The secret of teaching yoga to kids is to make yoga appear like a game. There are many ingenious ways in which you can do this. Start introducing them to yoga poses in which they have to mimic an animal or bird. Kids love mimicking, and so would instinctively take to poses like the cat-cow pose where you have to mimic the instinctive actions of a cat when it arches its back up and down to stretch it.
Asking the kids to mimic animal sounds and cat calls would make these poses appear more like a game. There are many such poses in yoga like the Downward facing dog pose, tiger pose, lion pose, peacock pose, pigeon pose, etc., where you can make kids mimic the animal or bird whose actions the pose recreates.
Asking kids to make a hissing sound while exhaling is a good way to get them involved in teaching them yogic breathing, where they have to breathe consciously and deeply. Tell them that they are mimicking a volcano that is spewing out lava. Introducing actions like asking kids to join hands at the level of their chest and then lifting their arms up to mimic the rise of lava as they breathe in, and hissing as they breathe out.
Due to their hyperactivity, kids accumulate a lot of fatigue. It is necessary to teach them to consciously relax. But here it is again a challenge to get kids to remain motionless, which they would be required to when they do the relaxation poses like the Shavasana. Motivate them to remain motionless, by offering candies or cookies to those who remain motionless the longest.
Also ask them to loudly repeat auto-suggestions like “the muscles of my face are relaxing”, “the muscles of my stomach are relaxing”, “the muscles of my feet are relaxing”, etc. This would involve them in the process, and keep them busy in doing (saying) something when they are to remain motionless to relax.
Introduce them to partner and group yoga poses like basket weaving pose, see-saw pose, etc. All this, put together makes doing yoga seem like game, and so they would enjoy doing it while you have to take minimal effort to make them do the exercises.
Sources:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JXmQc3_m_k
Yoga Helps Kids Find Balance in Their Lives
http://www.yogasite.com/yoga%20kids.htm
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