Building Emotional Awareness Through Movement

Introducing Yogie Land at Parkside

By Grant Henry, Yoga Teacher

This year at Parkside, I’m building something new in children’s yoga—something that goes far beyond mastering poses or achieving physical balance. Our new Yogie Land program takes a fundamentally different approach, grounded in the principles of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and Universal Design for Learning (UDL).

While movement and traditional yoga postures are part of our practice, the true focus is on helping children regulate their emotions through breathwork, meditation, and interoceptive awareness—learning to recognize and respond to the sensations within their own bodies.

Yogie the Dogie

Using Yogie the Dogie as our friendly guide, we’ve created a cohesive and engaging curriculum that blends educational games, breathing exercises, recorded meditations, and visual media. This multi-sensory approach is particularly effective for children with language-based learning differences, offering non-linguistic pathways for emotional understanding and self-regulation.

Each class is designed to meet children where they are—making mindfulness accessible, enjoyable, and meaningful. As students move through the Yogie Land experience, they’re not just learning yoga skills; they’re building foundational life skills that will serve them well beyond their time on the mat.

At its heart, Yogie Land is about helping each child develop the ability to pause, take a deep breath, and truly understand what they’re feeling. In a world that moves quickly, these moments of awareness and calm are powerful tools—for learning, for relationships, and for life.