Spelling is one of those little things that most people are forgetting how to do. Think about it, we have a spell checker that auto corrects almost everything that we write. Auto correction is not only in our word processors, but our email software as well.
Katya is a very good speller. Spelling and handwriting are two things that I was always really persnickity about her learning to do well in elementary school. And consequently, she has beautiful handwriting now and is very good at spelling.
A few weeks ago Katya was asked by one of her school counselors to represent the 7th graders for her middle school in the regional spelling bee. Evidently, he had posted signs all over the school asking for people who would be interested in doing a spelling bee and received very little response. Katya was flattered and took it as a challenge to try and do a spelling bee. She has never participated in one before and it sounded like it might be fun to try. She only had two weeks or so to prepare for it though. The prize for the best speller was an all expense paid week long trip to Washington D.C. to attend the National Spelling Bee. Nice prize.
The spelling bee itself was Monday night and it was held at the high school by our house (it is a fabulous new school) and Katya was really nervous. She was speller number 78 so she had to sit in that chair on the stage for quite a while until it was her turn. I was amazed at the words that were chosen for this spelling bee. One kid would get a word like "penicillin" and then the next kid would get "stucco". One little girl, who was waiting for her turn to the microphone, got so nervous that she threw up all over the stage. My heart just broke for her.
Katya ended up making it through the first round. She was off by one letter in the second round, but she didn't know the word so she didn’t feel too bad about not getting it right. She stayed until the end of the bee with her good friend, Bailey, who had come to support her. There was one other kid from her school on the stage and she wanted to support them.
I am just so proud of her for trying something new, standing up in front of all those people and potentially getting the spelling wrong, and having the self assurance enough to not be totally upset when she did get it wrong. She even wore her bright yellow spelling bee t-shirt to school the next day (although with a vest over it to cover the spelling bee logo). She is proud that she is smart and I am so proud of her for that most of all.
Katya is a very good speller. Spelling and handwriting are two things that I was always really persnickity about her learning to do well in elementary school. And consequently, she has beautiful handwriting now and is very good at spelling.
A few weeks ago Katya was asked by one of her school counselors to represent the 7th graders for her middle school in the regional spelling bee. Evidently, he had posted signs all over the school asking for people who would be interested in doing a spelling bee and received very little response. Katya was flattered and took it as a challenge to try and do a spelling bee. She has never participated in one before and it sounded like it might be fun to try. She only had two weeks or so to prepare for it though. The prize for the best speller was an all expense paid week long trip to Washington D.C. to attend the National Spelling Bee. Nice prize.
The spelling bee itself was Monday night and it was held at the high school by our house (it is a fabulous new school) and Katya was really nervous. She was speller number 78 so she had to sit in that chair on the stage for quite a while until it was her turn. I was amazed at the words that were chosen for this spelling bee. One kid would get a word like "penicillin" and then the next kid would get "stucco". One little girl, who was waiting for her turn to the microphone, got so nervous that she threw up all over the stage. My heart just broke for her.
Katya ended up making it through the first round. She was off by one letter in the second round, but she didn't know the word so she didn’t feel too bad about not getting it right. She stayed until the end of the bee with her good friend, Bailey, who had come to support her. There was one other kid from her school on the stage and she wanted to support them.
I am just so proud of her for trying something new, standing up in front of all those people and potentially getting the spelling wrong, and having the self assurance enough to not be totally upset when she did get it wrong. She even wore her bright yellow spelling bee t-shirt to school the next day (although with a vest over it to cover the spelling bee logo). She is proud that she is smart and I am so proud of her for that most of all.
1 comment:
Way to go, Kayta ! How about spelling, "humunukunukuapua?" This is the name of a fish in Hawaii..Keep the good work in spelling, Katya ! Aunt Laura
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