Marty and the Regional Spelling Bee

Marty did awesome in the Regional Spelling Bee today.  He's really studied hard the last couple of weeks.  With a list of over 1000 words, he's been spending lots of free time studying words, definitions, languages of origin and practicing with mom.

A couple of years ago he also won his school spelling bee and got to go to region.  That time he got out on the first round, misspelling "totem." Of course he knew how to spell it but the letters came out fast and he missed one.  It was super disappointing for him--really for all of us because we knew how hard he studied. A lot of good lessons can be learned from losing, however, one being, "you'll survive."

He did and this year, after winning his Jr. High bee, he got another shot at Region. He was number 71 of 79 kids participating. The first round was torture because a lot of kids were getting out -- mostly tripping up over their letters, and I was so nervous for Marty.  His first word was "daffodil." He took his time, asked for a definition and spelled it perfectly.

Other words be got were, "belligerent," "capricious," "waterzooi," "eocene," "wedel" (tricky because it's pronounced "vaydl," but we'd studied that one and I knew he could do it). Can't remember the others.

Marty is the 2nd kid (tallest one).

He made it down to 9 kids. The bee had been going for over 3 hours.  They said in the bee they would give 300 words from the study list and then 200 words not on the list. Half-way through the last round they ran out of study list words and on to the non-study words.  The next 5 kids, including Marty who was last up, got out.  The next round started with four kids and they all got out except one.  She had won the previous year and participated in the National Bee in Washington D.C.  Apparently she knew the dictionary cold.  She won again.

Of course it was disappointing to Marty to get out.  His last word was, "monoecious." Being so unfamiliar a word and not being on the study guide, it was a killer.  But we are super proud of him and how hard he worked and I think he's pretty proud of himself too.  Way to go, Marty!