Parent and child yoga in Koh Samui
Practice together, little ones included.
Parent and child classes are practiced together, you and your baby or toddler on the same mat. Baby yoga uses gentle holds, stretches, songs and rocking, while parent and toddler classes are about playful movement, animal poses and copying each other.
No classes scheduled in the next two weeks.
What Parent and child does for you
You get a slow, shared hour where the point is being together, not getting anything done. Little ones get touch, rhythm and your full attention; you get some movement and the chance to watch how they respond. Many parents say it gives them new ways to hold, carry and play with their child. It is also an easy way to meet other parents with kids the same age.
It suits you if
- you are on parental leave and want a calm weekly ritual with your baby
- you want playful movement you can repeat at home
- you are curious about gentle ways to hold and carry your baby
- you would like to meet parents with kids the same age
Read the full guide to Parent and childWhat a class is like, your first time, history and the words you will hear
What a class is like
Baby classes usually last 45 to 60 minutes and are grouped by age, often from a few weeks old to crawling. You sit or kneel with your baby on a blanket, gently move their arms and legs, rock and lift them along with songs, then do some simple poses for yourself while they lie beside you or on you. Toddler classes are louder and looser: stories, animal sounds, short poses and some chasing. Feeding, changing and crying all happen mid class and are part of the plan. The facilitator demonstrates, often with a doll, and keeps reminding everyone to follow the child's cues.
Your first time
- Check the age range before you book; a class for crawlers is very different from one for newborns.
- Bring a blanket, a change of clothes, diapers and whatever your child needs to feed.
- Pick a time that fits their rhythm, ideally after a nap and a feed, and arrive a few minutes early to settle in.
- Wear clothes you can get down on the floor in and do not mind getting milk on.
Good to know
- If your baby was born early, has a hip, neck or reflux issue, or you are unsure about any of the holds, check with your pediatrician or midwife first.
- Most classes involve plenty of singing and physical play; if singing out loud is not your thing, it helps to know in advance.
Where it comes from
Carrying, rocking, massaging and stretching babies are old and widespread practices. Daily infant massage is common in many Indian households, and the French obstetrician Frédérick Leboyer made it known in the West in the 1970s with his book on Shantala, an Indian mother he photographed massaging her baby.
Baby yoga as a named class grew out of this in the 1980s and 1990s. In Cambridge, the anthropologist Françoise Freedman drew on what she learned raising her own young children during fieldwork in the Peruvian Amazon, and on her yoga background, to develop baby yoga classes that became the Birthlight method and spread through its trainings.
Germany has its own strong tradition of parent and baby groups. PEKiP, the Prager Eltern-Kind-Programm, was built in the 1970s by Christa and Hans Ruppelt on the work of the Prague psychologist Jaroslav Koch, and is still part of the first year for many families. Parent and toddler yoga borrows from children's yoga, with stories, songs and animal poses.
In Berlin, with long parental leave and plenty of daytime life, parent and baby classes run mostly on weekday mornings, in studios, family centers and neighborhood spaces.
Words you will hear
- Ananda Balasana
- Happy baby pose: lying on your back holding your feet; ananda means bliss, and babies do it on their own.
- Tummy time
- Time your baby spends lying on their front, often built into baby classes.
- PEKiP
- The Prager Eltern-Kind-Programm, a German play and movement group for parents and babies in the first year.
- Shantala
- A style of baby massage named after the Indian mother whose technique Frédérick Leboyer photographed.
- Bhujangasana
- Cobra pose: lying on the belly and lifting the chest, a favorite with toddlers because it comes with a hiss.