Children can learn things quickly. They are so overflowing with energy and the zest to know things that they master any art form easily. Thats why they easily learn new languages and skills.
Meditation also comes easily to children. Because they are innocent and their mind is fresh. Its like a black slate where nothing is written yet. They are still not conditioned by the society, teachers or family. They are open to everything without any judgement or opinion.
So whatever you teach them they will absorb it like a sponge. Their learning capacity is also more because they are natural explorers. They want to learn and know about life and the world. Childhood is one of the best time to put children energy in right direction, so that they can learn right skills for life. It could be meditation, yoga, mantra chanting, dance forms, singing, learning musical instruments or anything which can help them later in life.
As we grow old, our body becomes more stiff so more effort is needed in learning yoga poses or in learning martial arts. As far as mental learning is concerned, with age our mind becomes more cunning and greedy. With age it knows more reason to avoid meditation or any other spiritual practice. So most people miss meditation in old age because their mind has become too clever by then. It can easily give convincing reasons to you to skip meditation session. For mind earning fame, name, power and money is more important than going deep in oneself.
So never postpone the meditation session in your life. Because with each passing day your mind will become more cunning and meditation will become more difficult for you. Any one can learn meditation irrespective of their age, religion, color, nationality. But people who are innocent and are eager to learn meditation can easily go deep in it. So its always best to start your meditation practice as early as possible. Always postpone the bad things in life and never postpone the good things.
One of the main problem in learning meditation is the mind which creates many hurdle towards it. Moreover in modern lifestyle there are too many distractions as well as temptations to sit quietly for meditation. People don’t get time to meditate because that is not their top priority in life. They feel they have better things to do than to sit in silence and watch the thoughts.
So if you want your children to learn meditation then try to introduce them to meditation as early as possible. Because your child has time for everything. Its better they spend their time and energy in learning meditation, yoga or any other creative activity than in learning about bad things of life. They just need right guidance and the exposure to meditation technique. Since they are natural explorers and more closer to reality, they will go deep in meditation spontaneously.