Experiment: Teach a skill of interest to a chronically ill child (and/or their sibling)… over Zoom.
Ok, so why…
- It’s a way to give back during a time when many of us are blessed to have jobs that allowed us to work remotely—and thus stay less at risk of disease—and have been impacted less overall than many others by the socioeconomic repercussions of the pandemic.
- It’s quite manageable from a time perspective—one-hour lessons once a week for 8 weeks.
- With the ability to teach remotely now, it’s also more convenient than ever.
- It’s a great learning experience, especially for someone like me who does not have kids of their own yet. As Atomic Habits author James Clear says, “The teacher learns more than the student… The way to learn is by doing.”
- It’s fun!
Uh oh…
- How am I going to hold the attention of a 6-year boy for more than 5 minutes—especially if he’s got Zoom fatigue from using it all day for school?
- Am I qualified to teach yoga?
- What if he hurts himself?
About that…
- I’d done this program in 2019, teaching creative writing in person to a couple of pre-teen and teen siblings.
- I thought it’d be fun to switch it up and work with a younger child this time and on a new hobby.
- I’ve been practicing yoga weekly for at least 10 years so felt experienced enough to at least teach the basics to a beginner.
- For the sake of the family’s privacy, I won’t get into the specific health condition they’re dealing with or my student’s real name. For this post, let’s call him Juan.
I betcha…
- He’s going to be a natural at some of these poses, as flexibility comes easily at a young age. (Jealous… me? What, no, never…)
Here’s how it went down…
- There are plenty of free resources available online to help with lesson planning. CoachArt provides a Pinterest page with sample ideas and you can find several other sources with some searching.
- I’ve saved my resources, so if you happen to volunteer to coach a kid in creative writing or yoga, let me know and I’m happy to share them.
- Each weekend, I’d spend a little time—no more than an hour—planning the lesson for the coming week.
- I’d start with icebreakers, including getting to know you questions or spelling out our names using our bodies. Then I’d get into the main lesson, focusing on mindful breathing one week, animal poses another, holiday-themed yoga, or how to do a vinyasa flow.
- I even got a couple of yoga books, for which CoachArt reimbursed me, to use in the lessons. I would read the books to Juan while he did each of the corresponding poses.
Where I Failed…
- Silly me… I tried closing each session with Savasana, the sweet, relaxing pose we adults cherish at the end of our practice as a reward for our hard work. Juan did not need and was not really feeling this. I scrapped it after our 2nd lesson.
Where I Won…
- I soon realized that I was going to be able to teach Juan a few new poses and explain a little bit about the purpose of yoga, but I was going to need to be flexible with how much we tried to cover each week.
- I made the lessons 40-50 minutes vs. the typical 60–70-minute lessons I’d spent in person with older kids. And I let go of my expectations on how much material we’d get through.
- Some days he had more energy and was able to focus a little longer. Others not so much. I learned to watch and listen to him and adjust to meet him where he was.
What Surprised Me…
- Physical flexibility was not an issue for Juan, as I expected. But balance was. It was interesting to see how much harder it was for him to balance on one leg than it is for me. I guess that can take practice at any age.
- He was more worldly than I expected. In one of our icebreakers, we chatted about his love of Halloween and how we dressed up as a marshmallow one year. “How cool,” I said. “I’d never seen someone do that.” Then he clarified he meant Marshmallo the DJ, ran out of the room, and returned with a completely legit Marshmallo mask. Our lessons included plenty of fun moments like this.
- Juan would often make up new yoga poses for us to try. It was a great reminder of the importance of play in life, something that’s easy to forget when you don’t have much interaction with kids in your daily life.
- He shared a sweet, colorful, hand-made Thank You card with me during our last session.
Whoomp, there it is…
- I would highly recommend this experience and plan to repeat it. In order to keep learning, growing, and pushing myself, I think I’ll work with a new student(s) on a new hobby. Some of the others I signed up to potentially teach include Computer/Digital Media, Cooking, Baking, Poetry, and Hip-Hop Dance.
Thanks for reading! Please leave me a comment with any feedback and/or what you think my next experiment should be.
Re(Sources):