Yes, it's been six weeks since I last posted. I'm going to blame my really old laptop and the fact that it is holding all of our photos hostage. Or, I can blame my computer snob of a husband who refuses to own anything other than Apple products so that I can't just go buy one of those cheap-o laptops on Black Friday to replace our nearly broken iBook. Or, I can blame writer's block. Whatever. You can choose whichever answer works best for you.
Anyway (I have no brilliant segue ideas), Sydney was chosen to participate in her school's spelling bee next week. It's quite an honor, seeing as only two kids from each 3rd grade class are chosen. I'm proud of her, I really am, but it is sad that my first two thoughts when she told me the news (with a huge smile on her face) were:
1. Geez, the other 20 kids in her class must be really terrible spellers, and
2. Great - helping her study all those words is just one more thing I have to do during the busiest time of the year.
Pretty cynical of me, no?
Ryan helped her study the first page of words over the Thanksgiving break (thank you, Ryan!) and I'm going to work with her on the second page this week and next.
The first page is full of 3rd grade-worthy words: commute, butterflies, cabinet, etc. She can memorize 250 words of that caliber - no problem.
The second page, however, is full of "a 3rd grader is never going to remember how to spell these words" words. Someone please show me a 3rd grader that can spell resuscitable, astrophysicist, chickabiddy (I had to look up the definition of this one) and slantindicular (this one isn't even recognized by our computer's spellchecker). Who in their right mind thinks an elementary school student can memorize 250 such words?
Anyway, I'll help her study them as much as we can both stand it, but I feel like she's just being set up for failure with some of those words. As a typical first child, she doesn't like to fail and as my daughter, she really doesn't like being on stage with people watching her. I have a feeling she's going to spend her entire time on stage either biting her nails or crying. Fun times.
At this point, we'll be happy when it's all over. In fact, I think we'll be downright ecstatic, E-C-S-T-A-T-I-C, ecstatic.
William | Olympia Newborn Photographer
9 months ago
Clay was in his school's spelling bee the week before last. The list was 14 pages long!!!!!!! He made it through several rounds and finally went out on afraid which he spelled a-f-r-a-d-e. I am pretty happy that we don't have to continue slogging through the practice list for the next phase. Good luck to Sydney!
ReplyDeleteI bought Susan a "cheapo" laptop (Toshiba) and it has worked fine for several years, so blame your computer snob.... tell him he doesn't drive a Lexus so he should walk to work? All joking aside, love you both and very proud of Sydney!
ReplyDeleteI can almost guarantee that they won't use the more difficult words unless they get through all the easier ones and there are still kids standing. If she wins her school bee and moves to the county, that's when she'll need to learn the hard words. Good luck, Sydney! -Deyna
ReplyDeleteTien said...
ReplyDeleteCongratulations, Sydney! Jana, I had to look up all of those hard words. No idea what any of them mean...