Spelling Bee Madness!

Riley surprised us a few weeks ago by bringing home a note from his teacher saying he was going to be a contestant in the school spelling bee.  Todd and I had just watched the documentary "Spellbound" and had to laugh.  We decided we were going to have to channel our inner Indian to train him in the art of spelling bees.  It is an art after all.

There were 2 children from each class grades 1-3 who competed and made it to the "finals".  I know there were 6 first graders and a total of 14 children.  The spellers were sitting on the stage with their numbers while the other children in grades 1-3 filed in to watch.  Riley was LOVING life!  That child has some performer in him for sure.  He was waving at everyone, giving double thumbs up, and just plain looking "cool".  You could tell that he felt totally awesome.

I was a bit nervous about how the stress of this would affect Riley.  Todd and I kept telling him that it was okay if he didn't win, that we were proud of him no matter what.  Finally he said, "Mom.  It isn't about winning.  It's just about doing your best."  I'm pretty sure that I was more nervous than Riley was.  No, I'm definitely sure that I was more nervous.  Truthfully, I felt like I was going to lose my breakfast.  I just kept praying that he would at least get ONE word right.  I needn't have worried.  Riley was calm, cool and collected.  Totally in his element.

In the above video the child in front of Riley was asked to spell the word "chef".  You'll notice Riley's expression when he heard the word...that was the first word I ever asked him how to spell when we started practicing...and he spelled it "sheff".  (Isn't the English language totally strange?!?!)  That was a word that I always asked him just at random times.  When his friend spelled it correctly, he knew it.

We are so proud of Riley.  What a smart, wonderful boy he is.  We are so blessed to have him in our family.  Riley made it to round nine when he missed the word "shuffle".  He spelled it "shuflle".  When I picked him up after school, the first thing he said was, "Mom, I knew it was shuffle, but for some reason I said it wrong."  He wasn't mad though.  He was very proud of his accomplishment.

This is Riley and his fellow spelling bee classmate, Taelyn.  They were in kindergarten together as well and are great friends.  It was a lot of fun for him to be able to do this with her.