Of Spelling and Bees

A few weeks ago The Girls participated in the Spelling Bee at Crandall Public Library, sponsored by our local weekly newspaper, The Chronicle.

We had one in each age group.  The Girl Who Loves to Be Blogged scored 4th in her age bracket, and the Sleeping Giant came in third in hers.  She also placed second a year and a half ago, winning the dictionary we really needed.  Her picture was printed in the newspaper.  The Girl who Loves to be Blogged was master of the pregnant pause; she had the audience on the edge of their seats every time, thinking she didn't know her word. 

Homeschoolers were very well represented at the library bee.  I believe one homeschooler won the younger age bracket, and another placed second.  Either that or second and third.  One of the public-schooled kids' moms talked to me afterward about homeschooling.  It's funny, I never planned to like doing this (homeschooling), but now I find myself wanting to talk strangers into it, and coach them through the first scary choices.  I remember how overwhelmed I was when I first had to choose a curriculum and attempted those first scripted lessons.  But I digress.   I actually spoke to the editor of the Chronicle right after the bee about covering more homeschool events and homeschoolers.  The paper publishes a senior student of the week from local schools weekly.  I may have missed it, but I haven't ever seen a homeschooler of the week.  So I have a little crusade on where I plan to point out fun local things our scholars are doing, until Mr. Frost gets on board.

Today, there was another Spelling Bee for the six-county area (or was it 9) covered by the  Times Union newspaper.  In order for a student to go to Regionals for Scripps National, they have to win a local school level bee.  A homeschooler needs to have an association with which to participate in a bee equivalent to the local level.  This was it.  And there was  a cash prize!  We watched Akeelah and the Bee in the van on the way down there this morning, to get into the right frame of mind.

We had to drive an hour to get to the church where the Bee would be held.  Only 17 students came, in grades 4-8.  I certainly hoped there would be more, but I guess not every homeschooler is a much of a nerd as I am, and certainly not all in English.  The Girl who Loves to be Blogged learned how to spell 'pseudonym' this week, and joked "I should have put a pseudonym on the registration slip."  She kept spelling this word to herself, hoping it would be asked.

The competition was tough!  Only 4 of 17 students dropped out in the first round, mostly the younger students.  Only 1 in the second round.  The word that got him: auburn.  3 students dropped out in the third round, and here was an interesting word:  yippee!  This is the way that I would spell this word, and it's the dictionary spelling, but I have to say I am a bit surprised that this word has a 'correct' spelling.  So was the girl who spelled it 'yipee'.  My girls made it to the 4th round, where they were foiled by 'desirability' and 'sensibility.'  At the sixth round, we finally went down to two students, who battled it out through 4 rounds, spelling:  pedicure, vintage, sanitary, counterclockwise, versatile, semester, exoskeleton, gimmick and finally, enzyme.  My Girls were frustrated because they could easily spell most of the words that were asked after they dropped out!  There really is some element of luck to this process, getting the right word.

So, we're not going to the Regionals at Proctor's Theater in February. But we'll keep at it!  I believe that avid reading makes many a good speller, but we also study Latin, so that will help too.  We've got one more year for the Giant and 3 for the Girl.  I also got on board for another challenge:  The Geography Bee in January. I knew it existed and I met a mom today who, I hope, will be e-mailing me about the local one.  Yippee!