It’s National Spelling Bee week, which has me strolling back down memory lane to the five years that Griffin spent demonstrating his orthographic excellence.
The Spelling Bee was a big deal in our house during Griffin’s fourth through eighth grade years. He had proven himself to be an excellent speller in third grade, with his teacher providing him with special weekly spelling lists of words taken from the Bee itself. It was rare for him to miss any of these words on his spelling test; we suspected that he had something akin to an eidetic memory at that point.
After proving his spelling prowess in third grade, it was time to officially enter the Bee as a fourth grader. But at that point our school district was not participating in the national Bee program. After a few conversations with the school principal, we were able to get it up and running in time for Griffin and his best spelling friend Chloe to take part.
The process starts with a building-level spelling bee. As good a speller as I knew Griffin was, I was still unprepared for him to win the school bee his first year. I was so proud of him. The best part was that he and Chloe always came in first and second, alternating years, so that they both were able to progress to the next round of the Bee, which was the regional semifinals.
The regional semis consisted of a written exam that took place at OCC, with nearly all of the school districts in Central New York taking part. I don’t know how many kids took the exam each year, but it was a lot. Well over a hundred, I’m sure. And Griffin being Griffin, he was always ready for a goofy picture on the way in.
I worked hard on managing Griffin’s expectations before this first regional semi-final. At his school he was a big fish in a little pond, but now he was in an ocean of other big fish, almost all of whom were older than he was. I let him know that the odds of him actually progressing to the regional finals that first year were slim. We discussed that this would be a year of him just gaining experience and becoming comfortable with the format, and then the following year he could work extra hard and try to make the finals.
And then he finished in 10th place. We were stunned. The top 35 progressed to the regional finals, so he had more spelling to do that year! Apparently a fourth grader placing that high on the written exam was unheard of, because we received a phone call from a newspaper reporter before we even got home that day. They interviewed him and me, and there was a little bit of it in the paper with the article about the Bee the next day.
The regional finals is a televised event run through our local PBS station. It’s quite an experience, with the parents sitting backstage watching big TV monitors while their kids spell ridiculously difficult words. Here’s a peek at Griffin through his five years of regional finals.
Fourth Grade – speller number 10 (the speller number is where they finished in the semi-finals), came in 20th
Fifth Grade – speller number 6, went out on “sauerbraten,” which shamed his German ancestors.
Sixth Grade – speller number 5, came in third
Seventh Grade – speller number 6, came in second after a crazy head-to-head battle over several rounds at the end. This meant he was the alternate to go to the National Spelling Bee in Washington, DC, if anything happened to the winner that would prevent her from going (it didn’t). We all got interviewed after the competition and were over the moon with pride!
Even though Griffin didn’t get to go to Washington by winning the regional bee, he and I still got to see the finals live and in person. I surprised him with a trip to DC and tickets to the Bee. We had a great time and it was so cool to see how things run. And the ending was a real nail-biter! They ended up crowning two co-champions after they hit the limit for the number of rounds for the Bee.
Eighth grade, his final year of eligibility – a strong second place finish again.
And although he was a bit bummed that he never made it all the way to the National Bee, we were so proud of all of his hard work and dedication. And I’m sure he was glad to not have to study any more crazy hard words!
