Kids have Fun in Cyprus: Healthy Yogis – the path to a new lifestyle

Hello everybody,

With “Kids Fun in Cyprus” parents will always find some interesting, fun, educational activities for your toddlers, children or teenagers. This time we have a fantastic activity from “Healthy Yogis” which combines both exercising your body and mind together with cooking delicious and super healthy recipes!

The classes are 2 hours long, the first 45 mins-1 hr is dedicated to cooking and the rest of the time to Yoga. The lessons are suitable for children aged 4 years to 12 years old and are open to anyone who loves being in the kitchen, and to all children who want discover the world of Yoga with lots of dance and play, plenty of stretching, adventurous Yoga journeys, learning Yoga poses and of course breathing and relaxation techniques!

The newest offer form Haris yoga school is the Parent & Baby Yoga, a 45 minute class were parent and baby can spend this time together to bond, to look into each others eyes and to sync their breathes. The class involves yoga moves suitable for babies, yoga stretches and baby massage, it also includes some yoga stretches, poses and correct body postures of parents when handling their babies!

Our lovely yoga teacher, Haris Maratheftis, is a Kids Yoga Instructor (Trained with Rainbow Kids Yoga in London 2013) and Qualified Clinical Dietitian (with experience in working and preparing menus in Children Hospitals in the UK). She loves working with children and her passion is to educate and encourage little ones to adopt healthier dietary and lifestyle options.

Haris: “During the cooking lesson I introduce what we will be cooking that day, we go through the ingredient list and discuss the health benefits and reasons for using healthier ingredients. Often whilst cooking, we get into discussing what we each ate for lunch and discuss how we could improve our food choices next mealtime.

Most children are very open and positive about trying healthier alternatives, especially when explaining with reasons they can relate to, like ‘Eating spinach will make your bones strong so that you can be a better dancer…footballer…athlete’

Mothers often call me and ask me to discuss certain food issues during class as they often say ‘…my little one will listen to you.’ I take this as a great opportunity to pass on some very important dietary advice that they will hopefully hold on to for life!”

My aim is to expose children to healthier ingredients and to help them make the link that when we feed our bodies well, our bodies will reward us back! This is also what Yoga is about, understanding and loving our bodies so that we WANT to treat it and feed it well!!

What about yoga?

Haris: “During the class, yoga poses are introduced to children in a fun and energetic way with lots of fun, music and games! This especially helps very energetic children as they get to release their energy and then finish the class with some breathing exercises and relaxation. When it is time for relaxation, I see how most children crave for this moment, they love just lying down, closing their eyes (sometimes we use eye pillows or eye masks) and they may hold on to things like a stone or feather and just let themselves be!! I love it when I hear parents tell me how calm they are in the evening after a yoga class, or when I hear the children ask their mommies ‘Can I come back tomorrow?’ I also take time to discuss with them, where yoga originates from, the benefits of specific poses and continuously encourage ways on how they can be more mindful during their days. This may include breathing techniques or other tools on how to manage stressful situations.

It is never too early to introduce yoga to children. Children are born practicing yoga!

Healthy Yogis also collaborates with many nurseries in Nicosia where she offers Baby Yoga and Kids Yoga lessons. She also has organized Yoga and healthy eating & cooking workshops in private and public schools around Cyprus.

“Kids Fun in Cyprus “loves to introduce to parents, new activity choices for your kids and "Healthy Yogis" is a unique, remarkable choice for them. The classes are a great combination of learning, exercise and fun, they offer children the knowledge and tools they need to make healthier food options, and Yoga teaches them self-love and self-respect which means they WANT to make better choices for themselves. We would like to congratulate Haris, for offering this opportunity to kids in Cyprus!