Spelling Bee fans

[ska]

My son's middle school spelling bee was last week. They had a pad of paper at the podium and the kids could write the word down and then read it off. I was shocked. 

Isn't the difficulty/point of a spelling bee, spelling w/o writing it?

Only 18 of 1000 kids qualified through a written test. I was so proud my kid made it! Then he got out first. Womp womp. 

[Lucy Honeychurch]

TOTALLY NOT FAIR! You have to spell it out without writing it down!

Signed, Former City Spelling Bee Champ, 1987.

[eb777888]

Wow!! That's awesome your kid made it out of 1000!

The best I ever did was get to represent my class, lol. I think I was also the first out. Booo.

[tugsgirl]

That's cheating!!! 
DD1 is in the bee next week...they don't have that privilege. I'm sure she wishes they did, though!

[dragon's breath]

My son made it to state level every year, and it was always writing, even at the state fair. The kids were all given the same words, then the papers were taken and graded. He lost out on winning because they couldn't read his writing well enough (they thought his "a"s were "u"s or something). I thought it was a pretty weird way to do a spelling bee!

[miso]

Eh.

Spelling is spelling, whether oral or written.

[ska]

And, AND, the pronouncer gave one speller two alternate pronunciations when she didn't even ask for them. He didn't do it for anyone else. It was so odd.

And he didn't know how to pronounce "chai". It wasn't a spelling word but he used it in a sentence.

[miso]

Jan 26, 2016 15:48:43 GMT -5 ska said:

And, AND, the pronouncer gave one speller two alternate pronunciations when she didn't even ask for them. He didn't do it for anyone else. It was so odd.

And he didn't know how to pronounce "chai". It wasn't a spelling word but he used it in a sentence.

How did he pronounce it?

This is all so weird.

[ska]

Jan 26, 2016 15:57:26 GMT -5 miso said:

Jan 26, 2016 15:48:43 GMT -5 ska said:

And, AND, the pronouncer gave one speller two alternate pronunciations when she didn't even ask for them. He didn't do it for anyone else. It was so odd.

And he didn't know how to pronounce "chai". It wasn't a spelling word but he used it in a sentence.

How did he pronounce it?

This is all so weird.

Hard k sound. Kai. After a few tries.

[miso]

Jan 26, 2016 16:22:24 GMT -5 ska said:

Jan 26, 2016 15:57:26 GMT -5 miso said:

How did he pronounce it?

This is all so weird.

Hard k sound. Kai. After a few tries.

Oh, my.

[miniroller]

Jan 26, 2016 16:24:28 GMT -5 miso said:

Jan 26, 2016 16:22:24 GMT -5 ska said:

Hard k sound. Kai. After a few tries.

Oh, my.

Oh Kai...?
*Sorry, I couldn't stop myself

[sproctopus]

I won a trophy for my school spelling bee. It looks like Steve Urkel in a bee costume.

I lost in the first round of the city spelling bee-- the word was papeterie. I had to Google how to spell that just now, so that should give you an indication of my continued success.

[ska]

The very worst was the elementary spelling bee in Massachusetts a few years ago. My kid was already out or I would have said something.

The pronouncer said, "The next word is ahhbah." Exactly like that. The speller's eyes got huge. He asked for a sentence.

The pronouncer said, "The grapes hung from the ahhbah." No change in pronunciation.

The kid shrugged and spelled, "a b a?"

I was sitting way in the back but I wish I had yelled out ARBOR!!

[shell403b]

3rd grade spelling bee horror story: I misspelled OF. Yes, OF. Spelled it O-V. I wasn't paying attention and I'm auditory, so that's what came out. The best part of this story is that the guy AFTER me spelled it THE EXACT SAME WAY. We were both mortified.

[sparrowsong]

I used to spell word wrong on the written test on purpose so I wouldn't have stand on stage in front of people to spell into a microphone. I was so shy.