My daughter just won her all-school (K-8) spelling bee as a 4th grader (she's 9). Pretty amazing to watch it unfold. Out of about a dozen kids, there were four girls. After a few rounds, they were down to seven, and she was the last girl "standing." I thought that was quite the accomplishment on its own. Then, she got down to the final five, the rest of which were all 7th and 8th graders. Then, the final three. Then two. We were all in shock when she actually won! Super proud moment for me.
To put this in context, her older brother won at the same school as a 5th grader. He then went on to win at his 6th through 8th grade middle school in 6th grade (at a school of almost 900 kids). So, I guess it's in the genes, to some extent. Still, I didn't expect her to win as a 4th grader. But, she's competitive, and probably wanted to out-do her brother. She was up until 10:30 last night, asking me to read her the practice words, then asked if she could get up at 6:00 this morning (after an hour early) to practice some more. Her brother was reading her words in the car this morning on the way to school.
Two years ago, he (older brother) went on to the Ventura County Spelling Bee and finished 11th in the county (again, competing with mostly 7th/8th grade kids as a 5th grader). Finished 11th there. The winner of that got an all-expense paid trip to D.C. with their family to compete on the big show (ESPN). Even the County Bee was pretty nice... Our whole family got to attend for the day, with lunch and a bunch of other goodies, etc. Pretty cool just to be a part of it, and see how it plays out.
do the kids train/practice for these like I've seen the big-show kids do (where it's all-consuming)?
or are they just really, really good at spelling?
I would say it's definitely a combination of both. My understanding is each class at her K-8 school (which is relatively small, about 310 kids total) sends a representative who won from that classroom's spelling bee. So, depending on the size of the grade, a kid or two (or maybe 3) per grade. I think the youngest kid at her school's bee was from 3rd grade, and the oldest were 8th grade, and there were about 12-15 total when it started this morning. Took about a dozen rounds to determine a winner. Once they advanced from their individual class (about a week ago), they were all given a list of words to study. About 500 words total, of various levels of difficulty, split up onto 4 pages. First page were easier words, then gradually harder. And, a strange assortment of words. Several proper nouns, which seems odd to me... Words like Choctaws, Canterbury, Chernobyl, San Joaquin, Madagascar, etc. And, several words with multiple spellings (gruesome/grewsome, plaque/placque, etc.).
They had a few days to study those words. My daughter also plays soccer, and had practice every night this week (don't get me started.... that's a topic for the club sports thread). But, needless to say, time to study the words was limited. We spent about 30-45 minutes practicing on Monday and Wednesday evenings (Tuesday night she fell asleep on the couch at like 730, obviously exhausted, so I just put her to bed). Last night, probably another hour, and maybe 20-30 minutes this morning. Hard to say if that practice helped (most of the words she got in the actual spelling bee today I feel like she would have known regardless). That said, there is some luck to the draw. Another kid got knocked out on a word she originally got wrong when we practiced, so there's that. The practice certainly didn't hurt.
Now that she won for her school, she's been given a much larger list (it's a small book) of words to practice from. From what I recall when her brother went, it's a big enough list that you can't really "perfect" the entire list. Even the 500-word list, she was getting several words incorrect when we went through them this morning. Most of those, though, were on the last page and a half, and I'm not sure they ever got to that level of difficulty during the competition. As for the book she received today, it feels like the objective is to "study as much of it as you can" in the next couple of weeks. At that point, she'll take a test on both spelling and comprehension (what the words mean) that is multiple choice. Not sure why that's included, but it's part of the process. So, not just spelling. Based on those test results, she may or may not advance to the county bee like her brother did two years ago.
Bottom line... They're all good spellers. But, they have an opportunity to practice and increase their chances of advancing further in the competition. That said, there are so many words out there, you can't possibly memorize them all. And, there is some element of luck, for sure, in terms of getting the right words thrown your way.
Edit: I will add this, after having watched the county spelling bee, and seeing the winner who went on to compete in DC (ESPN). For some of those kids, they're definitely taking it more seriously, almost as if they're in training for an Olympic sport. You could just tell that it's their "sport" so to speak. And, I don't mean that in a negative way. Good for them. And, the grand prize, just from the county bee, was no joke.... Not just the trip for the family, but a whole bunch of other stuff ($500 Amazon card, new I-pad, etc.). It was impressive.
And, to be honest, that's part of the reason I'm so proud of my kids. Spelling isn't their sport. My son plays club baseball and is a pretty good pitcher. My 9YO daughter is playing travel soccer with 10-11 year olds. But, they're pretty good at spelling too, and I'm enjoying it while it lasts (my older daughter, who is 14, is great at spelling herself, but she's at the age where it's "not cool" to be good at spelling).
