Thursday, April 21, 2011

Spelling Bee 2011

Nathan participated in the 3rd grade Spelling Bee this morning. He got a packet full of words last week and has been studying them nightly. He is an awesome reader, and one of his favorite books just happens to be a dictionary he got for his 7th birthday. He was well-prepared and ready for the Spelling Bee (probably without any studying). There were 30 kids (top 6 from each class) competing. On his second word he thought Mr. Yates (the principle) said "watch", and spelled it correctly, but he really said "wash". Which was incorrect. He was VERY disappointed, and came and sat on my lap for a couple minutes, heartbroken, when the judges decided to have him try and spell "wash" again, after hearing it in a sentence. He, of course, spelled it RIGHT. No problem, just a misheard word..



So after that little drama for Nathan (and me too), he was back in the competition. He spelled every word right, and the number of kids began to dwindle off. It was a long haul, and he performed well. He got to about 6 kids left when he finally realized that he might just win this thing, and started to focus! It got down to 4 kids, three girls and one boy. I was SO NERVOUS, even though he seemed as calm as can be! They started using harder words, and he WON the Spelling Bee with the words "yacht" and "diesel". FIRST PLACE!!!! I am such a proud mama, and haven't stopped smiling ear to ear yet!!!!! He is such a smart kid, and he DID NOT get it from me. Great job Nathan! We are SO proud of you!!

...and he is already talking about next years Spelling Bee....

2 comments:

Christine said...

Congrats! That's terrfic!

Stacie said...

I can't imagine the drama...what a heartbreak! And then to get back in and win it? Awesome! You should be a proud mama for sure!! I LOVE spelling bees!