Bintang Montessori Jakarta

Meet The Teacher

Thelma Natasuwarna Wuisan has been practicing yoga since 2000, and started to learn meditation years earlier. As she grew up, Thelma had always drawn herself into martial arts and chi exercises. She joined Perisai Diri (an Indonesian martial art) for several years since the age of 12, continued her journey by joining Satria Nusantara in her late teens and later Sinar Putih in her early 20s - before she finally fell deep in love with yoga.

In yoga, Thelma has studied directly with the following teachers: Ryzca Natasuwarna, Arif Sentosa, Emil Wendel, Sue Pendlebury and Paul Jerard. She joined classes and workshops of Hatha Yoga, Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, Pranayama and meditation in Jakarta, Bandung, Bali, Goa (India), Los Angeles and San Francisco. Now, Thelma seeks to actively promote the development of a healthy mind, body and spirit through yoga, especially for the younger generation. Majoring in literature and psychology, Thelma is a Hatha Yoga certified teacher. Also, she has a toddler daughter who is enthusiastically imitating her mom with her own yoga poses.

At Bloom & Shine Yoga, Thelma is being assisted by an aspiring yoga teacher, Widya Ginka.

General Guidance for the Children

Here are some basic guidance which needs to be applied by yoga practitioners. It is meant to minimize inconvenience caused during and after yoga practice. It will also help create a more enjoyable practice to further receive the fruitful benefits of yoga.

1. It is best not to practice yoga with a full stomach. We should first let foods be digested. Therefore, any big meal should be finished at least one hour before yoga practice starts.Your children need to wear comfortable clothes to move around. However, avoid very loose shirts or pants. Yoga mats and some props are provided in the class. If your children own yoga mats, please bring them along.It is OK to drink water during practice, but not too much. Water is provided in the class. After practice, your children are suggested to drink lots of water.The teacher will encourage all children to pay attention to their bodies and focus on their breath. The teacher will also remind the children not to push too hard if they cannot do certain poses.

For the Attention of the Parents

Please kindly drop-off and pick-up your children right on time. Due to the class’ schedule, the teacher cannot ensure that she would be able to keep an eye on some children who may like to wander around the school while waiting to be picked up. Bintang Montessori is a safe, yet a big place with a very interesting playground, and small children need to be attended here.

The children are required to attend class on time. To maintain the dynamic of the class, the teacher will not repeat the poses for late attendees.

Yoga practice is not a competition and there will be no grades given to your children upon their success. Their success of performing yoga poses leads to much greater things and cannot be measured by numeric grades…

The fee is applied monthly and will be billed to you at the beginning of the month.

If you have any questions about Bloom & Shine Yoga – For Kids and Teens, please don’t hesitate to contact Thelma at +62 8111-33-2339 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Frequently Asked Questions

• Why yoga for our children?

There are some growing concerns in our society that our children today are much less active than they used to be. Long hour sitting in front of computers or television, long hour sitting in the car to get from one place to the other lead the children today into many health problems, e.g. poor posture, weak muscles, poor coordination and balance, lack of focus and concentration, poor digestion system and obesity. Children, as much as adults, need exercise. There are lots of sports being offered to children, however, most of them are competitive in nature. If our children are taking up vigorous and competitive sports at young age, there might be a risk of long-term health problems, i.e. bones problems due to vigorous force in competitive sports.

Yoga means ‘union’ – a joining of the physical, mental and spiritual elements of life.  Yoga poses are not just physical stretches. Performed correctly with breathing, they also tone internal organs, and stimulate the body and mind to function effectively.

As Mark Singleton said, “The aim of yoga is to help your child to blossom in every aspect of their being – physical, mental, emotional and spiritual – rather than to make them top of the class. A yoga approach to education encourages children to remain open to the wonder and wisdom of their own nature, and to work without fear of failure or craving for success. Yoga means making peace with yourself and the world around you, and meeting the challenges that life presents with skill and compassion.”

• 
  

  Children like to move around and cannot stay or sit still. How are they going to practice yoga?

The program here is very specific for children and teenagers. Practicing yoga here combines the practice of silence, concentration, endurance, strength, flexibility and moving around. The children will be connected and engaged with the themes that they are familiar with i.e. mimicking animals and nature. Group yoga and yoga games at the end of the postures are usually something that they are looking forward to. After just few months of practice, you would be surprised how ‘regulated’ children are to our yoga routines. We believe that they will be able to feel the benefits of yoga, not least because we can see them improve on their postures, techniques and concentration.

• 
  

  What is the difference between yoga for kids and teenagers?

Children have shorter attention span and like to move around, and anything that is too serious would make them lose interest. Their main interest is ‘to express’. And here, at Bloom & Shine Yoga, they are able to express their creativity and movement by imitating and mimicking the forms of animals and nature. They are free to use their imagination by making noises, giving new names and commenting on the connection between the poses and their lives. For example, the Tree Pose is practiced in four different styles, i.e. Winter Tree, Spring Tree, Summer Tree and Fall Tree. The classes for children last about 40 minutes to ensure that they give their best attention and participation, and to restore their energy for other activities afterwards.

For teenagers, our program is a bit different. Still maintaining the freedom to express students’ creativity, the practice gives emphasis more on endurance, posture, focus and relaxation. Pranayama (breathing exercise) is practiced on a regular basis. Pranayama helps teenagers to focus and relax as it guides them through times of stress and anxiety. We understand that adolescence is a unique yet very difficult phase in life; therefore, we teach yoga with a good foundation to help teenagers cope with stressful times. At the beginning of each practice, the teacher shares a very short story or gives tips on healthy living and healthy behaviors, e.g. about friendship, bullies, PMS, hormonal changes, eating right, stress and anxiety, etc.

• 
  

  My child is weak most of the time. Can she do yoga?

If such concern arises, firstly, let the doctor check his/her condition to ensure that the child is safe to do yoga or other physical activity. Then, let the teacher know of the child's condition. If the child is considered healthy, he/she could start yoga at his/her own pace (in a class setting). Yoga is a non-competitive activity and children are not encouraged to compare themselves with each other. Each person is unique and may progress on his/her own time. Knowing this, it doesn’t mean that the practice will not be challenging. Given the right challenge at the right time, each person can achieve good physical strength and better health through routine yoga practice.

• 
  

  What about children with special needs, can they do yoga?

For many years, yoga has been recommended for children with special needs, e.g. Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), learning disability, sensory deficit and others. However, many yoga experts suggest teaching children with special needs in one-on-one sessions until they become familiar with yoga practice and able to direct their bodies with minimum assistance. Having a child with special needs in a class setting may require intense attention from the teacher, and this may lead to insufficient attention given to other children. Consequently, there will be a greater risk of ineffective teaching occuring in class or of injury for other children. A private yoga session is recommended and should be conducted by a teacher with the related specialization who understands how to teach children with special needs.

• 
  

  Is yoga for boys, too?

Absolutely. Yoga is for boys and girls. There is a misperception of yoga being a girly activity because of its non-competitive nature and considered to be ‘boring’. But actually, many yoga poses are very challenging to do, and are even more challenging to hold them. Breathing exercise in yoga is a very powerful tool to support rigorous activities; also, it helps calm the anxious and restless mind.

Boys, in particular, as they grow older develop muscular structures thereby increasing their strength. However, by engaging in routine and rigorous sports, the body can get muscle-bound and become stiff. Yoga provides a balancing mix by adding flexibility to strength. Some well-known male world athletes, for instance, include yoga in their stretching and as part of their routine training. Yoga is known to provide endurance and increase athletic performance.

• 
  

  Will you teach the children to meditate?

In a regular class, we do not teach dedicated meditation sessions. Instead, we encourage children to do two “silent time” in each class, i.e. one at the beginning and the other at the end of class. Each “silent time” lasts for about just a few minutes (any longer than that, children usually lose interest). The "silent time" is a time to focus on the breath and on our intention to do yoga, which is to integrate body, mind and spirit. In this very early form of meditation, children learn to focus inward and connect to their whole systems, so that at the end of practice they can feel the benefit of yoga. The simple instruction could be something like “let’s take some time to be in silence and focus on our breath and our intention to practice yoga today.”

At the end of each class, the “silent time” is a reminder of how thankful we are to the opportunity of practicing and experiencing yoga. Also, it is to hope that joy, health and energy brought by yoga practice would remain.

Surprisingly enough, children in our classes can maintain their silence in each “silent time” and seem to be contented with the ritual!

• 
  

  Will yoga interfere with our religion or spiritual belief?

While the perception in some communities is as such, yoga should not interfere with any religion at all. At Bloom and Shine Yoga, we respect every religion and respect every single student/yoga practitioner regardless of their spiritual beliefs. Our main concern is to create and conduct a program that is fun and friendly for the children, that promotes holistic benefits of yoga.

• 
  

  How will children learn to relax in yoga session?

At the end of each class, there is a relaxation session where the children lay down on their backs with open arms and legs. They breathe gently and close their eyes. Slow relaxing music is played to help them wind down their bodies and minds. The teacher guides them to a step-by-step simple relaxation technique, and sometimes using visualization technique, such as “Floating on a Cloud”, “Rainbow Relaxation”, or “Daydream”. These are just the means to guide the children to rest and relax, to leave their worries behind and to rejuvenate their bodies. When they wake up, they would feel fresh and re-charged.

• 
  

  Will my child get a grade and move further to an advanced yoga class later on?

There is no numeric grade given in our yoga classes as we believe that progress in yoga cannot simply be measured by a numeric grade. In our classes, children repeat old poses and practice new ones to emphasize one of the important elements of yoga practice, namely to experience each moment of practice fully and in the present moment. A student who was able to do the Bridge Pose very well last week may not be able to do it so well today. By experiencing each moment of practice, children also learn tolerance and compassion (such as not to push too hard beyond limits and being gentle with his/her own self and others), endurance and perseverance (such as not easily giving up, making tactical attempts and developing positive attitude towards changes) – toward themselves and toward others.

Schedule and Fees

Schedule

Current Running Classes:

Kids of Nature: Tuesday, 3 to 3.40 pm.

Shining Teens: Tuesday, 4 to 5 pm.

Yoga for the Ladies: Monday, 3.30 to 4.30 pm.

Fees

Kids & Teens Yoga Classes

Enrollment fee: Rp. 40,000/person (one time payment only).

Kids of Nature:

Once a week: Rp. 200,000/month.

Twice a week: Rp. 320,000/month.

Shining Teens:

Once a week: Rp. 240,000/month.

Twice a week: Rp. 380,000/month.

Ladies Class

Enrollment fee: Rp. 80,000/person (one time payment only).

Once a week: Rp. 320,000/month.

Testimonials

Bloom & Shine Yoga for Kids and Teens

Bloom & Shine Yoga for the Ladies: