Holiday Vacation in … OUTER SPACE!
By Gopala Amir Yaffa, co-founder, Rainbow Kids Yoga
Use your imagination to create a little story around these fun-filled, family yoga poses!
Space Station
Sitting in a circle, place your hands under your bent knees. Hold hands with friends and family members on either side of you, lift up your feet, and balance on your butt.
Fun in this pose:
- The station can close (lower your feet and head toward the floor) and open again (bring your feet apart and lift your head, balancing again).
- You can also roll back, letting go of the hands, and roll back up to hold hands again – this is funny and fun!
The Countdown
Shake both arms and legs 10 times as you count down fast from 10 to 1 (four times, one time for each limb). On the next round, shake each of your four limbs 9 times as you count down fast — from 9 to 1. Continue shaking the limbs and counting down from 7, 6, 5 … Until you shake them out for the last time with an excited “1! 1! 1! 1!”
It’s a great warm-up!
Rocket Ship
Stand in front of your partner and hold hands (holding forearms is even better). Lean back to counter balance their weight. Count down from 10 to 1 as you slowly bend your knees and let your hips sink down.
When you reach 1 you can launch and jump to outer space together!
Astronaut’s Square Breathing Machine
Sit in a circle. Somebody in your family becomes the astronaut leader. They will tell everyone how to breathe in outer space. When the leader raises their hand upward (slowly), it means inhale; when they move their hand horizontally, it means hold the breath; when they move their hand downward, it means exhale.
In this way, the leader draws an imaginary square with his hand causing everyone to inhale, hold the breath, exhale, hold the breath, etc., in a rhythmical way.
Fun in this game:
- If you do it for a minute or two you will feel deeply relaxed.
- Give everyone a turn to be the leader.
Freezing Spaceships Yoga Dance
Play fun, upbeat music and dance or fly like spaceships. Whenever you stop the music, everyone stops dancing and freezes into the yoga pose that you call out.
Fun in this game:
- Each time the music stops you can call on a different child or parent to choose the pose for everyone to freeze in – just make sure everyone gets a chance to choose!
- Ask the kids to freeze in their favorite pose, a balancing pose, one-legged pose, upside down pose, twisting pose, partner pose etc.
- Ask the kids to freeze in a pose they invented – a pose never seen before! Ask them the name of their newly created pose.
Hover Craft – Space Shuttle
Lie on your belly and interlock your fingers behind your back – you are the hover craft. Your partner stands above you with their feet by your hover craft hips. Your partner (the driver) holds onto you by the wrists (your wrists are the hover craft steering wheel). The driver now bends their knees and places their forearms on their thighs. Don’t use force here – your partner can lean back a bit and use their body weight.
Communicate and make sure everyone is comfortable in the pose. This is an awesome upper body opener!
Fun in this game:
- A variation can be that you/the hover craft interlace your fingers and place them on top of your head, elbows out to the sides. Your standing partner holds onto your elbows and lifts their upper body up. It feels great on the chest, arms, and shoulder blades.
Or you can even try…
Turbulent Massage:
Come onto your hands and knees, hands on the yoga mat shoulder-width apart, knees directly under your hips. Your partner lies on top of you/the cat. You are back to back, so that your partner’s lower back is on your/the cat’s toosh and their head rests between your shoulder blades.
Fun in this pose::
- You can now round your back up and down and all around to give the best massage in the world to your friend on top of you!
- If it’s not comfortable for your partner, they can move and find a spot on your back that feels comfortable. Your partner can relax their arms to the sides and completely surrender to your movements… Then switch places!
Emergency Landing Pod – Space Capsule
In a group of two or more, bring the tops of your heads to meet and lift your legs over your heads to meet in the air.
Moon Lander – Space Rover
You are the moon lander — you lie on your back and bring your legs over your head, keeping your legs straight. If you can’t keep your legs straight, then separate your feet and legs (it’s much easier). Your partner is the driver – they sit back to back with you (legs can be straight or crossed) holding your hands, which are now the handles or gears. Remember to switch places!
Planet Mars
Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet lifted while your partner stands with their back to you. Hold hands and place your feet on your partner’s back while they bend back, supported by you/the base – open your heart!
If you are a lot taller than your partner, you can stand up and just hold hands as your partner bends back and pushes their heart forward and up.
Or you can even try…
Alien
Stand back to back with your partner, keeping about a foot between you. Spread your legs apart and bend down, holding onto your alien friend’s hands. Can you see your friend?
Fun in this pose:
- You can pair people who are similar weight and have them counter balance each other by holding wrists and leaning away – oh! You’ll feel the stretch!… And you will also learn to trust your partner!
Hanging Alien Baby
Lift your child, while your child hugs you with their arms and legs. With their legs still wrapped around your hips or waist, your child can let go and lean back, hanging upside down just like an alien baby would!
Alien Friends Game
Because space is sooooooooooo big and soooooooooo dark, aliens must learn to identify their friends only by the distinctive sounds they make. Pair up and establish a unique and distinctive sound that you and your partner will be able to recognize. Close your eyes. Your partner starts moving around the room, directing you to follow them by using your chosen sound, nothing else.
Start close together and gradually create more distance between you, or move faster. Guide each other so that you do not hit anything or anyone else.
Flying Saucer
Your child lies on their belly and bends their knees, reaching back to hold their ankles with their hands. They inhale deeply and pull their legs with their hands, bringing their heels far from their butt and lifting their head, chest, and thighs from the floor. You can then stand behind your child, hold them firmly by the ankles and wrists and gently lift them up. You can bend your knees and place your forearms on your thighs in order to use your legs rather than your back.
Fun in this game:
- If your child is small and light, try swinging them back and forth, or even spin them around!
Saturn
Sit with your partner face to face and hold hands. Your legs are bent in between your arms. Bring your feet to touch your partner’s, and slowly, one foot at a time, push to lift your legs up off of the floor. Straighten the legs if possible. Your hands are the rings around Saturn… Its super fun!
Fun in this pose:
- To make the pose possible for participants of different sizes, whoever is taller can bend their knees while the shorter person keeps their legs straight.
- You can also try to transition to an even prettier Saturn by bringing your legs to the outside of your hands, one leg at a time.
North Star
Sit side by side with your partner, legs straight out in front of you. Bend your outside knee to a 90 degree angle, placing your outside foot to the inside of the straight leg.
Hold your partner’s straight leg by the ankle or foot with your external hand. Bring your inner hands palm to palm and straight up to the sky. Look into each other’s eyes – you are the North Star!
Asteroids
Sit on your heels, toes pointing behind you, and bring your chest to rest on your thighs… This is way too easy … so try to stack yourselves (the asteroids) one on top of each other!
Or even…
Galaxies
Sit facing your partner with legs straight and open wide. Place your feet together and hold hands. Pull your partner towards you, and then switch after a few breaths.
Fun in this pose:
- You can also swing from side to side, each time lifting one set of elbows high up and rotating the chest and shoulder open …
- If you really want to have fun, you can cross hands and swirl around in huge circles like a whirlpool-shaped galaxy! It’s awesome for opening the hips!
Comet
Sit on your heels, toes pointing behind you, and bring your chest to rest on your thighs with your arms extended forward. Then your partner sits on your sacrum and leans all the way back. You can hold your partner’s wrists and pull a bit to help them lengthen. Your partner can straighten their legs and relax into the pose. This is one of my favorite poses!
If you do this with your child, when it’s your turn to be on top, you can sit on the floor (instead of on your child’s sacrum) and lean back to rest on your forearms.
Black Hole Game
This can be done with any pose that kids can go under (Bridge, Table, Dog, Triangle, etc.). Gather close, one next to the other in one of the poses mentioned above. One child can pass under everyone in the black hole tunnel. When exiting the hole, they can assume the pose themselves, next to the last person in the line.
Make sure to leave enough space for the black hole to move forward. It’s a great game because it makes everyone stay in the pose for a long time!
Fun in this game:
- Of course it’s easy for the kids to crawl under you … But you should try it the other way too – it’s really funny to see parents trying to squeeze under their kids!
- You can also do the pose in pairs — you can be the black hole and your partner crawls through. Then switch!
- You might find that there are many ways to crawl through a black hole (on your belly, on your back, on your knees, through different parts of the black hole, etc.). Get creative!
Sun
Standing in a circle, everyone faces the center. Then turn around to face out and bring your feet apart, wide enough so that your feet touch those of your friends on either side of you. Bend down and look at someone across the circle from you.
Don’t we look a bit different when we are upside down?! Bring your hands between your legs and hold hands with the people/sun rays that are beside you… and shine…BRIGHTLY!
Moon
Place your hands shoulder-width apart and push your hands into the floor to lift your hips up; ideally, straighten your legs. Your partner stands with their feet outside your hands and leans back against you. They keep their legs straight and stretch their arms back, while letting their weight lean against yours. It should feel great for both of you!
Earth
Come onto your hands and knees, while your partner leans back, positioning their lower back on your lower back. When ready, your partner brings their arms over their head, placing their hands on the floor. They can just rest here or push with their hands and feet to lift themselves up, away from your support.
Building Your Own Family Spaceship to Return Home
It’s time to be creative and create your own family group pose or an original human pyramid. You can use poses that you already know or build your spaceship from totally new poses!
Here are some of the family spaceships that we invented in our class…
If you have a lot of time, you can also invent family poses for all the planets we didn’t get to visit today, like Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto …
Standing in front of your partner, lift your arms up and place your hands together. Let your toosh stick out and push against your partner’s hands. See your chest and your upper back open to build a beautiful house!
The Milky Way (Relaxation and Imagery)
Lie with your head on the belly of your friend or family member. Your friend can then place their head on the belly of the next person. Continue in this way until you make one long, family Milky Way.
Breathe deeply and feel how you lift and lower your family member’s head with your belly as you breathe, and feel how your own head rises and falls too. Close your eyes, listen, and feel the breath moving in and out.
And why not add some positive imagery?! In your mind’s eye, see all the beautiful stars — i.e. your kids, your partner, your neighbors, their children … Imagine a waterfall of clear, bright light flowing from all of the stars and pouring into you.
The light comes in through the top of your head, into all the parts of your body (you can mention the parts of the body here to your children) and leaves through your feet into the earth. As the light flows through you, it fills you up with warmth and coziness and it makes you feel comfortable and very relaxed. See yourself a shining, bright star watching the world and sharing the light with every earthling…
After a few moments of silence, yawn and sigh with a long “ahhhhh” while you stretch your hands over your head and wiggle your toes. Roll onto your side and smile at each other. Rest here for a moment and enjoy the silence and peace. When you’re ready, push yourself up to sit and give each other a BIG hug!
Hope you’ll loads of fun together!
Rainbow Kids Yoga
