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More than 12 years ago, Shari Vilchez-Blatt opened Karma Kids Yoga—a New York yoga studio completely dedicated to kids—near Union Square on 14th Street and 6th Avenue. Through offering a variety of thoughtful, creative yoga classes and events for both children and prenatal parents, director Vilchez-Blatt successfully introduced an old practice to a new age group. Now, with a move to nearby Flatiron, Karma Kids is primed to expand their youthful following in an even kid-friendlier atmosphere.
Upon entering Karma Kids’ new space on the third floor of 25 West 23rd Street, visitors will be immediately drawn to the disco-ball dangling from the ceiling and the hula hoops displayed on the wall. The space’s playful décor reflects the fun-loving spirit that enables Karma Kids to continue to teach so many blossoming NYC yogis.
After working in advertising for more than a decade, Vilchez-Blatt left her job and took a summer off to find something new. During this break, she spent her time reading books, relaxing, and going deeper into her yoga practice. She spent a lot of quality time with her nieces and nephews, and noticed that whenever she practiced yoga around them, they were eager to participate and mimic her moves.
“I didn’t know if this was okay, so I went online and of course found out it was!” Vilchez-Blatt says. “Upon doing that research, I also found that there was a children’s yoga teacher training coming up in New York, and since I had nothing going on, I figured: ‘Why not take this? It could be fun.’”
Before she knew it, Vilchez-Blatt had completed multiple teacher-training courses, and consistently found herself sharing what she learned with her nieces and nephews.
“I had a lot more tools and tricks up my sleeve. I started teaching a class in my building for some of the kids there, and later as fall rolled around, my husband said to me: ‘So, how about that job you were going to get?’ I started to realize—I think there’s something bigger happening here. I don’t know exactly what it is, but let me figure it out.”
Vilchez-Blatt then began building Karma Kids: developing a website, setting up her business, creating a logo, and naming her budding business. She found her first studio space in December 2002, and opened up shop January 2003.
“I never looked back!” Vilchez-Blatt says with a smile. “Since then, we have been New York’s only yoga studio that is completely dedicated to kids.”
Vilchez-Blatt now has children of her own, who are quickly becoming impressive young yogis. “I have Karma Kids—that was my first baby—and then in 2005 I had a beautiful daughter,” Vilchez-Blatt says. “She’s 9 now, and we just figured out through our database that she has over 600 yoga classes under her belt, not including special events, birthday parties, and things like that. From a strength perspective, she was rocking a crow pose at 4, heading hand stands at 5 and 6, and now she does a chin stand, which I can’t even do. I know about all the benefits of yoga and how kids can use it, but when you see it in your own child, it’s wild!”
Karma Kids provides offers a range of unique, themed yoga classes and events, from prenatal classes to mommy-and-me and children’s classes such as circus yoga, pirate yoga, superhero yoga, pajama yoga, princess yoga, yoga mat painting , butterfly yoga, and even American Girl Doll yoga.
“American Girl Doll yoga is super popular!” Vilchez-Blatt says. “We’ll put the dolls in yoga poses and make sure they’re part of the class. We talk to them. And I think it makes it very special for the kids.”
While in advertising, Vilchez-Blatt spent seven years working with children’s toy companies such as Hasbro and Parker Brothers Milton Bradley, and this experience has provided her with valuable insights for attracting children to Karma Kids.
“I got to sit with children in focus groups and learn how they play, learn what their interests are and how to find out what their interests are, and knowing all the kids’ trends,” she says. “I took all that background and used it here at Karma Kids. Aside from just knowing how to promote my business, I knew how to reach children and what they’re interested in, so it made sense for me to take yoga to the next level and not just have ‘straight’ yoga. There’s a need to keep them engaged and interested. Kids are often finished with stuff if they think they’ve mastered it and they’ve done it all, so I just tapped into all that I knew.”
And Karma Kids isn’t just for young children. The studio also hosts many classes for teens and tweens. Private classes are popular with teens, who use the yoga classes as a way of connecting with old friends when transitioning through elementary, middle, and high school. “In NYC, often when you leave elementary and go to middle school or middle school to high school, you lose your friends, so it becomes their way of getting back together and having a yoga class,” Vilchez-Blatt says.
Although most of Karma Kids’ offerings are focused on children, their prenatal programming includes many great options for prenatal yogis. Vilchez-Blatt says she uses certain yoga practices to give expectant moms the opportunity to prepare for labor. Karma Kids offers pregnant women a variety of classes including, childbirth education, prenatal partner yoga for labor, prenatal Thai yoga massage, and doula speed dating, where doulas come in to meet and converse with fellow parents.
Karma Kids also has some exciting new classes coming up in 2015, including specialized classes for children with special needs. Vilchez-Blatt is also developing a hula-hooping class, where kids can make and decorate their hula hoops while also learning fun new tricks. For older kids, there will be a new tattoo henna event coming up as well.
“Our old building was an amazing home for us for so long, however, it was an old building, very quirky, so there were things that I would never do because structurally I was unsure,” she says. “Now, yoga with silks is something that I am considering doing once we settle in here a little bit, maybe in the summer or next fall.” Also, in addition to the prenatal on-demand yoga videos, Karma Kids has recently launched a series of on-demand instructional yoga videos for kids, families, and infants, making yoga truly accessible to all.
Ultimately, Karma Kids isn’t just a space for kids to have fun, but also a means of enhancing their physical and mental health.
“It’s great for getting their energy out and learning about their bodies,” Vilchez-Blatt says. “The calming factor is enormous, and using the power of their breath can help kids with their day-to-day choices. Yoga also makes them stronger, more flexible, helps concentration and when they achieve certain poses their confidences shoots through the roof.”
For more information on Karma Kids, visit karmakidsyoga.com
Inspired to try some yoga at home? Try these children’s and prenatal poses:
Supported Reclined Goddess – Pose for Prenatal Parents
Benefits: Opening the chest and the groin. Relaxation.
Instructions: Place two blocks on the floor. One at the highest setting and the other as the medium setting. Place a bolster on top of the blocks.
Sit in front of the bolster with your sacrum touching the bolster. Bring the soles of your feet together. (Optional: bring a block underneath each knee). Draw your navel deeply towards your spine and roll onto your back, coming to lie on the bolster. Let your arms rest alongside your body with the palms of your hands facing up. Relax!
Bunk Beds (partner pose) – Pose for kids
Instructions: One person begins in Table Pose with hands on the ground, fingertips facing their bottom and belly lifted to the sky. This person is the “bottom bunk.” The second person comes to stand in between the legs of the person in Table Pose, facing out. The second person then places their hands on the shoulders of the “bottom bunk” and then steps their feet up on the thighs/knees. To complete the pose, the top person presses into hands and feet and lifts their belly to the sky to make the “top bunk.” Ages 4 and up with a grownup or another child.
