Spelling Bee 101

Yep, it was time for the county spelling bee. Actually, it's the elementary and middle school spelling bee but since our county has such a small population, it's also the county spelling bee. So school, town and county spelling champ all in one shot!

Alien was so excited this year. It's the first year he was eligible and he was pumped! Magnet was very laid back this year. Didn't even go over any quiz words or anything. He has done this 2 previous times ya know...he's a well-experienced bee-er that has been around the block more than once!

The kids competing were 4th through 8th grade. Altogether 59 kids were lined up to compete and they were all given a practice word to begin with. Magnet sailed through his word with 'place'. Piece of cake. Alien has nervous as he stepped to the microphone but got 'month' without a hitch.

Okay, now time for the real thing. Round 1 has commenced and there are a few casualties. Magnet steps up to the microphone. His word is 'temper'. He spells out T. E. M. P. U. R. E.

Huh? This is my kiddo that had a 10th grade reading level in the 2nd grade? I think he was just a bit too laid back this year. He's giving me this look cause I'm getting onto him about picking his new wires on his braces. Don't even ask me about his wires and brackets and how many extra trips we have to take back to the dentist. He's lucky he's still alive right now.

So back to the bee. Alien's word is 'graze'. G R A Z E. Easy peasey. Round 2 comes around and kids are starting to drop like flies. Alien's word is 'nurse'. His sentence was "Your mother is a nurse at the hospital." People around me snickered cause shore'nuff, I'm a nurse at the hospital. Again, the kid got it right.

Round 3. His word is 'platoon'. Now this one is a bit tougher for him and I didn't know if he had seen this one before. He spells P L U T I N E. Down he goes but he gave it a good shot. He was pretty bummed at first.

Then he remembered that he had gotten farther than his brother. All was right in the world after all. Just an FYI, a 4th grader ended up winning the bee, for the first time in our county's history! I wish I had a video of how excited the 4th grade class was. The boys were all pumping their arms with every correctly spelled word! It was pretty awesome. I love small towns.