I was determined to prove to her that I could spell, and that year I worked really hard on my spelling list. I remember the week that 'miscellaneous' appeared on that list. "What is THAT word?" I cried inwardly, "This is getting ridiculous. There is no way I will learn to spell it. It's all over. I'm doomed." Okay, maybe I didn't think those exact words, but the emotion behind them was the same.
I felt very defeated, but I worked hard, really hard. I practiced 'miscellaneous' every single day. And by the end of the week, I had mastered it. It was the biggest word I knew how to spell, and I was so very proud of myself. And every year after that, when I was labeling all the folders in my (usually fake) Trapper Keeper, I added in a miscellaneous tab, and remembered for just a second how happy I was that I could spell it.
To be honest, I never did become a spelling master. I'm not completely disastrous anymore, but I am thankful for spell check when I'm typing. (If you have a box of miscellaneous items that needs to be labeled though, I'm your woman. Just let me grab my sharpie.)
I'm hoping that Katarina's spelling abilities will far exceed my own, so it is something we are focusing heavily on this year in our homeschooling. One big part of that is looking for ways to make spelling fun.
You know what is fun? Spelling Bees.
In Spelling Bee News: (if there really was a spelling bee newspaper, just think how all the words would always be spelled correctly)
Macy’s and Reading is Fundamental have teamed up to host the 7th Annual Macy's Spelling Bee at 27 stores across the country for kids ages 8-11.
- Houston, TX - Memorial City @ 2PM (Kids, 2nd Floor)
- Aventura, FL - Aventura Mall @ 2PM (Kids, 3rd Floor)
- Coral Springs, FL - Coral Springs @ 2PM (Kids, Level 1)
- Orlando, FL - Florida Mall @ 2PM (Kids, 2nd Floor)
- San Diego, CA - Fashion Valley @ 2PM (Kids, 3rd Floor)
Katarina and I will be attending the Orlando Bee, and I'm hoping it will inspire us as we focus on spelling.
There are some pretty fancy prizes for the winners, including an iPad, a $100 Macy's Gift Card, a tutoring scholarship from Kaplan and an online gift card from Scholastic. You can find the official rules and regulations, as well as all of the dates and locations here.
Are you a spelling master?
Legal Stuff: I am a member of the Everywhere Society, and I was provided with compensation for this post. All spelling stories and opinions are my own, and I was not required to say nice things about Macy's - but I'm pretty sure they were thankful I ran this post through spell check before publishing it.
That's awesome! I have to admit - I was pretty jealous until I read that it's for your daughter not you! Then my inner child was jealous instead, hehe. ;)
ReplyDeleteI was great at spelling as a kid and I wanted nothing more than to do a proper spelling bee! We had a class one once, I remember practicing 'Mississippi' like crazy. No idea what happened with the actual event as I remember nothing else, but boy did I practice that word! I walked around the house singing "M, I, double s, I, double s, I, double peeeeeeeeeeeee, I!" for hours. I think even my little brother learned how to spell Mississippi that day. :p
Spelling Bees for adults is a pretty genius idea, actually!
DeleteI remember learning how to spell Mississippi, too. It feels good when you finally get all the i's s's and p's in the right spots. We never had proper spelling bees at my school. Strange.
How cute...best of luck and have fun
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jacki!
DeleteI LOVE watching the national spelling bee on tv, I can only imagine how awesome it would be live and in person.
ReplyDeleteI know!! I'm really excited about it!
DeleteThose kids really are spelling masters. Totally impressive.
I used to love spelling bee's when I was a kid. I did have trouble with one word "beautiful" I would always spell it "butiful" I still have to think when Im writing it!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful is a hard word. I notice as I teach spelling to my daughter, that my lazy (and southern accented) way of pronouncing words makes it harder to sound them out properly, which is kind of interesting. The list of words I still have to think carefully about while writing is too long to share here!
DeleteI am not a good speller. I love spell check.
ReplyDeleteSpell check is my best friend (second only to chocolate).
DeleteSoooo glad to hear I'm not the only huge reader who is an AWFUL speller!!! And yes, praise the Lord for spell check ;)
ReplyDeleteI'm SOOOOO glad to hear I'm not the only one as well! My whole life people have targeted my reading as proof that I should be good at spelling. It just has never worked that way for me.
DeleteThere are certain words (like restaurant or Renaissance) that I consistently misspell. You would think after decades of misspelling words that I would know them by now. Thank God for spellcheck.
ReplyDeleteI have a list of words I always get wrong. Publicly is one of them, for some reason my brain just refuses to remember it.
DeleteI won the 8th grade spelling bee but I'm clueless as to how to spell anything anymore thanks to spellcheck. My grammar has gone out the window too!
ReplyDeleteI am a pretty good speller, but I loved reading this. It reminded my of senior year French3 class. The class was split between juniors and seniors. The seniors studied together for a take home test on which we all got the translation for unfortunately wrong. To this day I know that unfortunately is malheureusement in French. LOL
ReplyDeleteI have always been obsessed with good spelling. I was in a couple of spelling bees and got SCREWED by the mis-pronunciation of words. "Helicopter" in 4th grade - which he pronounced "heelicopter." I was so shocked that I spelled it wrong. Grrr!
ReplyDeleteAlso? My English teachers could NEVER spell. What's up with that?