The Benefits of Tatty Bumpkin

Tatty Bumpkin™ classes were born out of a love of yoga and a love of fun. Loosely based on yoga postures, the world of Tatty Bumpkin is suitable for any child between 18 months and seven years. Each class encourages your child to explore their physicality, increase their confidence and engage their minds. Sessions are designed for parents to join in, so you get a good stretch too!

The sessions are great for children in many ways - physically, mentally and developmentally, as well as being so much fun, they don't even realise they're learning!. Starting with the warm-up song "Bendy, Giggly, Clever and Strong" specially developed for the programme by educational musicians, classes use adapted yoga poses including the 'Salutation to the Sun' to introduce the concept of "learning through movement" before the magical adventure through the Giggle Tree begins - an amazing place where we'll meet animals, fly like helicopters, be sausage rolls and much much more!

The multi-sensory sessions use yoga poses, props, puppets and games throughout each adventure, relaxation at the end to help children assimilate the session, and specially designed animal stickers to top it off! Each story is aligned with the Early Years Foundations Stage (EYFS) and often deals (subtly!) with issues pertinent to children in a fun way. The Tatty Bumpkin Bendy Doll (voted No. 1 Eco-Toy by The Independent) is used to help children form each pose and the postures are carefully structured to give alternatives for different ages and abilities - so everyone can have a go! It makes for a great class and parents often tell us they find their child in the snake pose in the bath or roaring like a lion in their bedroom!

Physical Benefits

• provide you and your child with mental stimulation and physical exercise, engaging your child on many levels which aids energy levels, overall contentment and sleep
• use exercises that help maintain children's natural flexibility, work on core stability, maintain muscle tone and help reduce obesity. The classes also help develop balance and coordination skills
• calm the nervous system and raise endorphin levels to help the child to deal with stress
• use breathing exercises to aid concentration and relaxation to help to clear the mind
• Provide you and your child with skills and activities that can be used outside the class
• stimulates each of your child's bodily systems, to encourage development

Psychological & Emotional Benefits

• help improve communication between your child and you when you take part in a session together
• help your child to interact with others and play actively
• use songs and animals to encourage your child's vocabulary and speech
• use relaxation to encourage inner calm
• help to develop creativity, confidence and imagination in a non-competitive environment
• help children deal with difficulties

Why Tatty Bumpkin is different:

• We have a very strong ethical stance, winning a Social Enterprise award for our positive impact on parents, children, the community and the Sri Lankan Fair Trade Co-Operative who provide all our the dolls and yoga mats. Training bursaries are also available or members of the community through our involvement with government-funded Sure Start Children's Centres & all the clothing we manufacture is 100% certified organic.
• Parents are encouraged to do the class with their child; this means the child will get the most from each session and is something they can share. Younger siblings are also welcome, too - they love it!
• Games & props help children learn important skills like deep breathing; props like feathers, physiotherapy balls, bubbles, soft balls to practise catching etc. are all used to encourage physical and mental development.
• Sessions are yoga-based, rather than a pure yoga session, so includes singing and games, as well as incorporating "things of interest" into the story (e.g. vegetables at harvest time to weave into a farmyard story) to boost the educational content and relevance of a session. The class structure is as such that it is flexible and allows for free play and creativity.
• Educational, with room to explore themes, use counting games and incorporate interesting facts as each session is fully aligned with the government's Foundation Stage targets.
• Multi sensory - classes are designed to use movement, music, language & story as well as visual props to aid learning across a wide range of ages.
• The emphasis on story and storytelling helps the development language development and can incorporate pertinent themes to expand on a current topic.
• Ideally suited for children with learning disabilities or special needs.
• Unlike most children's activities, Tatty Bumpkin suits a wide range of ages and caters to them all within the same session. This works very well as older children encourage and help the younger ones to keep up with them and develop.
• Educational music has been developed to aid learning & we often incorporate dancing too.
• Games such as catching, sharing turns on props etc aid social development.
• Last but not least, the sessions are great fun. The kids will often be found around the house in the lion pose or singing the spider song!