Posed to Succeed

May 7, 2019 Simone Ellin, Associate Editor

Sharon Mond is the project coordinator project coordinator of “Wisdom Around the World,” and author of “Yoga Stories for Kids.” (Photo by Steve Ruark)

A local author mixes yoga and art into stories to help children with conflict resolution.

As a counselor and dance therapist, Sharon Mond knows that talktherapy isn’t the only way to help children express their emotions and resolveconflicts.

With her new book, “Yoga Stories for Kids: A Path toResilience and Growth” (Mind Mend Publishing), Mond, who is also a yogainstructor, uses her own homespun, child-friendly stories — as well as art andyoga postures — to teach children coping techniques, social skills and valuessuch as kindness, honesty and empathy.

Mond — who worked for 20 years as a dance/movement therapistin the Baltimore County Public Schools system — said the book was inspired byher work with students with severe behavioral, emotional and developmentaldisorders.

“I wanted to find another way to relate to the students thatwas not so direct,” she said.

She saidshe believes the themes explored in her stories about conflict resolution, anxiety, anger management, loss and low self-esteem are “developmentallyuniversal. Any child, parent, grandparent or teacher can benefit from the book.”

In her reviewfor the book, Owings Mills educator Ellen Agronin wrote, “These stories … cut to theessence of what we all experience. They reflect Sharon’s deep insight into thechallenges of her students and her gentle way of instructing them.”

Divided into three sections, the 136-page “Yoga Stories forKids” begins with simple instructions and illustrations that show children demonstrating25 yoga poses. Many of the poses are named after animals— downward dog,cat/cow, rabbits — that students will meet in the stories. Following the yoga posesare six stories geared toward students in kindergarten through second grade,and nine stories for students in grades three through five. Each story presentsa dilemma with which the characters must grapple and recommends healthy optionsfor solving the story’s conflict.

An Owings Mills resident who belongs to Baltimore HebrewCongregation, Mond, 63, says she used puppets in her classes to tell the yoga storiesto her younger students, encouraging them to move into yoga poses as theylistened to her read aloud.

Following the yoga and storytelling, Mond gave her studentsthe opportunity to use the puppets to retell the stories in their own words. Then,they were asked to draw pictures relating to the story they heard.

After sharing their pictures with the class, Mond and herstudents discussed the stories using the questions provided at the end of thestories, which “are designed to bring out the message of the story,” she said.

The stories for the older children include animals as well aschildren and adults. Though Mond didn’t use puppets with the older group, she hadthem practice yoga poses while she read the story, and followed up thestorytelling and yoga with discussion questions “to help them discover thelessons embedded in the story.”

The older students were given mandala pages to color, orcould opt to create their own drawings. While the children colored, Mond saidshe “walked around the room so that I could be available to talk to themindividually if they wanted that.”

Drawing was a good vehicle for encouraging children to discuss thechallenging issues portrayed in the stories, said Mond. “Without eye contact,it was easier for the children to talk,” she said.

Mond found that the techniques described in her book were highlysuccessful in engaging her students.

“As a dance therapist, I’m trained to understand nonverbalcommunication,” she said. “I could see in their bodies, their attention, theireye contact, that they were right with me. The children loved it. They wouldstop me in the hall to ask me about the stories and the characters. It was sogratifying that they were thinking about the story outside of class.”