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Josiah had been haphazardly preparing over the last month for the ACSI district spelling bee that he attended on Friday. He had to study the spelling words from the 5th through 8th grade lists, because the last round included all the words from each grade level. The study list of words was misplaced several times and given up for lost for awhile until I insisted that he look once again in his school locker. I would quiz him with the dictionary close by and would make several attempts to achieve the correct phonetic pronunciation. On the way to school, Abby would quiz him in the van, but since even I was having a difficult time pronouncing the words, her attempts were even less effective. Gabe would eventually pipe in and offer his phonetic interpretation. I would listen to Gabe and Abby’s attempts while driving and try to deduce what word they were asking Josiah. Josiah would then spell the confusingly pronounced word, and be told that he was incorrect and then Abby would give him the correct spelling. At which point, Josiah would declare what the correct pronunciation for the word should have been. It wasn’t exactly the most effective studying method. You would think I would have given up on this drive along testing, but I made them continue on. I did give up on the grade 8 difficult words as insurmountable and attempted to get through the rest of the lists in the hope that he could make it through the first rounds. The night before the District Bee, I told Josiah to get the study list so we could go over some words that he had previously gotten wrong. He looked in his backpack, his room, and every other room in the house but the list was no where to be found. So, I told him, “You’re not completely prepared for this Bee, so there are no great expectations or pressures. When you are standing up there respond like you would if I was typing on the computer and asked you how to spell congratulations.” I figured that he wouldn’t be immediately eliminated, but assumed he wouldn’t get very far. The middle school principal handed out copies of the study lists on the bus for the ride north. Josiah decided to spend some time cramming. In the afternoon, I received a call from Josiah. He said, “Hi Mom. I won.” I then let out a hysterical unbelieving laugh. “You won? You won? Congratulations, son. That’s great! I can’t believe it, but that’s great!” He has qualified to attend the ACSI Regional Spelling Bee in Atlanta, Georgia on April 5th. That night we went out to Jimmy the Greek to celebrate. He got his menu, opened it up and pointed to “Moussaka”. “That’s my favorite word from my list,” he said. He doesn’t recall the word he won with, but he remembers that his favorite word is Moussaka!