PARENT YOU SHOULD KNOW
A Conversation with Andrea Creel,
Founder of Shining Kids Yoga
BY PJ FEINSTEIN
and it isn’t just for flexible or athletic people,”
says Andrea Creel, founder of Shining Kids
Yoga. “It can be adapted to meet the needs of
all people in all places.”
Creel, who lives in Rockville with her son
Quinn, 13, teaches 20 kids yoga classes a week.

But as a business owner, her responsibilities
don’t end when she rolls up her yoga mat.

“I wear many hats as part of my job,”
she says. “I also create class schedules, hire
and train instructors, manage registrations,
coordinate with school administrators and
PTAs and handle our social media accounts.”
Washington FAMILY spoke to Creel about
the benefits of yoga and the highs and lows of
being a mom entrepreneur.

When did you decide to start
Shining Kids Yoga, and how has
your business grown over the
years? yoga, the greater the benefits. However, even
a few minutes per day or one class per week
makes a difference.

Does your son enjoy yoga, too?
He does like yoga! When he was younger,
he practiced yoga with me and attended
a lot of my yoga classes and events. Now
that he’s a teenager, he’s more focused on
his own interests and activities, like art,
theater and video games. I love watching him
perform onstage and exploring his talents
and passions.

We also like exploring new towns and places
nearby. Somehow many of our explorations
end with us finding new ice cream shops like
Rocky Point Creamery in Point of Rocks and
Woodbourne Creamery in Mount Airy.

started teaching after-school yoga classes at
my son’s elementary school in Rockville. The
class was so popular that I started to hear
from other schools and PTAs that wanted
yoga classes to be a part of their after-school
enrichment programs. Eventually, there were
so many schools interested in after-school yoga
programming that I hired additional teachers
and Shining Kids Yoga really started to expand!
In 2019, I created the Shining Kids Yoga
Teacher Training Program to guide a new
generation of kids yoga teachers. And this year,
I released my first yoga book for kids, “Mystery
Pose: A Yoga Guessing Game,” and created
f you’re looking for Shining Kids Yoga, several yoga card games so that kids could have
you won’t find it on Google Maps. The fun practicing yoga at home and with friends.

Washington FAMILY Best for Families I love finding new ways to help children
2020 “Best Children’s Yoga Classes” experience the joys and benefits of yoga.

winner doesn’t have a studio or a storefront.

Instead, Shining Kids Yoga provides yoga What are some of those
enrichment programming at elementary benefits?
schools, preschools and daycare centers across Oh, there are so many! Benefits of yoga include
Montgomery County, Maryland. It also offers increased focus and concentration, self-
online classes, a necessary addition during awareness, self-acceptance, strength, flexibility
the pandemic.

and emotional self-regulation. As with most
“Yoga doesn’t just happen in a yoga studio, things, the more frequently a child practices
I 12 Washington FAMILY AUGUST 2021
Being a business owner often means working
odd hours, always being “on the clock” and
always having something else that needs to
be done. As is a common experience for many
parents, I sometimes stay up late to finish
everything, but I try to remember to set aside
time to do fun things together with my son and
take a break from work because there’s always
something more that could be done.

Of course, there are many benefits, too. One
benefit that has been really meaningful to me
is that I have been able to carve out time in
my schedule to volunteer at my son’s school,
and I have been very active with the PTA. If I
was working a traditional 9-5 job, I don’t know
that I would have had the flexibility to do this.

Childhood goes by so quickly, and it has been
important to me to have this ability to play
an active role at my son’s school and be there
when he needs me.

Do you have a mantra?
“You are whole, perfect, and complete
exactly as you are.” I tell this to my adult and
child yoga students, and I remind myself of
this, too. n
PROVIDED BY ANDREA CREEL
What are some of the
challenges of being a mother
Shining Kids Yoga began in 2014 when I and a business owner?



HEALTHY FAMILY
Make Mealtime
Less Stressful
Local experts offer tips for parents
of picky eaters
BY KATE OCZYPOK
Start small
P arents deal with all sorts of child-
related frustrations throughout the
day, but frustration at mealtimes can
be a whole other level of exasperation.

“It’s easy to feel defeated and focus on what
the kids aren’t eating,” says Jennifer Anderson,
a registered dietician and founder of Kids
Eat in Color, a local resource with 1.4 million
Instagram followers. “Feeding kids is a long
game, though.”
Anderson recommends serving micro portions
of new foods — about the size of a pinky nail
— to reduce a child’s anxiety about it and to
reduce waste. Even with such tiny portions,
“it can take many exposures to a new food,
sometimes hundreds, before a child tries
it,” she says.

Have safe foods
While it is important for parents to expose
children to different foods Hart recommends
serving at least two foods at each meal that you
know your child will eat.

Anderson echoes this sentiment, saying
it’s important to always include a safe food
at meals to prevent table tension. “A meal
consisting of all new foods or foods that are
hit-or-miss for your child can cause stress,”
she says. “Make it a habit to make meals that
usually include familiar non-familiar foods.”
Make it flavorful
“Parents tend to go for more bland foods, but
kids like spicy, tasty foods,” Hart says. She
recommends offering young children food
in all different flavors, including spicy, bitter
and sour.

Put them to work
“The more your child invests in the preparation
of your meal, the more likely he or she will be
excited to try it,” says Ju. She suggests taking
children grocery shopping, letting them pick
out a new fruit or vegetable and then finding
an interesting recipe to try together.

Look for signs
Although many kids dismiss certain foods
because they don’t like the taste, some refuse
to eat them because of how they feel afterward.

If you notice a pattern of physical ailments
after they eat a certain food or food group,
try eliminating the food in question and then
reintroducing it to determine the source of the
problem, says Ju.

“If you have serious food-related concerns, a
discussion with your pediatrician or a registered
dietician is always in order,” she adds.

Classic examples of something more serious
include physical ailments such as diarrhea,
loose stool, excessive gas, stomach upset or
pain and skin issues like hives.

“If the child acts out after eating
something he or she didn’t like, but then
acts fine when presented with other foods,
chances are it’s more of a preference,”
says Nancy Piho, a registered dietician
nutritionist at Good Food Nutrition Group.

“The body doesn’t lie when it’s an allergy,
intolerance or sensitivity, so be sure to look
for signs and patterns.” n
WashingtonFAMILY.com 13
CLARKANDCOMPANY / ISTOCK / GETTY IMAGES PLUS
First, it’s important to remember that
most children are a bit picky, especially
around age two, according to Mandy Hart,
a pediatric speech-language pathologist
and drama therapist in Bethesda, Maryland.

One of Hart’s specializations is feeding
disorders. “If a kid doesn’t like foods like broccoli,
cauliflower or lettuce, that’s okay,” she
says. “Kids are allowed to have personal
preferences.” That said, kids’ preferences are often fickle;
sometimes there’s no rhyme or reason to them.

Christine Ju, a registered dietician
nutritionist in Washington, D.C., and part
of the Good Food Nutrition Group, advises
parents not to give up.

“As parents, we all get frustrated when
our kids don’t eat something we want them
to eat after multiple attempts,” she says.

“Sometimes, if a child rejects a food once,
the parents assume that the food is forever
banned, but that’s not the case at all.”