This weekend's mandala workshop for kids

Good day, blog friends.

♥

This weekend I had the pleasure of leading a mandala workshop for big and little people with my yoga friend, Jessica. I have some photos of the event to share with you today. :o)

 

I met Jessica at a teacher training workshop for kids yoga certification back in March. On the first morning of the training she rolled her mat out next to mine and we became instant friends.

So when Jessica suggested that we lead a yoga/mandala workshop for parents and kids at the studio where she teaches, I jumped at the chance.

 

A favorite part of the mandala workshops I lead is creating a mandala with yarn on the floor. A piece of masking tape is placed just under the front edge of our mats, and we roll a ball of yarn in a pattern as each person answers a question before securing the yarn at their point. Really deep questions like, "What's your favorite animal?" "...color?" "...flavor of ice cream?" It's a great way for mandala newbies to visualize how a mandala is formed.

Jessica lead the yoga practice in a circle format where we created a moving mandala with our poses. I lead a brief instruction on how to draw a mandala and then everyone moved away from the main circle to draw and color for a while. I loved seeing the parent/child groups together, engrossed in their own mandalas and enjoying some creative time together.

When Carrie was little we crafted together often. Seeing these moms and young daughters together really brought back some sweet memories for me. ♥

The above photo is of my yoga friend, Cindy and her sweet little girl. Cindy and I completed our 200-hour yoga teacher training together. ♥ As I snuck in a few photos of them I overheard this little angel tell her mommy, "You're my best friend." Ah! I loved bearing witness to their sweet connection, and knowing that the process of being with their mandalas created that space for them.

I had copies of mandala coloring book pages for kids to color, and the parents (and some of the older kids) drew their own. One of the coolest things for me is to say farewell at the end of the workshop to people clutching their mandala kits with a look in their eyes that tells me they can't wait to go home and draw some more. Spreading mandala love is so awesome.

And I brought along a little friend of my own. :o) The next photo is of my 9-year old friend, "A," who had never practiced yoga before but is a budding artist and I knew she would dig it. On our way home from the workshop I asked, "So what did you think of your first yoga class?" and she replied, "I really loved it."

The turtle mandala pages are some that I drew and copied for coloring pages. I will be sharing those here on my blog in the future. :o)

So that's what I did on Saturday afternoon. The rest of the weekend was filled with the normal fanfare of grocery shopping, laundry, a little art of my own yesterday afternoon, and dinner made by Carrie last night. Awesome, awesome weekend. Super, super fast two days.

And now, it's off to work I go...

Setting my sights on my next mandala workshop coming up in October.

♥