Qigong practice is one of the best things that a human being can do. It touches every facet of an individual: his body, his mind, his emotions and even his spirit. This program was born out of the author's personal interest to help his own children; to give them tools which would help them through out life. QIGONG FOR CHILDREN PROGRAM, created by Dr. Gaspar Garcia, seeks to teach children, in a game like situation, to discover their bodies, movement, breathing, concentration, coordination, relaxation; to teach them to come with in, and as they discover themselves, they develop themselves. The program is being taught at the sports center of Marbella City Council and it is slowly introduced in the public primary and secondary schools of the Costa del Sol District in Malaga, Spain, through the Centro de Profesores de la Costa del Sol. The program was applied to three different groups during a period of 10 weeks. In Group One there were 25 children with age ranging from 4-10 years old; they met two times a week for twenty minutes each time. Group Two had 22 children, and their age ranged from 6-11 years old; they also met three times per week for twenty minutes each time. In Group Three, there were 15 children youth, whose age ranged from 10-18 years; they met 2 times per week for twenty minutes each time. The QIGONG FOR CHILDREN PROGRAM has a theoretical and a practical component. The theory is taught as the child is shown the practical part which includes mostly dynamic qigong, with some static qigong postures and self massage. The dynamic Qigong chosen was the 'Hands of the 18 Luohan' for several reasons: Vigorous and large movements that are easy and fun to perform, names that spark the children's imagination and fantasy ('Black tiger pushes the mountain', 'The white crane spreads its wings','Sun /Moon Palm','The snake goes into the cave', etc. ) and the characteristics of the movements which will help the children develop strong and healthy bodies.
After ten weeks two evaluations were made; On one side the children were asked to give their opinion as to what was the most difficult part of the Qigong and whether they liked learning it. Most answered that it was the balance needed to keep certain positions the hardest thing to learn and that they liked Qigong very much because they felt good and that they wanted to continue learning. On the other side the children were tested and the Qigong masters were asked to evaluate the children's ability to grasp the concepts that were taught.
The evaluation results as to the children's grasping the concepts being taught shows that age and attendance were the determining factors as to the degree of understanding and performance of qigong. It is nevertheless the author's opinion, that pure performance is not the most important factor in evaluating the benefits of Qigong for children, but that it is more important that the children were exposed and taught concepts of such transcendental value as correct breathing, concentration, relaxation, etc. It is the author's hope that this paper will help promote the teaching of Qigong in public schools as a regular subject in the teaching curriculum because of its tremendous importance in the well being and health of the future society.
