Kendra

kendra@auburnopelikaparents.com

Lee

Auburn Opelika Parents Magazine is founded on the principle that parenting is an exciting, diverse, challenging, and significant role in our community. Auburn Opelika Parents Magazine is a community advocate for families and the parenting process.

Publisher Kendra Sumner

Kendra@auburnopelikaparents.com

Editor

DeAnne Watson

Contributing Writers

Kristi Bush, LSW

Rebecca Hastings

Dr. Jordan Jensen

Gabriele Jones

Kailyn Rhinehart

Works of Wonder Therapy

Cover Photography

Keightley Garnett

Simple Joy Photography www.simplejoyphoto.com

President Jason Watson

Director of Sales

Justin Sumner (334) 209-0552

Ad Design

Tim Welch

Web Content Manager

Scott Davis

Auburn-Opelika

by Works of Wonder Therapy www.worksofwondertherapy.com

Raising Empathetic Kids

Everyone has two types of friends. One friend will listen to your issues, but is just there for you to vent. The other is a friend who is able to understand your problems by relating to your point of view. Both friends are good friends, but the differ ence between these two types of people is the skill of empathy. Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. Without empathy, we cannot connect with others effectively. It allows us to build stronger relationships with friends and family. Empathy is a skill that every parent has to learn and teach to their children.

As a parent, focus on your kid’s behaviors from their point of view. For example, if they are crying, do not focus on them being a “cry baby.” Instead understand that they are trying to communicate something and that may be the only way they know to get your attention.

Teaching empathy to our children is a long and laborious task. Unfortunately, in our extremely selfish and entitled society, it is obvious that parents are blind to their childrens’ lack of empathy. So how do we teach our children the skill of empathy? Developing empathy can be broken into two categories: Imitation and Understanding.

Empathy development begins in babies through imitation. Mirror neurons allow us to naturally imitate the facial expressions, emotions, reactions, and behaviors of those around us. Research has shown that young children who accurately imitate others are more likely to correctly determine the emotions of others as they mature. This is why it is so important to spend face to face time with your baby playing games like “Patty Cake”. As your child grows, gently use your hand to guide your child’s hand when necessary to ensure they know the right way to do activities (cleaning up toys, song motions, sports, etc). Remember, your child needs you, not your cell phone.

Empathy continues to grow through experiences. A life full of diverse experiences increases a person’s ability to understand others more clearly. When we encounter people with whom we have something in common, high levels of “feel good” hormones (dopamine, oxytocin, and endorphins) are released in the brain, creating a positive connection. This is why it is so important to expose your child to a wide variety of activities, people, and knowledge. The more exposure you give your child, the better he/she will be at understanding different points of view and connecting with people.

Mastering empathy takes tremendous practice and patience. To raise an empathetic child, you must model empathy and begin teaching this skill to your child very early. It continues to develop through exposure to a variety of people and experiences. So do not be afraid to push your children to play games they do not find interesting, read books about things they do not like, and take them places they do not want to go. Help them build relationships with people who have had a variety of emotions and experiences. Also, expose them to people who live out similar values that your family has in diverse ways. This promotes understanding. It might be difficult and painful in the beginning, but the payoff is enormous!

Camp

WHEN SCHOOL IS OUT, KIDSTRONG CAMP IS IN!

Your child will have a blast while learning with their peers and getting tons of physical activity. We’ll be reinforcing important skills like confidence, teamwork, physical fitness, social skills, good sportsmanship and more!

June 22- Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit at the Sweetland Amp

A Jason Isbell record always lands like a decoder ring in the ears and hearts of his audience, a soundtrack to his world and magically to theirs, too. Weathervanes carries the same revelatory power. This is a storyteller at the peak of his craft, observing his fellow wanderers, looking inside and trying to understand, reducing a universe to four minutes. He shrinks life small enough to name the fear and then strip it away, helping his listeners make sense of how two plus two stops equaling four once you reach a certain age — and carry a certain amount of scars. Doors open at 6:30pm, Concert at 8:00pm. Sweetland Amp, 100 Smith Street, LaGrange, Ga. 6:30pm. www.sweetlandamp.com/events/jason-isbell-and-the-400-unit/

Float-In Movie: The Bad Guys

Join Opelika SportsPlex for a summer movie and splashing! On June 16, 7:00pm, grab your float and watch The Bad Guys! 1001 Sportsplex Drive, Opelika. Free for members, $5 for guests. Please register by June 12. www.opelikasportsplex.com

Science on Saturdays: Raptors on June 10

Raptors are birds of prey characterized by sharp beaks and powerful talons! The group includes eagles, owls, hawks, and many others. At this program, representatives from Auburn University’s Southeastern Raptor Center will visit the Kreher Preserve & Nature Center to show you some of these incredible birds, up-close and in-person. The program will include a variety of live raptors, most native to Alabama, and you will learn all about their habitat, natural history, and the challenges facing these majestic creatures. Tickets are $5 ($4 for members) and available on our website or at the door; children 3 and under are free. Kreher Preserve & Nature Center. 2222 North College Street, Auburn. 10:00am.

www.wp.auburn.edu/preserve/events/

9th Annual Burger Wars

The 9th annual hamburger grilling competition, June 3, 11:00am2:00pm, is sponsored by Opelika Rotary Foundation, the non-profit arm of Opelika Rotary and Happy Hour Rotary Club! All are welcome to participate in the event. Whether you’re a professional, a business or just a master at a backyard cookout, enter your burger and put your grilling skills to the test. Visit www.opelikarotaryclub.com or www.facebook.com/burgerwarsopelika/.

Father’s Day at the Zoo: June 18

A big thank you to all the dads out there. With much gratitude and appreciation of your dedicated and loyal service to our sons and daughters, please celebrate Father’s Day at the Montgomery Zoo and Mann Wildlife Learning Museum. All Dads receive FREE admission to the Montgomery Zoo and the Mann Wildlife Learning Museum. Join us for Dad’s special day. The Montgomery Zoo, 2301 Coliseum Pkwy, Montgomery. www.montgomeryzoo.com

Covington Children’s Carnival

Join Opelika Parks and Recreation on June 10 at the Covington Recreation Center, 213 Carver Avenue, Opelika, from 11:00am2:00pm. Families will enjoy a petting zoo, pony rides, giant slide, bounce house, concessions, DJ, carnival games, prizes, giveaways and more. www.opelika-al.gov/867/5196/Covington-Childrens-Carnival

SummerNight Downtown Art Walk

Enjoy a creative evening, June 9, 6:00-10:00pm, in downtown Auburn! The SummerNight Downtown Art Walk is a free, entertainment district event, taking place in the streets of downtown Auburn. Downtown merchants and restaurants stay open late, and people of all ages are encouraged to take advantage of this great opportunity to shop, dine and relax while enjoying the arts in downtown Auburn. Artists have their work on display and live musical entertainment is provided. For more information, contact the JDCAC at (334) 501-2963. www.auburnsummernight.org

Memorial Day to Labor Day: Summer at Callaway!

Summer comes naturally at Callaway Resort & Gardens. Stretch out on the shores of America’s largest inland white sand beach, where luxurious cabanas provide a relaxing retreat and returning family-favorite Aqua Island floating obstacle course invites kids and the young at heart to make a splash. Explore 2,500 acres of sun-kissed gardens on foot, by bike or even from above as you fly through the treetops on a zip-line adventure! Practice your swing on two gorgeous golf courses, then cast a line on one of 13 private lakes. Wonder at thousands of tropical butterflies in the Cecil B. Day Butterfly Center and experience rescued hawks, owls, and raptors flying just above your head during a live Birds of Prey show. Enjoy firework-filled skies by night and days packed with family fun during special holiday weekend events from Memorial Day through Labor Day. www.callawaygardens.com/the-gardens/events/summer-season/

Float-in-Movies: The Goonies

Join the Aquatics Staff for a float-in-movie, June 3, 8:00-11:00pm, at Samford Pool in Auburn. Enjoy a movie under the stars while relaxing and floating on a tube or lounging on the pool deck. Participants are encouraged to bring their favorite inflatable from home, as some will be provided. Concessions will be available throughout the evening. Pool floats are allowed for float-in-movies. FREE admission with Splash Pass or $2 per person.

www.auburnalabama.org/parks

Sponsored by Cornerstone Family Chiropractic

Doing the Things You Want to Do

“The pain hurts all day at work…”, “I cannot turn my neck, and it’s affecting my golf game…”, “I’d give anything to be able to get good sleep…” Our office has new practice members, who have never had chiropractic care before and often come in with complaints like these. From doing the day-to-day job or trying to take care of yourself, it’s no secret that pain often gets in the way of our ability to perform these functions.

This pain may have gone away for a while, possibly a temporary thing, like a cold or flu. It’s easy to disregard it at this point, but it returns. Maybe it was your low back hurting first, but now it is your neck. Medicine was the fix for a while. Maybe you had to start stretching it out more for relief, but why does it keep returning? It is easy to quickly become frustrated when our actions are not producing the desired result.

Are our solutions addressing the cause or simply masking the symptoms? Does it make sense to numb the pain or address the cause of the pain? This is a no-brainer.

If it is within our power to address the cause of what keeps us from living the life we want to live, we’ll absolutely do what it takes. A practice member we had join our office, Cornerstone Family Chiropractic, recently stated the desire to deadlift without pain. Each reach down, the pain would light up in the low back, and with more weight on the lift, the more pain there was. Naturally, reducing the weight was the first solution, but the pain did not fully go away. Additionally, this interfered with weightlifting goals that had been set

Functional and structural testing showed segmental stress throughout the low back, likely the cause of his dysfunction. We reviewed what needed to improve with this and how this part of the nervous system, the body’s coordinator of all the other body’s systems, needs to look to function one hundred percent. In this case, because your nervous system is needed for the muscles in your body to work properly, if the nervous system is under stress, the muscles’ function cannot work entirely like they should. Chiropractic aims to correct spinal positioning that stresses the nervous system so that it may work optimally.

Before care, function was determined to be around fifty percent capacity, and deadlift ability was limited.

By the twelfth day of care, the first functional re-evaluation, function had increased to eighty percent, with no more pain reaching down for the weights, and the ability to lift a certain amount of weight was painless. A huge victory! Checking in at the three month mark, function was at ninety percent. The practice member had not experienced any pain moving toward the year’s weight goals.

This recent achievement is one of many we have the honor of witnessing. Who knows what will happen at one hundred percent! If your looking to restore function, the nervous system is an excellent place to start. We hope you get to live the life you want to live, doing the things you want to do.

Autauga County Schools

AHS Mass Media Students Win Awards

AHS Mass Media won numerous awards at Alabama Media Professionals (AMP) Annual Communication Contest in Birmingham.

Mason Smith: Sports Photo - 1st Place

- Sena Nane: Sports Photo - 2nd Place

Amelia Newman: Sports Photo - 3rd Place

- Sarah Bailey Brown: Sports Photo - Honorable Mention

Cordie Burt: Best Sports Package - 1st Place

Lily Ondy: Best News Story - 1st Place

Yesher Bowie: Best Feature Story - 1st Place

- Cordie Burt and Tiger TV: Best Newscast - 1st Place

The AMP Communications Contest rewards excellence in communications in print, broadcast, web, PR, marketing, book authors, podcasting categories, and more. Entries are judged by leaders in their fields of expertise outside the state of Alabama. ACS is proud of AHS Mass Media and Mr. Jared Dillard for representing student-produced media at the state level!

JROTC Celebrates with Awards

Lee-Scott Academy

Learn About Fossils

3rd Grade has been learning all about fossils in STEM with Mrs. Bodine. They were able to practice being paleontologists and identifying different types of fossils. The most interesting being coprolite.

The U.S. Army Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) program celebrated this year’s Tiger Battalion with the annual Awards Day Ceremony! With cadets standing at attention in their Army Dress Blues and freshly-shined shoes, the gymnasium at Auburn High School brimmed with proud supporters of the young people being honored. In addition to the many awards, accolades, and scholarships presented in the program, this year, parents and guardians actively participated in the promotion process of cadets with the placement of epaulets, which signify their new rank within the battalion. JROTC develops strong character and leadership skills while teaching young people to be better citizens whether they pursue a military career, post-secondary education, or join the workforce. This Career Technical Education (CTE) program has two instructors in LTC (Retired) Anthony Benitez and 1SG (Retired) John Audaine but is student-led with approximately 110 cadets currently in Tiger Battalion. ACS is proud of all the cadets of Tiger Battalion and how they represent Auburn in and out of the classroom!

ACS 2nd Graders Visit Storybook Farm

Second graders in Auburn City Schools are enjoying the outdoors while visiting Storybook Farm. Several lessons were learned, including how to safely interact with horses while gaining a deeper understanding of communication with the large animals, sensory activities with canines, and team-building exercises through relay races. As a community partner, Storybook Farm is an educational resource that highlights literature and encourages capturing the wonder of childhood through connection with animals and nature. All the animals on the farm have literary characters as names, and locations throughout the 51 acres are titled with fictional places in childhood stories. ACS thanks Storybook Farm for welcoming and teaching our young students about nature!

ACS Track and Field State Bound

Track and Field teams from Auburn Junior High School and Auburn High School are headed to Gulf Shores to compete in the 2023 AHSAA Class 7A State Championships! ACS wishes our student-athletes and Head Coaches LaDextric Oliver and Olivia Tofani Bowen the best as they represent Auburn at the state level!

Please send school news to: Kendra@auburnopelikaparents.com!

Lee-Scott Academy Students Attend Leadership Convention

The 2023 AISA Spring State SGA Leadership Program Convention was held at Faulkner University. Our SGA leadership team attended and was able to support 2023-24 LSA SGA President Miles Zachry as he gave an address. Additionally, Mrs. Leslie Moore was officially recognized at the event for being named AISA AAA Elementary Teacher of the Year. Lee-Scott was well represented at the convention this year and we’re incredibly proud!

Autauga County Schools

LSA Announce College Decisions

Congratulations to each of our seniors on officially making their college decisions! Ms. Lloyd also announced the senior class favorites and Mr. & Miss LSA as voted on by the senior class and Upper School faculty. This year’s 2023 senior class favorites are Kaitlyn Stewart, Maya EsquivelMcKinnon, Trey Fuqua & Ryan Dearing. The 2023 Mr. & Miss LSA are Kaitlyn Stewart and Joseph Horne. From 5 miles to nearly 4,000 miles away from LSA, our students are truly traveling all over the world after they leave us. We’re proud, excited and will miss them so!

ACS All-State Band Attends Festival

Students from East Samford School, Auburn Junior High School, and Auburn High School represented ACS in the All-State Band Festival in Huntsville, AL. The festival aims to distinguish the most outstanding band students in Alabama, allowing them to perform and have a musical experience of the highest caliber while showcasing their talents through an extensive audition process. ACS is proud of these students’ hard work and dedication to the musical arts!

AHS Theatre Performs Seussical

Auburn High School Theatre Department performed a dress rehearsal of Seussical the Musical for ACS fourth and fifth graders in preparation for their public shows. Seussical is a musical comedy based on Dr. Seuss’s many children’s stories. Most of its plot is based on Horton Hears a Who!, Gertrude McFuzz and Horton Hatches

St. Michael Catholic School

Learns from Great Artists

In preparation for the spring’s Fine Arts Showcase, students in Mrs. Strickland’s art class looked to established artists to learn more about their preferred art styles. Our hallways are adorned with artwork inspired by Georgia O’Keefe’s flower paintings, Paul Klee’s block paintings, Henri Matisse’s snail collage and cutouts, Piet Mondrian block paintings, and even Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa!

AEEC Hosts Multicultural Night

Auburn Early Education Center hosted a Multicultural Night for students and families to learn and share about heritages and traditions from across the globe. With more than a dozen countries represented, guests received a passport at the entrance to be stamped at each stop on their journey. From customary attire and music to traditional crafts and dining, the evening was full of appreciation for the diversity within Auburn City Schools. ACS celebrates the diversity that enriches the learning experience for our students!