Sleepytime Stretching: Yawning Yoga by Laurie Jordan

AFTER PJS, BRUSH AND COMB,I SETTLE DOWN WITH A GENTLE OMMMMMMMMMM!

CONNECT TO THE SOOTHING SOUND.

CONNECT TO THE WORLD AROUND.

Plushy lovies, gentle lullabies, bedtime stories, baby blankies, cute nightlights, soothing sounds--through the ages parents have diligently tried many ways to help their children fall asleep.

Now here comes Laurie Jordan's Yawning Yoga (Little Pickle Books, 2017), with a selected group of familiar yoga poses to settle kids into slumber mode. Jordan offers a collection of child-friendly "exercises" (as she terms them,) beginning with voicing the OM:

Sit or stand tall. Breathe in deeply and then exhale, making the sound AAAAUUUUMM as long as you comfortably can.*
Repeat three times.

Jordan moves on to the TADASANA--the mountain--standing sturdy and strong. and the UTTANASANA, in which the child sits, with knees bent up, grabbing toes and kissing the knees.

Next comes the ADHAMUKKA SVANSANA, which the author names the dog-tired down dog, and then the Happy Baby (on back, grabbing toes), which Jordan calls the bedtime boy, and ending with the NAMASTE, the pose of thankfulness.

The author suggests that these poses are snooze-inducing for both the overstimulated and the over-tired child, and her gentle rhymes and artist Diana Mayo's calm blue-hued illustrations are also soothing and should invite sleep. Prepare for this one with Mariam Yates' Good Night Yoga: A Pose-by-Pose Bedtime Story (see review here).


*(Editor's Note: If you have more than one competitive kid to get to bed, you might want to skip the suggestion to hold that OM as long as they can. That could turn into a way-too-stimulating contest.)