The Rainbow Kids Yoga Teacher Training is a comprehensive, intensive and practical certification course. Immerse yourself in the magical world of yoga and kids, be prepared to practice and learn yoga like a child, while laughing, dancing, playing, and singing! Alternating experiential Kids Yoga classes with practical theory and discussion makes the Rainbow Kids Yoga Teacher Training a well-rounded and in-depth course.

During the course, we learn over 350 yoga poses for kids, creative yoga games, breathing and meditation games, relaxation with guided imagery, and Mandala painting. Lecture topics include age-appropriate class sequencing, class management, child development, the business of yoga teaching, marketing, and more! Most importantly, you will be equipped with tons of fabulous ideas to create exciting and fascinating yoga experiences for kids of all ages.

The Rainbow Kids Yoga Teacher Training is fun and playful, connecting trainees to their own innate creativity and wisdom, while giving practical tools and knowledge for teaching yoga for children, ages 1 -12 years old. Graduates of the course will receive a Kids Yoga Teacher Certificate from Rainbow Kids Yoga.

The Rainbow Kids Yoga Style:

Yoga is a great way for kids to increase awareness of themselves, others, and the world, while having fun! Yoga is a wonderful way for children to stay (or become) confident, strong, balanced, and healthy. Yoga engages a child's natural, boundless energy, and conveys valuable lessons in positive thinking, body and mind awareness.

We believe that kids learn best when they’re having fun! Each Rainbow Kids Yoga class is alive with magical journeys where we meet with animals, fly an airplane or drive a car, grow into a tree, or imitate the ocean waves, all in the form of dynamic yoga poses. We use music and song, lots of silly props, games, stories, relaxation and visualization, meditation, Mandala painting and more. The kinesthetic, aural, visual, intra- and interpersonal aspects of each class help keep kids involved and focused while having fun.

Conditions for acceptance:

The course is for anyone who loves working with kids, and loves yoga. It is for anyone who wants to expand a current related profession, or learn a new one!

Course Content:

· What makes yoga for kids special? The benefits of yoga for kids

· Principles of teaching yoga for children

· Building fun, engaging, and age-appropriate Kids Yoga classes

· Child development and anatomy as it relates to yoga for kids

· Over 350 Kids Yoga poses, with accompanying songs, sound effects, movements, and interesting facts about the human body and different animals

· Breathing and meditation games

· Relaxation and guided imagery

· Yoga poses and yoga games in pairs and in groups

· Teaching Family Yoga (parents and kids practicing together)

· Enriching each class with magical themes, music, props, Kids Yoga Cards, Mandala painting, costumes, art, and lots of imagination!

· Creating focus and attentiveness in the classroom and handling challenging behavior. Finding a balance between the need for rules and boundaries and the need for freedom and creativity. How to speak with and listen to kids.

· How to use your own special talents and ideas to create amazing classes, and how to connect with your inner child

· Enlightened business, how to build Kids Yoga groups and keep them, and how to succeed as a teacher in different settings (studios, public and private schools and kindergartens, community centers, etc.)

· Super crazy fun!

Registration:

For an application and more information, please send an email to info@yogagleshalom.co.il

Half of the tuition is due upon registration to hold your place. Full payment is required by the first day of the course. To fill out an application form, go to www.yogaleshalom.co.il/application

The Rainbow Kids Yoga Teacher Training is intensive and requires full participation. It is recommended, but not necessary, to have a regular yoga practice.

The course is limited to 20 participants, so please register promptly.

Cost:

$500 if you register before January 1^st, 2009

$600 if you register on or after January 1^st, 2009

No exceptions.

Tuition includes:

· Rainbow Kids Yoga Teacher certificate

· Detailed Rainbow Kids Yoga manual (130+ pages of all of the poses with illustrations, explanations, and related animal facts and songs; over 75 class theme ideas and many detailed class plans; 125 yoga games; 20+ guided imagery relaxations, and more!)

· Music mix CD to use in your Yoga for Kids classes

· Registration on our website, http://www.rainbowyoga.com/ with your contact info and email

· Healthy snacks and refreshing drinks throughout the weekend

· After the course: mentoring, answering questions, opportunities to assist in Gopala’s classes when he is teaching in your area

Location:

Gopala has been teaching Yoga for children and adults, as well as meditation and yoga philosophy, since 1995. He was a monk in the Sivananda Yoga Centers in Israel and the Bahamas for ten years, from 1994-2004, where he completed his Yoga Teacher Training and Advanced Teacher Training. While living in the Bahamas, Gopala was the general manager of the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat on Paradise Island, for four years. From 2004 to 2007, Gopala created, managed and taught yoga and alternative spa programs in Los Cabos, Mexico and New York City. He also continued studying yoga for kids at Karma Kids in New York and Itsy Bitsy Yoga in Massachusetts.

In 2007, Gopala and his wife, Katya, founded Yoga LeShalom: A Studio for the Whole Family (Yoga LeShalom is Hebrew for “Yoga for Peace”) in Tel Aviv, Gopala’s hometown. It was at Yoga LeShalom that Gopala began focusing on training yoga teachers for kids, and has to date trained over 75 teachers. In late 2008, Gopala and Katya relocated to the United States, and founded Rainbow Kids Yoga.

Gopala has taught yoga for kids in such diverse settings as public and private schools, kindergartens, and preschools, summer camps, orphanages, yoga studios, juvenile detention centers, hotels, spas, birthday parties, and private classes. His playful, patient and warm teaching style has created a training course that has been described by graduates as “magical”, “inspiring”, “very practical,” “transformative”, and “an unforgettable journey.”

Testimonials from course graduates:

My name is Yael, and I am a dance and movement teacher for over ten years. I found the Kids Yoga Teacher Training Course to be professional, fascinating, enjoyable, enriching, and inspiring. Gopala Amir is a charismatic and talented teacher, and during the course, he gives students not only a deep knowledge of teaching yoga for kids, but also a toolbox that can be used in an almost unlimited way by the course graduates. Highly recommended!

Yael Einat, Dance and movement teacher

Ilana, Music teacher

The course for training yoga instructors at Yoga LeShalom studio is a unique and special course. Besides being a professional course in its content and in the way it is taught, it is given in a personal and pleasant family-like atmosphere. It was a great experience.

From my short acquaintance with Amir, I was happy to find that he is not just a teacher for yoga, but also a teacher for life. He is a man who guides you to infinite curiosity, love, attentiveness, joy of life, giving, and self expression. Throughout the whole course I found myself being spellbound by those qualities and by the wide knowledge in all of the different fields (not only about kids and yoga postures). I am trying to adopt and remember this positive attitude in my own life and of course in my work with kids. I highly recommend this course to all people who like to use imagination and the body as work with kids and in life in general.

Thank you from all my heart,

Nani H., Dance and movement teacher

I have learned a lot during the Kids Yoga Teacher Training Course and the most important thing is that I connected with the child within me. Thank you for giving me back the joy, the laughter, the motivation, and the self confidence. Today I have the tools in order to share those wonderful things with other people. I am sending you hugs,

Nurit Barneya Mitnik

Through your experience and personality, Gopala, you have succeeded in connecting the two worlds which are most important to me: the world of kids, which I am busy with everyday, and the world of spirit and yoga. I have received lots of tools, content, and knowledge to succeed as an instructor of yoga for kids. Thank you from my whole heart to all of the new friends who participated in the course, and a huge thank you to Gopala, the most talented!

With love,

Marisa, Kindergarten Teacher

The Yoga for Kids Teacher Training Course at Yoga LeShalom was three days of fun! Very informative and practical. I enjoyed every moment! And I’m sure that I will able to apply what I have learned. I have received lots of tools to build an infinite number of varied class plans. I have returned a bit to my childhood and felt how creativity and imagination have reawakened within me. I warmly recommend the course to whoever loves kids and wants to work in the field.

Tal B., Yoga Teacher

The Yoga for Kids Teacher Training Course taught by Amir Yaffe was refreshing and enriching. I experienced the different realms of a second childhood! The course awakens the spirit of inspiration and creativity and gives great passion to teach yoga to kids and youth. Highly and warmly recommended to all those who love kids and yoga of all kinds. I could really feel Amir’s warm guidance, and how he and Katya give from the heart. And at the end of the three day course I came out with renewed energy and lots of love to pass on.

Meytal Gabizon, Yoga Teacher

I want to share what I have experienced in the course with more and more people who work with kids, and tell them that the Yoga for Kids Teacher Training Course is an exceptional experience for people who work for kids, and for everyone. Three days that connected me to fun and laughter and excitement. It was just like a rollercoaster of funny and moving experiences. And most importantly, during those three days, we were all were completely, completely like kids.

I practiced yoga in the most fun way there is, and at the same time, I felt like a child, so much so that my creativity broke all bounds! In short, I highly recommend the course with a lot of love to anyone who wants to meet their inner child again. And to you Gopala especially, thank you for the fun and unique way that you transmitted those three special days.

Maggie, Kindergarten teacher

I have received such wide knowledge. Thank you very much for everything!!

Sigal, Art teacher

Tamar, Lawyer, Mom, and now Kids Yoga teacher

Liat, Elementary school teacher

Michal L., Naturopathic doctor

Kisses, and again, thanks,

Tal K., Yoga teacher

The course itself gave me a wide base and a wholesome faith in myself that I will be able to realize my ambition to teach yoga for kids. The course was short, but as promised, it was intensive and really gave me all that I expected. Gopala was attentive to our needs throughout all of the magical hours that we spent together. He improved and changed the practice and the content of the course while the course was going on so that we could better benefit from it.

Like I said, you can just practice the poses, but the teacher transmits something that is beyond them. Gopala and Katya, his wife, bring something different than the familiar. They pay special attention to the little details and are very attentive, and it seems that they are doing this out of great love for people, animals, and the whole universe. Teachers in general, and teachers for kids specifically, need to be an example for their students. In Yoga LeShalom, this principle is seen in everything, starting from recycling and ending with the pleasant, relaxed, and magical atmosphere that is felt in the studio. I highly recommend the course.

Mary Joseph, Clinical Criminologist

Lilian, Kindergarten teacher