About a month ago, Meredith appeared extra jazzy when she got off of the bus. She reported that she had won the class spelling bee, which is her ticket to participate in the school spelling bee. For the past four weeks, she and Jeff have been studying the list and taking words apart and putting them back together and making connections with words and writing words and eating alphabet soup and now I’m just making stuff up, but please know this: She is Ready. She may not win the bee, as she’s up against fourth and fifth grade students. BUT, she has done her homework. She’s got this. She’s wearing a Ravenclaw necktie and a fake fur vest. (The fur is fake. The vest is very real.)
Meredith: Racial is just like facial. Schooner is like school, but you take away the L and add a nerd with no D. There is a nest in the siologist in anesthesiologist.
Me: A girl named Tracey won our elementary spelling bee. The word Attitude killed me. A-t-t-i-d-u-d-e. ARGH! Where was my head?!
Meredith: Wow.
After school today, we will celebrate spelling with frozen yogurt and hot fudge.
Because, according to Meredith, that’s what you do. ‘ ‘ ‘text/javascript’>
Extra jazzy. :-)
Yay! Best of luck to Meredith! (My spelling bee word nemesis, in 5th grade: marriage. WHY IS THERE AN I IN THAT WORD?)(My boy’s spelling bee word nemeses: samurai and ravel.)(Thank goodness my girl has never been in a spelling bee, because I seriously cannot handle the stress.)
Go Meredith! I’m a terrible speller, but it make playing boggle with me really funny.
Bee power to Meredith! The Ravenclaw tie is the best touch.
You go, Meredith!
How’s the knitting coming?
Good luck, Meredith! My second-grade boyfriend dumped me when I beat him in our class spelling bee (he went out on elephant), but then I went on to win the city-wide bee at ages 9 and 10. It’s something I am still very proud of to this day.
Everything’s better when you add a nerd. Go Meredith!
Yay Meredith! You are the bee’s knees!
I don’t remember what grade we were in, but my BFF Cynthia won our class spelling bee (I came in second), and went on to the school bee. She lost because of the word scissors. I told her I would’ve gotten it right (great friend I was, eh?), but now, thinking back, I’m not so sure.
I won our school spelling bee and got to go to the St. Louis one at UMSL. I lost in the fourth round and I’ve not had any coffee this morning so I can’t think of the word I lost on; but I did know how to spell it. I was very nervous and misspoke but it was too late. Good Luck to Meredith!
Go go Meredith!
Also, make your mom spell “yoghurt/yogurt/yoghurd” etc. before letting her have any. ;-)
Go, Meredith!
Genius. G-E-N-I-O-U-S. Genius. And I was out of our school spelling bee. Clearly I am no genius. Good luck to Meredith!
Is she really wearing a Ravenclaw necktie?! Just when I thought I couldn’t adore your family any more…
Good luck Meredith!
Good luck Meredith!
I have always been a mediocre speller, I was always eliminated quickly in our class bees, but that was a combination of lack of prowess, lack of interest, and lack of competitive spirit. Oh yeah, and crumbling under the pressure. May Meredith have nerves of steel and enjoy her yogurt.
Good luck, Meredith!
Good luck Meredith! Our school had theirs this week too.
I hope she gets the word “bee” for the irony and the ease of it.
Good luck to Meredith!! What a great plan to celebrate spelling with yogurt and hot fudge! W came close to winning his school’s spelling bee last year, but he lost track of where he was in the word “abracadabra” and came in 2nd place to a fifth grader. It was exciting! I’m excited for Meredith!
(I meant to say frozen yogurt.) Now I’m starting to crave frozen yogurt and hot fudge…
I’m not from there… but it sounds like … so cruel! the pressure!!
good luck to Meredith.
The newspaper I worked for as a freelancer sponsored the spelling bees, so I covered quite a few. It really let me see the difference between “good” schools and not-so-good schools – the levels of difficulty were just so much different.
At one good school, all of the kids were getting all of the words correct. It kept going and going until our photographer leaned over the judging table and said “COME ON. Give them harder words!”
t-h-o-r-o-u-g-h was my downfall.
That word makes no sense at all.
I remember when I lost the class spelling bee on the third round and suddenly realized that I was not the smartest person in the universe. Before that, I’d been sure I must be.
It was so good for me, that destruction of my hubris.
I hope she wins but losing can be good too.
That previous comment made me realize that would be such a GREAT Super villain origin story.
And if I didn’t have spellcheck I would have misspelled villain.
I lost on government. Government! I forgot the N! But I knew how to spell it.
I did not turn into a libertarian though.
Apparently, I’m an easy mark. You just sold me frozen yogurt and hot fudge.
I made it to the STL P-D spelling bee. Went out first round on “auditory.” I thought it was spelled like “laudatory.” IT IS NOT.
Oh wait, got it backwards. My word was “laudatory,” spelled it with an “i.” I can’t even remember my STORIES now!
Kudos to your daughter on her accomplishment! No matter the outcome of the bee, it is sure to be a memorable experience for her. I made it to our county spelling bee in 7th grade, only to strike out pretty early on with the word ‘mercenary.’ I didn’t even know what a mercenary was, let alone how to spell it (‘mercinary’ was my best guess)! But you can bet I went home and looked up the spelling, as well as the meaning (I am, admittedly, word-nerdy that way) and thirty years later, I still can’t hear that word without thinking of 7th grade. Good luck to her!
Whenever I think of spelling bees, I automatically think of Anne of Green Gables, you know the part where Jane Andrews and Gilbert Blythe misspell chrystanthemum and then Anne gets up and says : “Chrysanthemum C-H-R-Y-S-A-N-T-H-*E*-M-U-M chrysanthemum”, and then everyone claps.
I know, I’m a sap–pregnancy does that to ya! And also, I don’t mean to be a spoil sport about your fro-yo with choc. sauce, but the thought of that is making my tummy turn…now homemade mac n cheese with crackers on top….that sounds like supper….
Hugs! Sorry I haven’t been around in a while!
Congrats to Meredith for making it to the school-wide spelling bee–that’s fabulous! My brother lost on the word “prairie”–it was the 2 i’s that did him in.
aberration – A-B-B-E-R-A-T-I-O-N – aberration. I knew there was two of something, but I couldn’t remember what! Not bad for second grade, though…
I used to study for hours with my grandpa coaching. I went out on “leisure” one year (damn “i before e except after…yeah) and “miniature” the next. My grandpa was very mad that they didn’t pronounce it “min-ee-ature” for me:)