Give Me Silver, Blue, And, And, And... A Cell Phone?

Although the studio is not open yet we have been teaching pre teen and teenage girls for about 7 months now. Twice a week right in my own little yoga studio formally known as the formal living room although I don't think anything remotely formal has ever gone on in there, the girls come over and we do yoga class.

Class is different every night. There is always yoga, of course. Or how could I call it a yoga class, right? The tempo of the class varies from night to night depending on the overall mood in the room. Sometimes we can keep those girls going in a big yoga workout for a good 40 minutes. Sometimes we warm up and then spend times on specialty poses, tricks, if you will and sometimes we do some yoga and then we play yoga games. So see? There's yoga. 

We always try and save 10 or so minutes at the end of class for either a guided meditation, which the girls seem to love or community circle. Community circle can also consist of many things. Sometimes the girls tell stories, sometimes they act out little 'plays' from their day, sometimes they show us dances the have made up and sometimes we just talk. 

Last night we played a game that I made up. It consists of 100 questions and each girls takes a turn and picks one and they just share something about themselves with everyone. The questions were made to make them think creatively, to be used as a tool to help them interact with girls they don't know, to be used as conversation starters, and just for fun. 

For instance, last night one of the questions was, "What color do you feel like right now?" When I wrote that I wasn't sure the girls would get it or they would feel odd saying it. I was pleasantly surprised when I heard some of the answers, "Hot pink," was Saiges, another girl felt "purple," and one of my teenagers felt "silver," because although she had been a little tired when she came in, which would have made her feel gray, she now felt energetic and excited. I love that. 

There was another question that asked them if they knew anyone, "generous of spirit," and did they know what that meant. I loved this one, they talked about what it meant and then each girl seemed to have someone they labeled that. A special person that they had to think about. It was nice.

Okay, this is the one that made me nervous... "Do you have any hobbies?"

These were some of the answers, they were intermingled with a few sports but generally this is what was said...

"Texting."

"Iming."

"Facebooking."

"Yes, I love facebooking."

Not one girl said, reading or drawing, listening to music, or singing, and although I know they do, no one even said, "hanging out with my friends."

They like to text.
Kinda made me cringe.