Baby Yoga & Play Teacher Training
Support the physical and emotional health and wellness of new families by sharing Yoga-inspired movement development play for precrawling infants and along with Yoga movement, breath and focus exercises, and philosophy for caregivers.
Training Overview
You will learn how to properly teach dozens Yoga-inspired postures and dynamic movements for infants with songs and rhymes and offer developmentally-appropriate variations. You will learn class sequencing techniques, as well as how to incorporate Yoga philosophy and community-building themes, creatively use props, and build a week-to-week curriculum that will keep babies and parents smiling.
The Breathing Space Baby Yoga & Play training offers an overview of infant development and strategies for educating parents to help them support their child’s physical, emotional, social and spiritual development.
Parent-child classes such as baby yoga can promote an essential supportive community for new parents that offers far more than class description could ever capture.
Yoga & Early Childhood Development
We will discuss the specific role yoga can play in the development of an infant. We will explore the developmental progression of an infant’s movements from birth to walking. You will learn ways to introduce tummy time and other optimal positions for development. We will also explore infant anatomy, physiology, reflexes, cues, and psychology as it relates to yoga. We offer parents ways for natural ways to calm their babies and support development.
Yoga Philosophy and Parenting
First and foremost, Yoga is a philosophy for life. Because classes for infants are taught in a caregiver-child format, you have two sets of students. Learn how to teach lessons that reinforce yogic values and build community among your adult participants.
Who Should Take This Training?
Anyone interested in offering an enriching experience for babies and caregivers. Activities are appropriate in groups, one-on-one, in early childhood education settings, and incorporated into adult-focused classes or support groups where babies are present. The training is appropriate for yoga instructors, of course, but also early childhood educators, medical professionals, physical, speech-language, or occupational therapists, family counselors, parent educators, and parents.
At least a year of personal yoga practice, including exploration of yoga philosophy, is recommended prior to taking this training. For prospective trainees with less experience, recommended reading and practice resources will be provided.
Trainees enrolled in our certification course (pending – eligible for Yoga Alliance certification) must demonstrate competence in yoga philosophy, postures, breath exercises, and instruction principles. However, certification is not required and all are welcome to attend our live trainings and benefit from the material.
Please note that the Baby Yoga & Play training offers parent-child enrichment activities, not postnatal or adult exercises. We may at some point offer a postnatal yoga training focused on the parent yoga practice, but in the mean time, we recommend training through the Prenatal Yoga Center.
Self-Paced and Live Experiential Learning
Self-paced content includes more than 19 hours child development information, several full-class videos of Jen and Jessica teaching baby yoga, video and photo resources for dozens of activities, lesson planning, sample class plans, and more.
During our live workshop hours, we will thoroughly examine and practice the poses and class flows so you can embody the the yoga you are teaching. We’ll also review and discuss the self-paced content. Completing the background modules in the self-paced content before the live workshop hours will ensure you get the most benefit from our time together.
After the live-workshop hours, additional self-paced modules reinforces the training content and prepares you to share yoga with young children and families in public classes, educational settings, or even one-on-one.
Registration costs $275 ($250 if you register more than 30 days prior to start of live training) and includes more than 24 hours of training content:
- 7 hrs of live interactive training (scheduling varies) with Jen Mueller, Breathing Space founder, and Jessica Lagarde, lead instructor and program administrator;
- 19 hrs of self-paced training modules;
- A printable 100+ page manual;
- Lifetime access to the online resources;
- A Breathing Space Family Yoga t-shirt (one per person, not per training).
Register for individual modules below or pay for all 4 at once for 15% off.
Note that this training is offered back-to-back with Breathing Space’s Early ChildhoodTeacher Training. Register for both to train to teach newborn-age 4!
Upcoming Trainings
All 2023 trainings are offered in a hybrid format, incorporating self-paced online material and live workshops focused on experiential learning and practice teaching. Trainees who complete all for modules and complete the certification process may be eligible to register as a Yoga Alliance Register Children’s Yoga Teacher (RCYT).
Next trainings:
- Friday, March 17, 2023 – 9 am – 5 pm – Capitol Hill, Washington DC
offered immediately before our Tot / Preschooler Yoga Teacher Training - Monday, June 25, 2023 – 9 am – 5 pm – Capitol Hill, Washington DC
offered as part of a 5-day immersion of all in-person components of our training, newborn-tween - Friday, September 16, 2023 – 9 am – 5 pm – Capitol Hill, Washington DC
offered immediately before our Tot / Preschooler Yoga Teacher Training
Because this training is held indoors for extended periods, we require in-person participants to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Please be prepared to show evidence of vaccination upon arrival. As of Feb 2023, masks are optional in Washington DC, regardless of vaccination status. Breathing Space studio policies require masking if community spread rates are medium or high – for early childhood at medium, for all classes at high. Questions?
Note: While there’s some logic to studying the material chronologically, the in-person workshops can be taken in any order. Trainees who enroll in the full training have 2 years to complete all the modules.
Continuing Education & Certification
Training participants will have the opportunity to become certified Breathing Space children’s yoga instructors. All hours are eligible for Yoga Alliance continuing education. We are in the process of getting approval as a YA Children’s Yoga Teacher Training School to offer a YA 95 hr RCYT. Breathing Space trainees may also apply the training toward the RCYT credential through the Children’s Yoga Teacher Training Collaborative.
New info coming soon: Looking for somewhere to stay near our DC training venues? Check out our housing recommendations.
About your Trainers
Jen Mueller (MPM, YA E-RYT 200, YA CRYT, CIEM, IBCLC) has been teaching yoga to families and children since 2008. She has trained with Budding Yogis, ChildLight Yoga, Itsy Bitsy Yoga, Cosmic Kids Yoga, Yoga 4 Classrooms, and YoKid to offer classes to families and children of all ages. Jen’s work with children inspired her to complete adult yoga teacher training at Willow Street Yoga in 2010 and train in Prenatal Yoga with Janice Clarfield (Urgan Yoga) and Jennifer More (Dolphin Method).
Before turning her attention to yoga full time by founding Breathing Space, Jen spent more than a decade working with non profit organizations in everything from daily operations, event and volunteer management, and finance to national policy advocacy and media relations. Jen holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Massachusetts and a Master in Public Management degree from the University of Maryland.
Jen is a Yoga Alliance® Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher (E-RTY 200) and Registered Children’s Yoga Teacher (RCTY). She was a children’s yoga teacher trainer with Childlight Yoga / Childight Education Company for 8 years and co-created their Yoga for Babies & Toddlers training. She is also a Certified Educator of Infant Massage (CEIM) through Infant Massage USA and an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC).
Jen understands that good teachers are life-long students and has long worked to build professionalism within the children’s yoga field. Jen is the former executive director and emeritus board member of the National Kids Yoga Conference.
Jessica Lagarde (RYT 200, RMP) has been teaching creative movement in the metro area since 2005 and is passionate about helping children discover and explore their bodies and the world around them. She was trained by Joye Newman, MA to teach preschool creative movement for Kids’ Moving Company, a Bethesda-based creative movement studio. Her 200 hr adult yoga certification is through Ignite: Yoga and Wellness Institute. In 2017, she completed her Baby, Toddler, and Children’s Yoga Teacher Training through Childlight Yoga and has worked with Breathing Space Family Yoga ever since. Jessica teaches classes for infants-tweens, directs BSFY yoga camps, and does much of the behind the scenes business administration.
In addition to working with children, Jessica is a registered massage practitioner, with advanced training in CranioSacral Therapy and infant massage instruction and certification in prenatal massage. She has practiced massage since 2006 and taught massage as part of Potomac Massage Training Institute’s professional training program. She maintains a private massage practice through Shine Massage & Wellness in College Park, MD.
Outside of the movement space and massage room, she enjoys cooking, knitting, gardening, coffee, reading non-fiction, and exploring the outdoors with her daughter.
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