Dear Clients and Friends of Basic Skills, Just a brief announcement regarding changes here at Basic Skills. As of the 2019-2020 school year, we will not be offering classes. It’s been a pleasure to serve you by offering quality instruction for many years. Basic Skills will continue to make its focus on testing, tutoring, and…
Dear Family and Friends, Curt was able to leave the hospital last week and we were very thankful. The transplant was a brutal process and it really is hard to describe how difficult it was. His cells have begun the engraftment process and his immune system is being rebuilt. He is very weak and…
Dear Friends and Family, Thank you for your cards, text messages, phone calls, love and concern for us. I read them all but cannot always send a response. It gives me comfort. There are no words to adequately describe how grueling the side effects have been from the high dose chemo. Uncontrolled vomiting,…
I mentioned in my last blog post that I had been moved from not being a stem cell candidate to getting the green light by my oncologist, cardiologist, and renal doctor to go ahead. In addition to remaining in remission, my troponin level, a marker of heart function, moved to a safe range. Also, a…
Dear Friends and Family, As you all know, we have been in a battle for the last several months since Curt was diagnosed with AL Amyloidosis. To say it has been rough is an understatement. We feel like we have been in an all-out war, and now we will go to the next level as…
Since my last post, my amyloidosis treatment options have expanded. Funny thing about having choices you didn’t have just months ago. Sometimes the will and desire to take action wanes. What you previously wanted loses its attraction. Sort of like giving your child permission to graduate a year early. Now they don’t want to. Or,…
This was one of the most anticipated days of the elementary school where I was the principal. On this day we would study the world of apple seeds. We would bob for apples. We would drink apple cider. There would be games. And most importantly, we would learn about John Chapman, better known as Johnny…
When you think about science, think about sorting this subject into two categories: organic and inorganic. High school students need exposure to both. From our point of view, they need three units to graduate. The first two courses typically come in the form of biology which satisfies the organic category and physical science which satisfies…
What can you say about math? Very few students have neutral feelings about this subject. They either love it or hate it. Those who dislike it raise the question, “When will I ever use this?” The answer is from Algebra 1 on, maybe never, at least directly. My wife and I stayed at a bed…
Four years of English is a pretty common graduation standard no matter what state you live in. It is considered one of four core subjects, the others being math, science, and social studies. Ninth and tenth grade courses typically consist of two or more of following elements: Grammar: When thinking about grammar, think parts of…