Downward facing graduates

Happy summer solstice, readers! (Lest my readers in the Southern hemisphere feel left out: I hope you have an excellent winter solstice!). The one downside of the start of summer, and this is a sentiment none of my teacher friends share, is the end of the school year. Normally, the end of the school year wouldn't affect me much except that there would be fewer youngun's playing in the schoolyard across from my building and the lines might be slightly longer at Astroland on summer Fridays. However, this school year, I've been volunteering biweekly to help teach children's yoga classes on alternating Saturday mornings. Sadly, the end of the school year means our little 4th grade yogis are spreading their wings and graduating to 5th grade meaning they no longer qualify for the enrichment program.

I've never been a devoted yogi. The p90x yoga dvd was the only one I ever cheated on (although I think that had more to do with it being the only one that was an hour and a half), my yoga mat spends weeks at a time in the closet, and on the rare times I do attend yoga classes, I don't shy away from chilling in child's pose when I get uncomfortable. Luckily, my limited skills still make me qualified to teach children's yoga. Actually, my friend teaches the class, and the rest of the volunteers' jobs are to wrangle kids and keep them from causing mayhem when they're supposed to be using feathers to note their breathing or practicing partner poses. They are rambunctious and with a seemingly endless quantity of energy that they can't always seem to harness into a single aim.

That said, this class was one of the highlights of my Saturdays. Few times as an adult, and certainly never in an adult yoga class, do you get to take breaks to scream as loudly as you want or play childhood games like "Red Light, Green Light" (the yoga twist being that you have to freeze in tree pose). You also seldom get to make meowing noises when you do cat pose or stick out your tongue and hiss when doing cobra. I mean, I guess you could do that in an regular yoga class, but likely people would start moving their mats away.

I have a picture from the end-of-year party we threw the kids, but we all look sweaty and a little worse for wear from playing yoga freeze tag, so I won't post it. Also, I'm semi-uncomfortable posting pictures of other people's kids without their permission anyway. However, I can post my hard-won yoga completion certificate. My friend who teaches the class made them for all the kids, but she had extras, so she agreed the volunteers deserved them too. Mine already got crumpled in my purse, and it doesn't quite look right on my refridgerator. The only place I can really think to proudly display this accomplishment is here on my blog.

This is something I will treasure always. Clearly, an achievement for the ole resume.

Happy summer (or winter), friends and Internet community!