2014 Term 5 Week 5. Tatty Bumpkin's Pose for the Week is VOLCANO!

By Sue Heron – Training Co-ordinator Tatty Bumpkin and Paediatric Physiotherapist

Find your local Tatty or Baby Bumpkin multi-sensory kid’s yoga class at http://www.tattybumpkin.com/classes/find-class.html.

So you can continue to enjoy Volcano pose at home with your baby and child, below is a short summary of our Tatty Bumpkin yoga inspired ‘volcano pose’ along with the benefits of the pose for your baby or child. I have also included other kid’s play ideas related to Volcano pose.

The Adventure This Week ..

This week Tatty/Baby Bumpkin find themselves in the Rainforest!

The snakes hiss, the parrots squawk, and the lion’s roar – Grrr!!

Then Tatty Bumpkin hears a rumbling sound – whitch shakes the very ground she is standing on…

What could be making such a noise? Perhaps Tatty Bumpkin’s friend Lion knows…?

Come and explore the Rainforest with Baby or Tatty Bumpkin and help them investigate the rumbling sound!

In the ‘Volcano’ Story Your Child Will Have the Opportunity To

1. Improve their balance and use all their body senses as they do volcano pose.

2. Use gestures or words to express their thoughts and progress their communication skills i.e.

Feeling ‘worried’ with Tatty Bumpkin as she listens to the ‘rumbling’ sounds.
Being brave’ and ‘taking a risk’ with Tatty Bumpkin as she creeps throught he jungle!

3. Fire their imagination and come up with their own ideas i.e.

What shape volcano to be?
How to get across the river?!

4. Develop their sense of rhythm, co-ordination skills and spatial awareness as they creep, tiptoe and roar to the Tatty Bumpkin Lion Song.

5. Learn how to calm themselves and develop their fine motor skills as they explore parrot feathers to the Tatty Bumpkin Feather song.

6. Have fun with their friends as they hiss as snakes in the rainforest, snap as crocodiles in the river and work together to put feathers on the parrot’s tail.

Country Cottage Nursery, Kent, helped Parrot find his feathers!

Volcano Pose for Children and Toddlers

Volcano pose for your toddler

"1, 2, 3 WHOOSH!" - Volcano for older children

Description of Pose

If your child is about 4 years old or younger they will be learning new movements by looking at and copying others. Therefore it is best to do Volcano pose with your child or toddler so they can see what to do. Volcano pose will also give your own shoulders and chest a lovely stretch.

Find a clear space and encourage your toddler or child to stand opposite you.

Together, curl up really small on the floor, as a ‘sleeping volcano'.

Sleep for a few seconds 1, 2, 3 (count these out with your child.

Then, suddenly, ERUPT! Come up onto your knees and spread your arms out wide!

Move from one knee to the other or gently twist from side to side to as your volcano continues to shower it's larva everywhere!

Progressions

If your child is older guide them to start by squatting on the balls of their feet as a ‘sleeping volcano’ and then to quickly come up into standing to erupt! Try to encourage your child to do this without putting their hands on the ground to refine their balance skills.

Why Volcano Pose is Good for Both You, Your Toddler or Your Child

As you do Volcano pose with your toddler or child, you will both have a chance to:

Stretch out your chest, shoulder and arm muscles
Volcano pose will give you both a chance to stretch out your arm, shoulder and chest muscles – just like our growing flower pose last week. Remember this type of pose is great for your child after they have been sitting for a while.

Progress your balance skills

As you get up quickly up from the floor in volcano pose you will be challenging your balance skills through stimulating your body senses i.e. your 'proprioception' and your 'vestibular' sense.
Children develop mature balance skills at about seven years of age. If your child is younger they will largely be using their sight to keep their balance. It is by moving around and quickly changing position that children progress their abilities so they need not have to rely on looking so much to keep their balance.

Unfortunately our own sense of balance slowly deteriorates as we age - we can help to control this by doing activities such as Volcano pose.

To discover the other benefits of Volcano pose for your child either come along to your local Tatty Bumpkin class or see if your child is doing Tatty Bumpkin classes at their nursery and ask for one of our unique ‘Parent Information’ sheets.

Volcano Pose for Babies

'Little volcanos for young babies'

"1, 2, 3 WHOOOSH!"

Description of Pose

N.B. Remember, when you are doing the poses with your baby, never force the movements and keep looking at your baby to make sure they are comfortable. If you feel any resistance, or your baby becomes unsettled, do stop. Once your baby has settled, gently try the pose again, perhaps making clicking sounds or using a toy to distract them. If your baby remains unsettled, do not persist with the pose instead ask your Baby Bumpkin teacher for advice.

Very Young Babies (who are unable to hold their head up by themselves)

Find a comfortable place to sit on the floor with your baby with your legs out in front of you. Position your baby on your thighs so they are facing you. Place your hands behind their head and neck to give them further support. They are a sleeping volcano!

Then ‘1, 2, 3’ the volcano erupts! Slowly bend your knees up to lift your baby up towards you. Count out the ‘1, 2, 3’ and make an ‘erupting volcano’ whoosh sound as you do the movement.

Now slowly straighten your knees to gently lower your baby back down away from you – to be a sleeping volcano once more.

Repeat the pose several times all the time looking at your baby to make sure they are enjoying the movement. See if they wish to go a little faster or slower.

Young Babies (who are able to hold their head up by themselves)

Find a comfortable place to sit on the floor with your baby. Stretch your legs out in front of you if this is comfortable, and position your baby so they are lying on their back between your legs. They are a sleeping volcano!

Keep smiling and looking at your baby, to give them reassurance, whilst placing your hands behind their lower neck and upper shoulders to give them support. Bend your knees if you need to for comfort.

Then ‘1, 2, 3’ the volcano erupts. Slowly draw your baby up into the sitting position. Count out the ‘1, 2, 3’ and make an ‘erupting volcano whoosh’ sound as you do the movement with your baby!

Once in the sitting position, reassure your baby. Then gently encourage them to lie back down to be a sleeping volcano once more.

Repeat the pose several times - all the time looking at your baby to make sure they are enjoying the movement. See if they wish to go a little faster or slower.

Adjust your hand position if you feel your baby does not need quite so much support round their neck and shoulders i.e. Move your hands downwards so they are more round their upper back.

Older Babies (who are able to sit by themselves)

Position yourself as above with your baby

This time gently hold your baby’s forearms with each hand.

Then 1, 2, 3, the volcano erupts. Slowly bring your baby up into the sitting position, letting them bring their legs up off the floor if needs be.

Remember to give your baby time as you encourage them up into sitting, then they can be involved in the movement as much as possible. You are wanting them to:

Actively start to lift their head off the floor at the beginning of the pose.
Use their arm and shoulder muscles to ‘brace’ themselves and help pull themselves up. If your baby is not using their arm and shoulder muscles then don’t persist with this variation of volcano pose. Try the more supportive pose described overleaf for a while.

Volcano Pose for You!

Take your arms up above your head then spread them out wide to be an erupting volcano.

Why Volcano Pose is Good for Your Baby

As you do Volcano pose with your baby, they will have a chance to:

Improve their ‘head control'
Always give your baby appropriate support at their neck and head as you do volcano pose so that they are not straining their neck and shoulders.

As a new-born your baby would not have been able to lift their head off the floor when placed on their back or their tummy. If your baby is pulled into sitting from the lying position at this age - without sufficient head support –their head will ‘lag’ behind their shoulders. This ‘head lag’ is likely to persist until they are about 3 mths.

Indeed, at about 2 mths you may notice that your baby’s head is slightly more floppy – this is because they would have lost their new-born body ‘stiffness’ but are yet to gain active muscle control of their head and neck.

At 2 -3 mths your baby will be able to control their head more when pulled into sit however their head will still lag about 25-50% of the time. See picture courtesy of http://library.med.utah.edu/pedineurologicexam/html/home_exam.html .

3 mnth old baby - showing 'head lag' position

Over the next few months your baby will gain more and more ‘head control’. By the time they are 5 mths, when pulled into the sitting position, your baby will probably be able to tuck their chin in and lift their head.

At around 6 mths your baby, whilst lying on the floor, will probably be lifting their head up off the floor by themselves for short periods – actively looking at the world around them. At this age if you do the progression of volcano pose with your baby i.e. you just give them support at their hands or wrists, your baby should be actively join in with the movement using their shoulder and arm muscles to brace themselves against your pull. (If your baby is not using their arm muscles in this way – do not carry on with the movement). See picture courtesy of http://beyondbasicplay.wordpress.com.

5 mnth old - 'Joining in!'

N.B. Always speak with your health visitor or G.P. if you feel your baby is not progressing
their ‘head control’ as they should i.e. if their head is still unstable at about 5- 6 mths

Activate their shoulder and arm muscles
If your baby is doing the progression of volcano pose they will be actively using their shoulder and arm muscles to brace themselves as you gently pull them into sitting by just holding their forearms. As they do this bracing action they will be ‘co-contracting’ their shoulder and arm muscles i.e. they will be working several groups of muscles at the same time - those which bend their arm and those muscles which straighten their arm.

To discover the other benefits of volcano pose for you baby came along to your local Baby Bumpkin class and ask for one of our unique ‘Parent Information’ sheets.

Other Games to Play Around Volcano Pose

Erupting Volcanos!

Light weight or chiffon scarves can be great fun for playing peek-a-boo games with your baby. Wave the scarf gently over your baby, and encourage them to follow or ‘track’ it with their eyes. Some babies love to feel the scarf draped over them. Add in volcano sounds as you move the scarf i.e. say “1, 2, 3, whoosh!” as you wave the scarf high into the air over your baby and then let it float downwards over them.

Make it Multi-Sensory, Educational & Fun

In Tatty and Baby Bumpkin classes we use unique storylines to make the activities meaningful and to fire the imagination. All our classes are multi-sensory comprising of:

Adapted yoga poses and activities which both stimulate and calm the body senses

Dedicated songs and rhythms which are relevant to the stories

Bespoke hand-woven props to look at and feel. Tatty Bumpkin has its own range of fairly traded animal props to back up the yoga poses and bring the stories to life. Our teachers are supported to use natural props in the classes which are great to feel as opposed to smooth plastic

We have carefully linked each Tatty and Baby Bumpkin to the new 2012 Early Years Foundation Stage framework. Importantly supporting children to learn ‘how to learn’ not just focusing on what on they learn.

Find your local Tatty Bumpkin class at http://www.tattybumpkin.com/classes/find-class.html