Storyland Yoga: Yoga for Kids and Families (ages 3 to 8)

My 3-year-old does this DVD with me and she really likes it. Although her attention span wanes somewhere around the middle of the story, it's still good for her to be exposed to the poses because I want to share my love of yoga with her for the future. She already knows several poses like 'tree', 'snake', and 'dog' and is very proud of her ability to do them! I think that a class is the best for learning because anything on TV will lead to a somewhat passive experience because they don't have the direct motivation to follow along as they would in a class with other kids and a teacher encouraging involvement versus just my gentle coaxing, but this is definitely the next best thing.The DVD comes in a cardboard sleeve, so you might consider putting it in a ziplock bag to protect it from scratching.Ahmed does a fantastic job narrating two wonderful stories - 1)Condor Trek (23:10 min) and 2) Save the Whale (18:30). Condor Trek tells the story of condor eggs that need to brought back to their mommy. The kids are imaginatively lead to the river in a kayak and meet up with a crocodile and a snake where they do 'plank' and 'cobra' poses to disguise themselves in order to pass by undetected. They see a bear, mountain lion, and wolves and learn 'bear', 'cat', and 'downward-facing dog' poses. They end by doing a sun saluation that reintroduces all the poses they learned before and take a solar-powered spaceship ride to the top of sun mountain where they lay in 'corpse' or 'relaxation' pose (savatsana) and allow the mommy condor to take the eggs back. There is more to this program, but this is the gist of it.I haven't gone through the second program in depth yet to detail it, but they learn different poses like 'boat' and 'warrior' on their imaginary surfboard. These programs keep kids (maybe 4-6 and up years of age) engaged through Ahmed's enthusiasm for his animal stories and love of yoga, children, and the planet. Highly recommended for parents wanting to introduce a lifelong love of yoga to their children!

I rented this via Amazon Prime for my 3-year-old son, hoping for a good way to get him moving while we were cooped up inside due to cold weather. The first time I put it on, he preferred to just watch the first adventure and wouldn't do the poses, but he was fascinated all the same. The next day he specifically asked me to put on the yoga video, and did the poses through most of the second adventure even though it was his first time seeing that one.The instructor, Ahmed, is engaging and likable, and it's clever the way he renames traditional yoga poses to make them fit into the story. I was afraid that it was going to be too preachy, when I read other reviews saying that it talks a lot about saving the earth/whales/etc., but it was just a lot of fun and not too heavy-handed. My son loved the way Ahmed brought so many animals into it and encouraged the kids to use their imaginations.My only criticism is that it is sometimes difficult to know what to do next when you're already in a pose, because Ahmed often just shows what to do instead of specifically describing how to do it, so until you're familiar with the story and what comes next, it can be a little disjointed. Otherwise, it's a great yoga intro for kids!

I bought this DVD for my 4 year old daughter who often tries to do yoga along with me. I thought it might be fun for her to have her own yoga dvd that is geared towards kids. While this does have a storyline to help keep the kids interested, it really doesn't focus enough on the yoga. The instructor tells a strange and disjointed story about saving animals while trying to integrate some actions and poses. He occasionally takes about 1 second to actually describe the pose, but usually just jumps from pose to pose without much description of what he is doing, and there is rarely even a good camera angle to see what to do. My daughter followed along with the story but mostly just danced around the living room because she couldn't tell what anyone was doing and by the time she got something going, they were on to a new one! In the second story, I showed her each pose and described what to do so she could at least try to keep up. While she generally seemed satisfied, I thought the whole thing was really weird and didn't seem like something she is going to want to do often. I am surprised by all of the really positive reviews for this DVD. I might have even given it fewer stars if my daughter hadn't at least enjoyed jumping around and dancing during the story.

After working with preschoolers for 20+ years, one can imagine the disappointing programming for children that I've seen steadily declining over the years in terms of educational content, violence and inappropriate messages. Sadly, the most obvious place I've seen evidence of this has been in young children's behavior and outlook on life in general at a time when they are most vulnerable to what they are exposed to. Storyland Yoga is a brilliant light shining for our future! The DVD indeed teaches yoga in a gentle, entertaining and interesting way by the gentle, entertaining and interesting Ahmed Fahmy. But the story goes beyond a lesson about yoga; it is a much needed message to children about the beauty of the world they live in and how important it is to care for it. It is amazing how Ahmed imparts these messages with an aura of peacefulness and excitement at the same time! I was mesmerized as I watched Ahmed weave his magic with children and felt joyful about the possibilities for our children and our future. I know what will catch and hold children's attention, and there is no doubt that any child would be as mesmerized and entertained as I was. Storyland Yoga DVD will most definately be included in our children center's curriculum which is designed to prepare young children for their world. I hope parents everywhere will do the same!

Bought this to do with my 6 year old. He hates it. It’s very slow and choppy when moving from scene to scene. I wouldn’t recommend it.

My kids really enjoy this DVD, it has been the only one they want to do since we received it a couple months ago! They love hearing about Condors and it also helps reinforce the need to be kind to our planet as they discuss bicycling and electric cars to reduce air pollution, the importance of keeping our bodies healthy, and working together as a team. They also laugh at the host Ahmed (sp?) and the term "hutungus"!!!

All of my children love this DVD! It is so fun and interactive