Kelly Partyke is a busy mom of three.
"I have three boys, 13, 10 and 8. And yeah, so, it's a little crazy."
So when she opened the Firefly Yoga & Movement studio in Morgan's Point, she knew she wanted to cater to women like her. That is where mommy and me yoga comes in.
"I was teaching it up in Washington, actually with my own kids, and just saw what a positive thing it was for them" Partyke said.
It's a twice a week, 30-minute class for kids as young as 2.
"We teach the kids a little bit of some basic yoga moves to just familiarize them with yoga, and we teach some breath work. We teach some different kind of mindfulness type things but mostly it can get a little chaotic. It's just letting them have a fun time in the environment."
Partyke starts each class with breath work, having the group blow a feather back and forth between mom and child. She said it can help instill mindfulness in children and give them coping techniques for stressful situations.
The class also has some fun with tried and true yoga moves, like cat and cow and tree pose. Then, some of these young yogis even create yoga moves of their own.
Partyke said the most important part of the class is bonding as a family and having fun together.
"As moms, sometimes we can feel like we give ourselves to our kids all the time but we don't necessarily always give them that one on one engagement. Like, you know, when we're doing the dishes or grocery shopping the kids are always there so a lot of times we feel like, 'I am giving my kids attention.' But when you have a place like this where you can really have that like intentional (attention). I'm looking in your eyes, we're doing something together, we're playing for 30 minutes. It just creates better communication, a better bond and kids get just a great relationship with their parents."
Partyke said it's easy to bring yoga into your home and you can do it for free thanks to YouTube videos like Cosmic Kids.
Her piece of advice is, "No matter what, make it fun and don't force it."
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