Spelling Bee

Joseph participated in the Scripps Regional Spelling Bee this weekend at a local university.  He came in 9th getting eliminated in the 10th round. There were about 40 students there, and we stayed until the (long) end. It was an amazing group of kids gathered to spell some ridiculously hard words. What a great bunch of spellers we saw.  Our son's a better speller because of this competition, as it really involves a lot of time for preparing and learning lists of words.  Many of the international words were the tricky ones to learn.

 We quickly learned he and most of the kids were able to spell the most ridiculously hard words, yet disappointed that the lists of words and their difficulty were random enough that some pure luck helps determine the winner. We're not at all sure some of the best spellers weren't recognized. But we were certain Joseph made it several rounds beyond what both his parents put together would have done.

We enjoyed watching and cheering him on. What a privilege to be parents to such a good boy, who just loves academic pursuits like spelling. We probably couldn't ever really express how dearly we love him, but little moments like these, just make me happy I had a camera, to catch them walking out together. Win or lose, it was how he spelled and that he gave it his best and enjoyed the day.