both do the pose. 

Make sure you both have enough room to avoid bumps and knocks. Take off your socks and shoes- it’s far better to do fish pose with bare feet :-).  

• Lay a strip of, ideally blue, fabric on a non-slip surface – this is the river!  Your piece of fabric should not be too long – just long enough for a couple of rolls. 
• Guide your child to lie down at one end of the fabric, with their body straight against the edge.  
• Once they are straight encourage your child to roll down the fabric - like a fish rolling in the river!
• If your child finds it hard to start rolling - gently help them by guiding their feet to cross over each other in the direction of the roll. 

Fish rolling down the river..

• Your child can also try rolling with you or a friend. They may find it easier to roll with someone else!  Lie down, alongside each other, decide which way to roll, then roll down the fabric side by side. 

It's fun to do fish pose with a friend!

• Don’t let encourage your child roll for too long as this can lead to them becoming over-stimulated and finding it difficult to calm down! 

Progressions for Fish Pose 

If your child is confident in fish pose they can try rolling opposite you- or a friend. In this activity your child will be rolling with their arms above their head, which is harder to do.

• Lie down opposite your child so you are facing each other.
• Wriggle away from each other so you can both put your arms above your heads but keep your finger-tips touching. 
• Decide which direction you are going to roll in, then see if you can roll together - keeping your finger-tips touching. 

Fish Pose for Younger Children

If your child is younger (under 2 years) they may enjoy rolling down your legs! 

• Find a comfortable place to sit - either on a mat or a clear piece of carpet. You may find it comfortable to sit up against a wall - so your back is more supported. Be careful to protect your back whilst you are doing this activity with your child.
• Stretch your legs out in front of you
• Then guide your child to lie across your thighs. Encourage them to keep their arms by their sides and make sure their head is ‘free and comfortable', so they do not strain their neck. 
• Start the pose by rocking your child gently side to side- so they get the idea.
• Then, if you both feel comfortable, gently guide your child to roll down your legs and back towards to you. Support and guide your child at their hips and shoulders as they roll.  

Fish pose - rolling down legs!

Why Fish Pose is 'Good for your Child'

Fish pose will give your child the opportunity to:

Refine and Stimulate their ‘Vestibular’ Sense 

Just as our hearing sense tells us about sounds around us, our 'vestibular' sense tells us:

• Which way we up we are - are we upside down or the right way up? 
• Where our head is in relation to our body and the ground
• Whether we are still or moving - and which direction we are going.

Our receptors for our vestibular sense are found deep in our ear area – our ‘middle ear'. They are particularly stimulated by activities which move our heads quickly in different directions e.g. jumping, rolling, spinning, swinging. 

Young children instinctively know the movements their body needs to develop. Because a refined vestibular system is so important for development, both of the mind and the body, young children tend to enjoy spinning, jumping and swinging activities - all of which stimulate their vestibular sense. The trick is to guide your child to do these activities for a just short time - as doing spinning, jumping games for too long can result in over-excitement - see below. 

Vestibular activities help your child to:

Refine co-ordination and balance skills

As your child grows, and changes their body shape, it’s important they build an accurate 'body map' in their mind - their body schema. This mental map tells your child how their body parts relate to one another and work together. A refined body map gives your child a deep inner body confidence - enabling them to tackle a wide range of tasks in different situations. 

Manage their 'levels of alertness'

The vestibular sense is, in some ways, the ‘volume control’ for our body. 

Activities which strongly stimulate the vestibular system (jumping, spinning, swinging) will make your child feel more alert. Whilst activities which do not stimulate the vestibular system - or only gently so e.g. rocking slowly or just lying still, will help your child to calm down. 

So as your child rolls in fish pose they will not only be refining co-ordination skills they will also be gently alerting themselves. Hence fish pose makes a great ‘movement break’. 

Increase their awareness of their ‘midline’

As your child rolls in fish pose they will have to cross the ‘midline’ of their body again and again. If your child is more aware of their midline – they will be able to do more complex activities such as dressing quickly or writing more easily. 

Strengthen their tummy and spinal muscles

As your child rolls from their back onto their front - they will be largely using their tummy muscles. As your child move from their tummy onto their back -they will be largely using their back muscles. Rolling consequently encourages your child to work their tummy and back muscles alternatively in quick succession - this builds up great co-ordination between these two main muscle groups which is important for your child's overall stability and balance.

The Tatty Bumpkin Adventure this Week

Remember, for you and your child to gain the full benefit of all the Tatty Bumpkin Yoga and multi-sensory activities, find out about your local Tatty Bumpkin class at http://www.tattybumpkin.com/classes/find-class.html. Or, ask your child’s nursery if they are doing Tatty Bumpkin Yoga activity sessions as part of their day. 

Our qualified Tatty Bumpkin Teachers are fully trained in aspects of child development and Yoga and are kept fully up-to-date by our professional team of paediatric physiotherapists, Yoga teachers and musicians. All the Tatty Bumpkin stores are aligned to the Early Years Foundation Stage (England) and  the Curriculum for Excellence (Scotland) this means the sessions not only enhance your child’s physical skills they also develop their communication, social and thinking skills. 

Discovering the 'power of pointing'! 

Love Tatty Bumpkin x

A New Start with Tatty Bumpkin?  

Or, maybe, you are thinking of a new career which gives you:

• The opportunity to work with kids
• A great sense of job satisfaction and
• Flexible working to fit around your own family

Find out how you could be trained to deliver Baby and Tatty Bumpkin classes in your area at http://www.tattybumpkin.com/business/index.html. 

Tatty Bumpkin’s Yoga Crab Pose - Great for young muscles and minds - helping core-stability, self-regulation and concentration

By Sue Heron – Training Co-ordinator Tatty Bumpkin and Paediatric Physiotherapist 

This week Tatty Bumpkin is off to a ‘Fun day’ with her friend crab.

Crab Yoga activity is a classic pose often used by paediatric physiotherapists and occupational therapists as it has so many movement and sensory benefits for children.

Crab pose will give your child the opportunity to:

1. Activate and strengthen their ‘core’ muscles

When your child does crab pose they will be activating their shoulder, back, tummy and hip muscles i.e. the muscles around their middle or ‘core’.

Crab pose is excellent for strengthening your child’s ‘gluteal’ muscles - around their hips. Strong, active gluteal muscles improve balance skills for sport and may even help to prevent a ‘knock kneed’ standing and walking position in later life. Active shoulder muscles help your child to control their arm for writing. 

2. Gently alert or calm themselves to focus

As your child does crab pose they will be stimulating their ‘proprioceptive’ sense.
This sense tells us where our body is in space - whether our joints are straight or bent, whether our muscles are stretched or contracted. Hard work activities such as pushing, pulling or lifting really stimulate our proprioceptive sense e.g. tug-of war, climbing and pushing games or, indeed, Yoga poses. Yoga poses require us to lift our body off the floor in various positions i.e. as your child does crab pose they will be lifting their body off the floor to balance on their hands and feet.

Lifting your body off the floor activates your proprioceptive sense

The Proprioceptive Sense and Alertness

Interestingly proprioceptive rich activities (like pushing, lifting etc) can help us manage our levels of alertness. This is because proprioceptive input, along with deep pressure touch, is the most accepted and tolerated form of sensation by our body. 

So proprioceptive input can be: regulating, calming, soothing, organising and/or alerting, depending on the current state of our nervous system. For example, if your child is over-excited, finding it hard to concentrate, proprioceptive activities can help them to feel more grounded enabling them to focus. On the other hand, if your child is feeling drowsy, finding it hard to wake up and concentrate, proprioceptive activities can help them feel more alert – in an organised way. 

Levels of Alertness for Well-being and Learning

• Our levels of alertness naturally alter throughout our day; in the morning we should be gradually increasing our level of alertness - to wake up, at night we should be lowering our state of alertness - so we can sleep. 
• To learn, it’s thought our level of alertness should be somewhere in the middle – we should be 'calmly alert'. In this calm alert state, neither over excited nor drowsy, we can focus on what we are doing long enough so we can truly understand it.

The Reticular Activating System - Area Managing Levels of Alertness

• Our Reticular Activating System (RAS) is a small area at the base of our brain with wide connections throughout our brain. All of our senses (except smell) follow nerve pathways which are connected to, and pass through, our RAS. As a result our RAS has many functions but it is thought to have a major role in the regulation of our alertness levels i.e.
• Our RAS helps us to focus our attention, acting like a filter to dampen down the effect of repeated stimuli. For example, as you are reading this blog a fly may be buzzing at window across the room, at first you are distracted by the sound but, after a while, your RAS filters out this distant (harmless) buzzing noise allowing you to keep your attention on the blog.

Our RAS filters out unwanted/harmless sensations helping us to concentrate 

• The information filtered and processed by our RAS contributes to its role in regulating our overall level of alertness and so our sleep/wake cycle. In the morning, our RAS system becomes more excitable, meaning we gradually become aware of incoming sensory information - maybe bird song outside or our alarm clock. As a result, we become more alert. At night time, our RAS system should be less excitable, meaning our body becomes less responsive to the world around us - allowing us to relax and sleep.

• For our body to be at the ‘just right’ level for learning our RAS needs to be working steadily, neither over or under-excited, just steadily filtering out unwanted sensory information – keeping us in the calm alert state.

Proprioceptive Sensory Input and the RAS 

Neuroscientists have suggested that the type of sensation influences the excitability of our RAS - and so our level of arousal. I.e. 

• Light touch, auditory (hearing) and painful sensations follow pathways that have close connections with our RAS. This is what we might expect as these sensations are often associated with danger. To go back to the example of the fly, you may have been able to ignore the distant buzzing - your RAS effectively filtering it out. However, if the fly suddenly buzzes loudly in your ear and touches your face your RAS would be instantly excited. You would become hyper-alert to the fly but your attention would have moved away from the blog.

Concentration is lost. 

• In contrast, it is thought that deep touch and proprioceptive sensations follow neural pathways which are not so closely connected with our RAS. Indeed, the processing of these types of sensations may actually result in our RAS becoming less excitable. This theory may explain why proprioceptive activities and deep massage help us to feel more grounded and less anxious.

Tatty Bumpkin Crab Yoga  Activity 

Try to do crab pose with your child, or encourage brothers and sisters to join in, as: 

• Young children learn new movements best by copying the actions.
• Research shows that young children bond with their parents and ‘key people’ not only through touch but also by moving with them.
• Crab pose will give you a great opportunity to stretch out tight muscles and to activate your tummy, back, shoulder and hip muscles!

Crab Pose Pointers

• Find a non-slip mat or an area of carpet where you can do crab pose with your child. Make sure you both have enough room around you to avoid bumps and knocks.

• Take off your socks and shoes-far better to do crab pose with bare feet. With bare feet your child will slip less and will be able to do the pose accurately. Interestingly we rely on sensory information passed up through the soles of feet to balance.  

• Start by sitting alongside your child with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor – encourage them to copy you.

• Then show your child how they can place their hands on the floor behind them and then lean back onto their hands to wave their feet in the air.

• Once your child has the idea of taking weight through their arms, encourage them to lean back on their hands again - only this time show them how they can push up through their feet to lift their bottom and hips off the floor. 1, 2, 3, push up to crab!

Push through hands and feet into crab pose!

• Now you should both only be balancing on your hands and feet in crab pose!

Progressions for Crab Pose  

• In crab pose encourage your child to try walking like a crab, forwards, backwards, even sideways. 
• Play crab football with your friends using a foam ball!        

Younger children

• If your child is younger they will find it easier to crab pose - balancing on their shoulders rather than their hands. 

• Guide your child to lie on the mat or carpet with their knees bent and their feet flat on the floor. Then encourage them to lift just their bottom off the floor. 

• You may need to help your child to bend their knees and position their feet flat on the floor so they get the idea of pushing up through their feet to lift their bottom off the floor. 

Help your child to lift their hips off the floor

• To make this activity fun, pass toys underneath! Whilst they are playing with the suggested props supervise your child closely and NEVER leave them unattended, or with another child.

The Tatty Bumpkin Adventure this Week 

Remember, for you and your child to gain the full benefit of all the Tatty Bumpkin Yoga and multi-sensory activities, find out about your local Tatty Bumpkin class at http://www.tattybumpkin.com/classes/find-class.html. Or, ask your child’s nursery if they are doing Tatty Bumpkin Yoga activity sessions as part of their day. 

Our qualified Tatty Bumpkin Teachers are fully trained in aspects of child development and Yoga and are kept fully up-to-date by our professional team of paediatric physiotherapists, Yoga teachers and musicians. All the Tatty Bumpkin stores are aligned to the Early Years Foundation Stage (England) and  the Curriculum for Excellence (Scotland) this means the sessions not only enhance your child’s physical skills they also develop their communication, social and thinking skills.

Learning 'mindfulness' skills with Tatty Bumpkin

In their Tatty Bumpkin class this week they will have the chance to:

• Improve their physical skills as they move in different ways in crab, dog and airplane poses.
• Develop their imagination and thinking skills as they imagine they are by the sea and visiting the ‘fun day’ with crab!   
• Progress their communication skills as they listen, creep and crawl to Tatty Bumpkin crab song and tell everyone what kind of dog they are going to be.
• But most of all, your child will have fun with others as they fly on the airplane roundabout and ‘have a go’ at the coconut shy!

Love Tatty Bumpkin x

A New Start with Tatty Bumpkin? 

Thinking about a change of career? If you would like the 

• The opportunity to work with kids

• A great sense of job satisfaction and

• Flexible working to fit around your own family

Find out how you could be trained to deliver Baby and Tatty Bumpkin classes in your area at http://www.tattybumpkin.com/business/index.html.