Press

Kids Yoga

The Hudson Valley Journal News:

Valerie Vendrame’s yoga classes are by no means new — she’d been teaching in Rockland County for years — but now she’s putting a new twist on her practice by gearing classes toward children.

Before her family moved to Congers in 2007, she worked as a personal trainer in Manhattan, where half of her clients were kids.

“Knowing the benefits of yoga, I would incorporate yoga poses and breathing exercises as part of their program — well before I became an actual certified yoga instructor,” she says.

“Once I relaunched my business in September 2010, I made it official and began teaching yoga to adults, and almost four months later I started a program for children.”

She now leads her yoga classes for kids at her home studio, private parties and

schools. Kids, she says, love yoga once it becomes an exercise in movement and imagination.

Her husband, comedian Pete Dominick, has been impressed with how his wife convinces kids to take imaginary trips on magic carpets to enchanted lands.

“She taught a yoga class for my daughter’s birthday party, and it was one of the most unbelievable things I’ve seen my wife do,” he says. “The kids loved it.”

Vendrame says yoga helps children improve self-esteem, builds strength, fosters relaxation and gets kids more in tune with their bodies.

“Children who practice yoga learn early on how to tune into their bodies and how to connect with themselves,” she says, “and with the world around them.”

At her home studio, Vendrame’s yoga classes for children can be purchased in six-week blocks, with each class averaging an hour in length.

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