Five Fun Poses For Families With Kids That Your Young Children Will Love!
When it comes to posing kids, there are a lot of challenges that can arise. The first challenge is that hey are typically much smaller than everyone else in the family. The height difference will mean that a lot of the poses will require the taller family members to come down to the kids level or for the kids to be picked up. If you have kids, you know that not every kid wants to be picked up. And a lot of times kids also do not like to stay put in one spot 🙂 The good news is that there are typically a few poses that most kids really enjoy. Here are five fun poses for families with kids that your little ones will LOVE!
I Like Starting The Session With Picking Up Small Children
When I start a session with families with kids, I like to start with poses where the kids are picked up. In my experience, young children may start the session feeling a little shy. If your child is shy, it will be hard to get them to smile and be their playful selves. Starting in a pose where they are as close to mom and dad as possible can help them feel more comfortable. Secondly, once you put younger kids down, it is very difficult to pick them back up. Any poses going forward will have to involve capturing them moving. If we are able to get them to stay in one spot, it may involve them sitting 🙂
With your children picked up, there are a few poses that I love doing. From a picked up pose and with the kid(s) on your hip, you can bounce them, do a quick spin, or lift them in the air. All or some of these poses typically get great smiles out of kids 🙂
Sitting on Mom and Dad’s Knee
Another one of my favorite fun poses for families with kids is a sitting pose. This pose can work with as many kids as there are knees to sit on! In the sitting pose, I like to tell the kids that this pose will be fun and it will be like riding on a horsey 🙂 I also like to get input from the kids and ask if they want mom and dad to bounce them fast or slow. Most kids get really excited and reply with “FAST.” Building excitement for the poses can help capture really genuine smiles from the kids! Another variation to this pose is to have mom and dad hold one of their children’s hands and quickly do a peek-a-boo using their hands. The sitting bouncing pose or peek-a-boo is a pose that kids really love.
Getting On Their Level
Another pose that get younger kids really excited is when you squat down to their level. This pose can be with the kid standing or sitting. In this pose, mom and dads get in what I like to call a “catchers pose” – which is similar to how a baseball or softball catcher stands to catch a pitch. Another variation can be taking a knee. Once you’re on the same level as your child, we can do another peek-a-boo or we can give them a little tickle. For these poses, it is perfectly fine to not look directly at the camera. Often times, the best pictures are when the family are candidly interacting and having fun. In fact, I recommend mixing up most of the poses to include times where you are looking at the camera and times where you are looking at each other.
Kids Love To Run!
The fourth of the fun poses for families with kids is to get them running. In my experience, 99 percent of kids cannot resist the fun and excitement of running 🙂 There are a few ways that I like to get kids running. The first way is to have mom and dad hold their hands, walk and smile for a little bit, and then when I say “GO,” they run towards the camera. If there are more than one kid, it can be a race to the camera. Another variation of this pose is to have your children start at the “starting line” and run to mom and dad and give you a huge hug! As they run towards you, I am able to capture the fun and excitement of running and giving a big hug. If your child is shy, this can also be an opportunity to get a picture of them by themselves.
Kids Also Love To Jump
Last but not least, there are jumping poses. In this pose, kids can hold mom and dad’s hands and jump directly off of the floor. Or they can also jump off of a box or bench. As they jump and hit the floor, they will give a natural smile that looks great in pictures. Similar to the running pose, this is also an opportunity to get individual pictures of them 🙂
Hopefully these fun poses for families with kids has been helpful. I recommend trying these poses out with your kids in the days leading up to the session. That way the day of the session they are familiar with everything that we will be doing. Although kids may not understand the importance of taking pictures, most kids can understand the excitement of having fun and being silly with their parents 🙂
