My Daddy is a Pretzel

I practice Baron Baptiste style of yoga exclusively for almost three years when I lived in Florida. This style is heavily practiced on the east coast adn there are very few studios that offer it in the midwest. Baptiste wrote many books and has a largely known presence amongst modern day yoga community and practitioners. He offers specialized training in his style of (hot) yoga and recently, his teachers are offering training in the child and family yoga. I recently started teaching Family Yoga classes and I am hungry for materials I can use to teach yoga to young children but also include their parents in the practice. This particular book is geared more towards children's practice but it can still help in creating an engaging practice with smaller children. I love the colorful illustrations and each narrative that comes with each one of the poses. Author suggests that poses listed in the book are completed in the same sequence they are presented in the book.baron Baptiste is a father himself with three boys. It is inspiring that he is introducing his own children to yoga the same way he was introduced to it by his own parents. Book is also inspirations and educational. My book is hardcover and I take it with me to yoga classes and recommend it to parents. If they have a book in their children;s personal library, they can use it for home practice as well once they learn about proper posture of the poses in the yoga class with their yoga teacher.At the end of the book, author lists recommended practice for children on how to best prepare for their yoga practice: when to eat, how to dress for the class and how to interact.I am happy to add a collection of children's yoga books into my collection of yoga books for adults.... Than you, Baron!

Teaching kids yoga for the past year and a half, reading this book left me feeling refreshed & inspired. Baron Baptiste writes from the heart in such a clear & articulate way that delivers yoga with a mind for focus and a heart of light - would & will recommend this book to parents & instructors alike.Looking for more specifics? Baptiste lays out this story in a very compelling way for children - in a classroom speaking about what each others parents do for a living. The author speaks as a child whose father is a yoga instructor, explaining what he does from her relative perspective, seeing her father relative to everyone as he emulates different shapes. When he introduces each shape, he then provides a spiritual foundation & practice for finding alignment in each pose. Best of all - the way he does it, so clearly written in simple wording that makes it easy to find the pose. At the end, he even explains yoga a bit better. Everything he writes emulates the past 5 years of my personal practice in an awe-inspiring way!

I am a pediatric physical therapist and work with children ages 0-5. Our Early Childhood Education Program uses the book and the cards and have seen great results. The children are very interested and the cards are broken down into such simple steps that many of them are able to learn the poses. Most of them need a lot of physical support and repetition at first, but rarely get frustrated and eventually get better and stronger. I have used the book with children as young as 24 months with motor planning, balance and coordination problems, low tone, abnormal tone, vestibular issues, sensory integration issues, and more- They all seem to really enjoy it and benefit from it.

I was introduced to this book by my daughter's preschool. We took it home and she refused to return it so we had to buy it. 2 years later she and her sister still take out my yoga mat and do the poses (and now her sister can read it to her!). It clearly explains how to do each pose and has a very clever way to intorduce each pose. "Samantha's mommy is a baker, sometimes my daddy is a pretzel". I found the pose descriptions and names interesting as well. Wonderful book. Apparently there are also cards that my yoga instuctor uses in her kids class.

I've been doing casual yoga off and on for several years, and whenever my son sees me, he wants to try yoga too. So I go him this book, mainly because of the great reviews. He absolutely loves the book, and has fun trying the poses. I think the number of poses is about right for his age. The level of difficulty is good for his age too. Some are easy, and some of the balancing ones are tougher for him, which keeps it interesting. Overall a great introduction to yoga for a preschooler.

I know the author & have purchased it when first published!

My students love when I read this. Very interactive and easy instructions.

I am a preschool yoga teacher and I have seen a few books, but this one is fabulous! My own 3 year old was glued to the book and after reading it she said "again". I definitely plan on using this book when I teach as a little story time. It also gives you step by step instructions on how to do the poses for any beginners.LOVE THIS BOOK!!!!!

A lovely book. My kids have really enjoyed this - 4 & 7 boy & girl. Good range of straightforward poses with a simple guide to how you do them. My kids enjoy showing me the poses and we have a good laugh together. I highly recommend this book. We followed up with kids love yoga too DVD and I found my little girl already had a sound knowledge of the names of the moves and an interest in it. My boy (7) is very sporty and flexible - the story is too simple for him but he got straight into the moves - I think it would work better in the 3 to 6 age range

Great set of cards the grand children and adults love them .Simple instructions , staged through the posture , breathing ,partner work and games ...and pointers to make them into a story session .We have used them lots of times already !

I expctected somethign a bit more complex,more fun, some kind of story related to the poses or comparison to animals...the illustrations are ok, but there isn't much narrative for young kids to enjoy and associate with yoga poses, and there aren't many pages.

Very attractive and straightforward introductory guide for children. I've been looking for a guide to initiate my son into yoga and this does not disappoint. Very pleased

Used in schools, really good book for interaction with children