Molly Schreiber, Kids Yoga Trailblazer

It’s no secret today that kids experience stress.  As yoga professionals and practitioners, we’ve no doubt heard of programs or classes for children.  The class structure and presentation, though, can be challenging for many teachers who are trained in the “usual” styles of yoga and requires special skills and attributes to make yoga for kids relatable and beneficial for young bodies and minds.  Kids yoga offerings aren’t as readily available as adult classes and it takes a special person to excel in teaching children.  We are grateful to be able to offer top-notch children’s programming at the Dubuque Yoga and Oneness Festival as Molly Schreiber returns as the Family Track organizer and presenter. 

Molly Schreiber is a certified fitness instructor, yoga instructor, kids yoga instructor, Yoga Alliance continuing education provider, author, and owner of her wellness business Challenge To Change, Inc. Through Challenge To Change, she teaches total wellness through the practice of fitness and yoga, reaching all ages: child through adult. One of her inspiring contributions in the yoga world is the wave of awareness she has generated with her kids yoga programs and writings.   She is the trailblazer of the kids yoga movement in Dubuque schools and has now expanded her reach to the Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin Tri-State region.

When you meet Molly you immediately resonate with her cheerful, kind, and positive attitude.  Her nurturing and caring attributes remind you of the person who might be your child’s favorite school teacher.  Makes sense when you find out that Molly is an elementary educator.  What you wouldn’t see, though, is any negative effects of the tragedy she’s endured. This tragedy, in fact, started a chain of events which ultimately lead her to her current life’s calling.  A big factor in that was her conscious decision to change her life for the better from the challenge she’d been given.

The sudden death of her husband left Molly a young widow with small children.  In nurturing them and herself through this event, she found the emotionally and spiritually healing benefits--rather than the mostly physical benefits she had focused on--in her yoga classes.  She found she didn’t need to be in just survival mode and could rise above the challenge. She named her business Challenge To Change because she “wanted people to understand that the power to change and live a good life is within us.  It does not come from outside of ourselves.  Each choice we make leads us exactly where we need to be, and knowing that can be very powerful.”​
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"If every 8 year old in the world is taught meditation, we will eliminate violence from the world within one generation."
                                                                                                  -Dalai Lama

By starting her business, she had a way to help others in challenging times make changes for themselves, to better themselves, their environment, and then the greater world.  She sees that change for the better in our world needs to start with our children.  Her mission is to teach children, and teachers of children, yoga and meditation skills.  She often brings up her favorite quote by the Dalai Lama which sums up her philosophy perfectly, in fact, you’ll find it written on the wall of her studio: “If every 8 year old in the world was taught meditation, we will eliminate violence from our world in one generation.”

Currently, Molly is remarried, has opened her own studio location, teaches boot camps for adults, teaches three teen yoga classes and 10 children’s classes each week, and has taught over 150 teachers in her training programs.  She conducts teacher in-services in area schools, and provides outreach consulting and implementation of structured programs in schools that can then be continued by classroom teachers.

She’s written two children’s books, Sadie Loves Yoga, published in 2015, and Melody of Meditation, soon to be released.  She’s written an Advanced Kids Yoga curriculum, produced a Kids Yoga Deck, Toddler Yoga Deck, Mudra Deck, all designed to bring yoga and mudra to teachers and children in a way that is relatable to the child.  She continues to write structured curriculum and lesson plans for her eight children’s yoga instructors in her studio which address many issues such as child development, body awareness, temperament, and disabilities.  

The benefits for these kids are enormous and have long-lasting potential.  Molly provides many examples of how concentration meditation and yoga skills-building has created new ways for students to respond in stressful times, not to mention build their capacity to focus.  “If we can teach kids skills to stop, pause, sit with the breath, teach them to wait and then react we are doing a lot” in terms of better interpersonal relationship skills building.  

Molly explains to her students at the beginning of class, “Come to the mat with a problem, for example, you had a fight with a friend…instead of reacting with a mean note or fighting with her, come on your mat, breathe, work through it, and once you come off the mat, I bet your reaction is going to be much different that it would have been.”  These are skills that pave a way for peace and compassion.  “I believe we really need to start with the kids,” Molly says.

She also talks about the hand mudras she teaches such as “Turtle in the Shell.”  This is done with fingers wrapped around the thumb.  It still relates to what the actual mudra is but in terms kids relate to, and it still carries the energetic potency.  Also, mudras can serve as an indication for teachers as to how that child might be feeling that day when they employ the mudra of their choice based on their mood, energy level or feelings.  Classes are structured with sitting in mudra, sun salutations, 6 yoga poses and flowing practice, savasana, and closing meditation that includes an element of self-affirming thoughts.
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Her kids yoga programs have generated a ripple effect in the schools.  For example, the principal at one school where she teaches found a community donor to supply the school with 88 yoga mats.  He has a Moody Cow Jar, a “mind glitter jar”, in his office.  In another area school, two teachers who were in Molly’s program reached out to donors who supplied 300 yoga mats with the school logo printed on them.  And several teachers have created “Peace-out Corners” in their classrooms which are area students can go to practice meditation when they get worked up.  
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"Change for the better in our world needs to start with our kids."
                                                             -Molly Schreiber

Molly organizes and presents the Family Track at the Dubuque Yoga and Oneness Festival on Saturday, April 29th with two sessions geared towards kids while their parents attend the other grown-up sessions.  Look for Yoga for Kids in session one and Kids Yoga Glow Party during session two.  To learn more about these sessions, click HERE. 

To learn more about Molly, her kids yoga teacher training programs, her kids yoga classes or Challenge To Change Inc., visit www.challengetochangeinc.com.  


​Karen Kramer, Dubuque Yoga & Oneness Festival Blogger