7 Acro-Yoga Exercises for Parents and Children, ages 3y to 12y (or more)

In this post Sharon hosts Sarit, who is an Ashtanga instructor from Kiryat Shmona, and together we want to introduce you to Acro-Yoga (light) for parents and children.

Parents-children Acro-Yoga strengthens the parental connection, builds trust, builds confidence, improves self-esteem and generally speaking broadens the heart.
We recommend that you perform the exercises when another adult is around to stand on guard and prevent injuries. The exercises are performed slowly and while maintaining balance and attention of the child.
2 basic terms are: a. base – whoever lifts the other (in this case the parent) and b. flyer – the person being lifted up and balancing on the base (in this case, the child).

1.  "Airplane" – parent as base, child as flyer.
The parent lie on the ground, lifting his legs with a mild spread of the hips, while the child "free-falls" on the parents legs and shifts all his body-weight to it. The parent then stretched its legs at a 90° angle, while the child spreads his hands to both sides while maintaining balance.

2. "Bat" – from the airplane position the child will move the weight of his upper body downwards with the parent supporting him by the back, while the parent legs are still in a 90° angle to the ground in order to maintain balance. Later on the parent can fold his legs if it's comfortable (in our case the height differences were too big).



3. "Bridge" – the parent is base, the child is a flyer.
The parent places his legs around the upper buttocks (where they meet the back) with a mild spread against the waist, while the child leans backwards when he is supported around the shoulder by the parent. The parent stretched his legs, and the child can hold the parent ankles, and with the help of another adult roll up towards the parent head and all the way to standing up.

4. "Bridge on the ground" - the parent stand with his legs spread above the child's head. The child holds his hands against the parent's ankles while his buttocks leans outside. While lifting the pelvis and placing the head on the ground the parent helps the child by holding his pelvis until a full bridge is formed.

Preparation for the first grade- games suggestions

The first grade is the starting point of any person's academic life; it's an adventure full of excitement and fears. The educational plan by the ministry of education is full of educational- pedagogical assignments that affect the child's play time, recess time, and the development of social skills and emotional maturity, while placing a lot of burden both on the kg teacher and on the child.

Entering the first grade is transferring from a world of less rules, contingency movement and flexible structure, to an entirely different setting,with structured classes, longer sitting times, less mediators and less play time (there are, off course, more differences; and there are different schools and approaches).

It's preferable to play with our children as a preparation for the first grade, and not to  burden them with learning more academic skills, since they will do it any way in the Kg (some love to do it at home too).

You can play games and sing songs about letters, numbers and more; read books, talk and develop spoken language and work on social and emotional skills.

You are welcome to enter the following posts and play to improve the key aspects that will lead to their success in entering the first grade; educators-  - it is highly recommended to work on those skills in the first few months of the a school year and you'll see a lot of  improvement in the children performances:

1.       Sitting and concentration

2.       Strong shoulder belts and hands

3.       Balance, posture

4.       Emotional expression abilities

5.       Basic motor skills- for girls and boys

6.       Social skills- cooperation, empathy, loosing and winning

Please download our app for android (soon will be for ios too). 

We'll be happy to have you in our community, and we'll love answering any question you might have.

Togi Facbook page

All the responsibility is on the parent and/ or educator.

All the posts and materials belongs to togi let's play, and Sharon Michaeli- Ramon  ©

Games to Practice Patience, Restraint, Coping with Frustration and Error

Playing games can teach us many skills, both formally and informally. In this post I will be presenting you with 2 easy games that work on:

1. Social cooperation
2. Developing patience and restraint
3. Memory
4. Responsiveness speed
5. Requires the ability to continue and play though we were mistaken or defeated
6. Making connections to other topics and creating a casual learning of important topics by playing other games, such as: colors, numbers, letters, word patterns, connections etc.

What's in the Hoop?
You place 2 hoops on the ground, and place 4-5 identical objects in each of them. You call out the name of one of the objects. The first child that grabs this object from their hoop and run to you is the winner. You can exercise colors, numbers, pictures of different categories etc.

What's hiding underneath…(game of speed and luck)
Place a handkerchief or a box at some distance from the children.
Show them two objects and hide one of them when they don't notice. The children need to run, and the first who reached the spot gets to be the first to guess. If they were right, they receive the hidden object or a hug. If guessed wrong, the turn goes to the other.
The advantage of this is luck and speed, so it has no connection to knowledge, only guessing.

You are invited to look at our post that deals with how to teach restraint (and off course consult with us on it).


Togi app

All the responsibility is on the parent and/ or educator. 

 All the posts and materials belongs to togi let's play, and the writer ©

Scribbling, drawing and writing - strengthning hands and shoulders

Children start to scrabble and paint with colors at a very young age. The way they hold the crayon/pencil/brush changes according to their age and rate of development, and unless there is a critical need, we usually do not tend to intervene professional until the 1st grade.
We know that the way a child holds a crayon/pencil/color/brush affects the quality of their writing and drawing skills, the way they shape the letters and the entire joy they can derive from the process of drawing and writing.

This post aims to strengthen the shoulders and hands in order to enhance the joy that children can derive from drawing and writing. An effortless writing will ensure a joyful drawing and writing action as much as they will please. When drawings, scribbling and writing become a physical effort children tend to avoid them when the mental effort becomes more complicated. A full writing in personal-emotional aspects with compatible physical skills help the children to enjoy it.

1. Drawings - drawings on big papers which are hang on the wall, or laid on the floor. You can draw with crayons, watercolors, pencils, markers etc.

2. Spread cotton balls on the ground, and see who collects the most with the help of only tweezers.

3. Spread beans or lentils in different sizes and colors on the floor. collect each specific kind to a bowl with only your fingers.

4. Play catch with a variety of different sized balls. For advanced level - throw and catch only with the fingers (appropriate for only age 5 and up).

5. Free playing and building in sand/ play-dough/ dough/ foam/ whip cream/ pudding (particularly great for the younger children). Create snakes, balls and what ever you feel like using your fingers, joints and with the hand-palm.

6. Play finger war with your thumbs.

7. Embroidery with a thick needle - very helpful to strengthening the hand-palms, and helps develop persistence and concentration. You can start with only 5 minutes a day.

8. Drawings with finger-colors/shaving foam - with all the palm, with the finger-tips and with different kinds of sponges.This can be done on the floor, standing in front of a painter's easel, standing on your 6, standing on one foot while balancing yourself etc.

9. Eating with chop-sticks, or collecting light objects spread on a flat surface with chop-sticks.

10. Fasteners/Clips - collect objects with fasteners, hand the laundry on the laundry rope, play with fasteners and open and close them, every time with the thumb and a different finger.

11. Playing a lot at the playground on the different climbing and ganging facilities.

Togi App user guide for Version 2

Hello :)
This is an instruction post of "How to use TOGI - Let's Play App"

All the responsibility is on the parent and/ or educator. 

All the posts and materials belongs to togi let's play, and the writer ©