Author: Aaron Gifford

Kye’s first taste of peanut butter was terrifying. His mother, Amanda Staniec, still trembles a bit when she recalls what happened on that day three years ago. The boy, just 1 at the time, tasted the food but did not even swallow it. The very slight exposure made it difficult for him to breathe. Staniec, not yet aware that her son had any medical issues other than asthma, gave him over-the-counter allergy medicine. Less than an hour later, he broke out in hives. “It was like wildfire,” Staniec says. An ambulance ride from their Brewerton home to the hospital followed.…

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Sometimes kids need a shove to get them outdoors. Trees, streams or wildflowers might not have the same hold on them as video games with world-class athletes, jet fighters or lovable creatures from outer space. But children who get a taste of the outdoors beyond their neighborhoods can change their minds. Let him discover a crawfish under the rocks. Challenge her to climb and swing on some vines. Give them the chance to listen to the midsummer locusts and smell the wild mints. “There’s something to be said about exploration in that adult-less freedom,” says Tom Meier of the Baltimore…

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With a half-dozen two-by-four Lego bricks, a child literally has millions of different creations at his or her fingertips. A school today can become a rocket ship tomorrow. Multiply that by many more bricks of different lengths, widths, shapes and colors, throw in a few minifigurines (“minifigs”), and the possibilities are infinite. Understanding the potential of Legos is a math challenge in itself. During the work and play that follows, a child might develop social and creativity skills while also inadvertently learning about math, science and art. Today’s educators are embracing the connecting plastic bricks. Locally, several districts have hosted…

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These days, it’s socially acceptable to remain unattached into the middle-age years, and adults may feel less pressure from family and friends to find the right spouse in their 20s or 30s and start having a family shortly into a marriage. Others, on the contrary, look forward to having children just a few years into their adult lives.  Four Central New York fathers from different walks of life recently discussed their parenting experiences. Regardless of when they had children, these dads have faced the varied challenges and rewards that parenting brings. Peter Banks, of Phoenix, will turn 58 in August.…

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After a full day of school, sports and socializing, Andrew likes to enjoy the silence for a little while. The 12-year-old Central Square resident, who was born deaf in both ears, uses a cochlear implant device that was surgically attached to his brain nine years ago. That has given him the ability to hear others within close proximity. He has worked hard to develop speech and become proficient at reading lips. He has been in a mainstream classroom since kindergarten, consistently makes the honor roll, and has excelled in lacrosse, says his mother, Mandy Zinger-Gutchess. “He never considers himself different…

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Two 10-year-old soccer players were scrapping for a loose ball along the boards at the Central New York Family Sports Center in Baldwinsville on a freezing December Saturday afternoon. When the boy in the green jersey fell to the ground, the referee awarded a free kick to his team. “What the freak?” protested the boy on whom the foul was called. The coaches, astounded by their player’s reaction, immediately intervened. Angry No. 4 shut his mouth and the referee resisted his urge to send the player off. A few seconds later that same player scored a goal, celebrated with his…

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