Yoga for kids is nothing new, but there's one class in Miami Beach where the teacher is a kid too.
Amandine Lerner is just 11 years old, and she's a certified yoga instructor.
"Amandine is different than other children," says her mother, Alessandrina Lerner, who's been studying yoga for 10 years. She introduced her daughter to the practice last summer, and she's been hooked ever since.
"I mainly did it to learn more about the body, and how everything's connected," said Amandine, who showed us her certificate from the Yoga Alliance, which makes her a registered yoga teacher.
That also means she can technically teach a class of adults, but that's not why Amandine did it. For her, the perfect application is leading a children's yoga class, which she does every Wednesday at T.H.R.I.V.E., a vegan restaurant in South Beach.
"It's pretty incredible that an 11-year-old is teaching this," said Sara Strum, who brought her 2 1/2-year-old to the class for the very first time this past week. "She knows about the breathing and has the kids hold hands and leads the group, it's very cool."
The children's yoga class is mostly fun and games, otherwise Amandine says, "the kids will get bored and stop paying attention." But she does incorporate some real yoga poses and techniques.
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To get certified, Amandine had to log 200 hours of training, which she was able to do thanks to her flexible home-school schedule. As for the poses, Amandine said she only had trouble with one -- "The Peacock." Other than that, the hardest part was learning about the human anatomy.
Amandine doesn't charge for her yoga classes, but she does have a donation jar. Half the money goes to charity (supporting Yoga-Aid) and the other half is for supplies -- minus the little something she keeps for herself.
Follow Adam Kuperstein on Twitter at @akuperstein.
