Earlier this year Levi made it into the 3rd-5th grade spelling bee finals. He ended up in fourth place, which was fine by him. He did NOT want to have to participate at the county and state levels. I have a sneaking suspicion he threw the competition in order to avoid those.
The second grade does their own spelling bee. Second graders are not included at the higher competition levels, but the school holds their own competition to introduce the concept. Jon is a fantastic speller and I was hopeful he might make it into the finals. Nope, in usual Jon fashion, he did not listen as they gave him his first word and he spelled something completely different. We were not surprised. Ahren is a good reader but spelling didn't seem to be his thing. He didn't care whether he ever spelled anything correctly. He is just so laid back! This time he really surprised us! he took the whole spelling bee business very seriously. He knew that Levi won the bee two years ago when he was in second grade. He had a fire in his belly and a determination we had never seen before. He studied, he talked about it, and he made it to the finals!!!
The finals were yesterday afternoon and Chris and I both went. There were fifteen finalists, three from each class. There are a total of about 120 second graders in all, so being a finalist was a big honor! We were so proud of him. He stood up tall, spoke clearly and loudly, asked for the word in a sentence politely and was amazing. Unfortunately he didn't win. He took 8th place. The word that tripped him up was 'different'. He missed the middle e. He had already spelled some really tough words and made it through many rounds. In fact, he lasted almost an hour. Wow!!!
So proud of this boy. And to think english is not even his first language!!!!
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2 comments:
That is so awesome, Ahren! I LOVE that fire and drive. It isn't something you can give to your children (I so wish) or even explain. It has to come from within them. I am so impressed. Congrats!
Congratulations to Ahren!!! Fantastic! English not being the first language can sometimes help. I came to this country from the Dominican Republic at 6.5 years old, not knowing any English. I won our elementary school spelling bee when I was 11. Saying the words to myself phonetically (for example, "Wed-nes-day") helped me see patterns and remember letters that I could have easily missed b/c Spanish is phonetic. I'm still a great speller. Great job, Ahren!
Damaris
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