Beth Pinyerd
Columnist
Beth is a writer for The Observer
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BY BETH PINYERD OPINION — We can teach our children many wonderful lessons during this month of heart felt gratitude. In the early childhood classroom, children seem to quickly catch on to the joy of helping others and saying thank you. During the...
BY BETH PINYERD OPINION —This week we enter the National Gratitude Month. This is a time that we can have our children and families focus and express on actions and kindness that we are thankful for. As a teacher, I love this time of the year where...
OPINION —There is just something about the cool weather of fall which turns our hearts and family expectations to home. I call Opelika, Alabama, my home.I was born at Lee County Hospital, which is now East Alabama Medical Center; grew up attending...
BY BETH PINYERD It is beginning to look like Autumn in the faces of young children. Smiles, more energy, cool air, beautiful Autumn leaves and jackets and sweaters needed. When I was a younger mom, an older lady in the Opelika community — who was...
BY BETH PINYERD As I drive through downtown Opelika and see the railroad station and the crisscross of tracks, the sights bring back so many good warm memories I had while growing up. Now I am 70 years old, but I remember one certain field trip...
Before August goes out with summer fun and heat, I want to remind the readers that August is National Dog Month. Right here in the middle of what we call “The Dog Days of Summer,” I wanted to share the benefits of having a sweet pet. My precious...
I am so very thankful for all the preschool opportunities that God has provided for me, as a Grandma, through Trinity United Methodist Church Preschool; Pepperell Baptist Church which hosts Mothers of Preschoolers, MOPS, and Village Kids; and...
As school has started back in our preschools, as well as different childcare situations, we might hear that when young children separate from their parents at the classroom door, they do so with tears and crying. As adults, we can all remember...
Here we are as students and families head into the second week of school and we begin to take on the adventures of homework. I can remember it like it was yesterday; my mother was a classroom teacher in the Opelika City Schools system and had much...
Our summer ends on a sweet note with National Ice Cream Sandwich Day on Wednesday, Aug. 2, and National Watermelon Day on Thursday, Aug. 3. But this week, as a community, we are welcoming our students and families back to a new school year. From...
Even though it has been very hot in Lee County the past two weeks, I love the way our citizens cope and find ways to deal with this Central Alabama heat. One of those ways is embracing the typical quick and fleeting rain showers. As I look at young...
One treasure that early childhood teachers love is paper bags. I am so thankful to Charles Stilwell for his invention of the first machine-made paper bag. We know paper bags are for carrying items but they are so useful for teaching young children...
Having a son and daughter-in-law who live in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where it is very cold with snow during the winter, I have seen many “snowbirds” — what we Southerners call folks who travel from northern states to southern states during the...
It is so hard to believe that June, with its many summer activities, is coming to a close. But soon we will dive into July fun! I do want to mention before closing out this month that June 28 was Paul Bunyan Day. It is so much fun for children to...
This past week, the intergenerational community “Story Book Picnic,” sponsored by the Opelika Public Library and Lee Russell Council of Government Agency on Aging, sparked memories for me of the poem “All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in...
Welcome, summer 2023! Lee County has always provided the best summers for both the young and old. With school being out, summer provides time families can spend with each other that are rich in memories. Summer welcomes us to be outside in the...
This past week, I watched as the yellow school buses drove by to pick up students early. As a retired teacher, I knew earlydismissal on this day meant school is out and it is time for summer.As a teacher, I had mixed feelings when school was out....
I can clearly remember when I graduated from Opelika High School in 1971 at Clift Hare Football Stadium. I told my daddy and uncle that I was so glad to be finished. They both looked at me, laughed and told me that I had just begun. And yes, they...
As Mother’s Day approaches this coming Sunday, I am warmly reminded of the time my grandmother, Lillie Mae Jones, spent with me at The Pines Motel Restaurant on the Columbus-Opelika Highway. Every month as a young child, a teenager and on, I...
May Day was this past Monday, and from my days growing up in Opelika, I remember that our schools would celebrate May Day with beautiful maypoles with different colors of crepe streamers or ribbons. At recess, we had fun dancing around the maypole...