The 2009
Scripps National Spelling Bee is already underway. This year 293
spellers will battle it out to be named the supreme speller.
Our
family loves this time of the year. After all, we have a spelling bee
champion in our house. Granted it was fourth, sixth and seventh grade
at the local level. We have all heard the story endless times. We all
know how he lost in fifth grade on the word "persistent" to Wade
Coriel (yes, I misspelled the last name).
What
happens when you get runner-up? We find out through Facebook that the
winner went on to make lots of money as a lawyer. Something to
ponder, maybe. Yes, my husband has informed me that I am "avarice."
No, I did not know what that word was until now. See, another benefit
in watching the bee is learning new words.
Seriously,
we love this time of the year because we get to see children at their
best. It also is awesome listening to ESPN announcers give play by
play just as they would any other event.
This
years players to watch is contestant Speller 139 who placed second in
the 2008 Spelling Bee. Sidhard Chand, Speller 139, is a 13 year old
from Michigan. Another player to watch is a three-time top ten
finalist, Kavya Shivashankar, a 13 year old from Kansas.
The
Great news is that together my husband and I garnered enough points
to make it to the quarterfinals. At least we did online with the quiz
from the website. We only missed eight of the 25 words. Not bad, I
say. Think you can do better? Check out http://www.spellingbee.com/
and click on Take the test. I want to see your results in the comment
section below. You are after all writers. Lets see how well
SearchWarp writers can do on the spelling quiz.
The
spelling bee is a great reminder as to how diverse our country really
is along with showing off the amazing intelligence of these kids.
Just look at this statistic from the site: "English is not the
first language of 33 spellers, and 117 spellers speak languages other
than English." Amazing. If that doesn't show how diverse our kids
of our nation are becoming, I don't know what does.
I
encourage you to tune in at least for the finals on ABC Thursday
night to see the future of our country. Make it a family event, pop
some popcorn, play some fun word games, make it a family contest to
spell the words before the contestants, get to know these young kids
through the profiles and cheer for the ones you want to win. For
added fun, throw in some alphabet soup or pasta for dinner. This can
be a fun family tradition to start. Go Speller 255 from our hometown
of Houston! Aditya Chemudupaty Rules!!
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