Spelling Bee 2012

 Scooter was selected to represent his class in the school 4th and 5th grade spelling bee. 
He was so excited about it and then he found out that he would have to stand up at a microphone in front of lots of people and spell words. The nerves sank in for him.

The morning was so chaotic since Baby A was sick but I made it on time to watch him.
Scooter was number 5 of 24 students. He looked so calm but I could tell he was nervous.

They had a practice round first and Scooter got the word "care". He spelled it correctly and you could see the nerves subside some for him.

The next round was the real deal. The first four students spelled their word and then it was Scooter's turn. The first thing the pronouncer said was "This word is a homonym so I'll give you the definition". My heart sank.... his first word was also the first homonym of the spelling bee, which I am quite positive he had no idea what that meant.  The word he got was "some". The definition was a bit tricky (maybe an 8th grader would have understood it but not a 4th grader) and he asked "do you mean a math answer?". Of course they can't answer questions and if he wasn't so nervous or if he had known that he could have also asked to use it in a sentence he would have known. He spelled "SUM" which is what most all of us thought too. That unfortunately was the wrong word and he was eliminated. I could see how bummed he was and at that very moment I wanted to stand up and yell out THAT'S NOT FAIR!  I pulled myself together and knew that both Scooter and I would use this as a very good teachable moment.

(receiving his participation award)

He (although very bummed) was a great sport about it and I was able to show him how VERY proud we were of him. We don't need a spelling bee win to know how smart he is and just because he got out on his first word doesn't make us disappointed. In fact we are so far on the other end of the spectrum than disappointed.

This was his first experience being in a spelling bee and next year we will be ready with this experience under our belt.... yes OUR belts. I learned a lot about being a good sport too :)

These two buddies were so bored during the spelling bee. 

Both of their brothers were in the spelling bee and so they sat together and tried to stay out of trouble ;)