Princess made the final cut to make it into her school's Spelling Bee. She had to be one of the top three in her class to compete. Yay! I remember my first Spelling Bee and how it was fun. At least it was fun until you got THAT word. For those that are losers like me and didn't complete the spelling bee, you know which word I'm talking about. THAT word, is the word that you will remember how to spell for the rest of your life. You will also remember the definition for the rest of your life. My word was oafish. It makes sense, it means stupid, uncultured or clumsy. Jerks! (shaking fist in the air).
Knowing the bad taste that spelling bee left, I wasn't about to pressure Princess and make her feel like she had to succeed. We were just happy making it to the competition.
Then the teachers sent out the practice lists for each grade. Evidently people practice for these things with a vigor that is comical. (If parents would take this much interest in the rest of their kid's education, we wouldn't be behind other countries in the value of education.) Princess decides she would like to practice, so I print off the 2nd grade lists which result in 30 pages of words! WTH? Yes, I have OCDs but seriously people, have you ever heard of Excel and using a spreadsheet? I got our list down to 6 pages, saved a couple trees in the process. I'm feeling great about myself.
Our practice routine is not what you would call "dedicated." When we remember, we practice. Today was the first time we actually sat down and practiced in a serious manner. I explained to her about why she needs to repeat the word, spell the word and then say the word again. I didn't even mention asking for the parts of speech, using it in a sentence or that whole where the word originated from thing. (Mostly because I couldn't tell her - my husband hasn't exactly banned me from discussing parts of speech, but it's coming.)
What I notice is my daughter is once again smarter than me. When we get to certain words, she asks for the definition, or for me to use it in a sentence. I'm proud of her, because she is thinking before she spells. Then she starts asking for these things on words that aren't as easy for me to define, or use in a sentence. I'm not the English/grammar person in this house; I am the math/science person. My husband could probably do this in his sleep, I need a lot of help and coffee. This results in a 20 minute break from practice, while I tear the house apart looking for ONE dictionary. I'm pretty sure we have three, but the best I could do was the Child's Dictionary. It was nice, it had pictures. It made me feel that this dictionary was appropriate, I felt it understood my problems and tried to help. They were really pretty pictures.
The spelling bee is in a couple of weeks, so wish Princess luck. She will need it since she has her mom and a Child's Dictionary helping her!
