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On Saturday, Josiah participated in the Southeast Region ACSI (Association of Christian Schools International) spelling bee in Atlanta Georgia. There were 70 spellers from the states of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. The bee was held in a banquet hall. As we were sitting and waiting, Josiah commented, “I’m not sure what the disco ball is for.” Lighting a disco ball during a spelling bee would certainly add some lightheartedness to what is a tense occasion. I think I’ll recommend it for next year. I then explained to him that a banquet hall is more commonly used for wedding receptions and pointed out the wood dance floor and stage. I showed Josiah the program that declared the winner would receive $125. At which point he said, “I should have studied more.” Kids and parents were in all levels of spirit and dress. One boy wore a suit, some wore school uniforms, most were nicely dressed, but a few were in jeans or flip flops. Watching the other students and their families provided me with much entertainment. The Grandma in front of me was so nervous for her two grandchildren, I wanted to pat her on the back. I was certain that one speller was going to faint up there and another rubbed her hands in anxiety throughout. One middle school boy was completely disinterested and read a book when it was not his turn. The children were randomly assigned a number and Josiah was blessed to receive a higher number which proved helpful later on. The first round was a practice round and Josiah spelled the word - ACCOUNT. If you misspell in the practice round, you are not out. Round 1 then started and I had great empathy for the kid who was assigned #1. He looked like an 8th grader and had been to the regional bee the year before. For his word, he got budgie (a small Australian parrot). Now all you Aussies out there would think it impossible for a kid not to know how to spell budgie, but while most Australian words end in ie, most American words end in y. Budgie was on the 5th grade difficult list which I am quite certain this 8th grader did not think he needed to study. He had never heard the word before and spelled it wrong. I felt awful for him and began hoping that Josiah could at least get through the first round. For round 1, Josiah spelled OPERETTA. Round 2 provided his first near miss. Josiah spelled CALLUS. He said CAL and then paused and thought about whether or not it had 2 L’s in it. I had my head in my hands, mentally sending him L’s in my mind. He got it right. In round 3, Josiah spelled ONOMATOPOEIA. When the judge said the word, the audience groaned, thinking Josiah finished. However, thanks to Josiah’s English teacher who made him write a line of a poem in onomatopoeia, the word was familiar to him. In round 4, Josiah spelled COALESCE. In round 5, he spelled SOLILOQUY. At the start of round 6, there were 17 spellers left. In all the previous rounds, the judge had used words from a study list provided to the students. In round 6, she began to give them words not on their study list. In round 6, Josiah spelled COMPREHENSIBLE. In round 7, there were 7 spellers left. Here is where Josiah’s higher number proved beneficial. The three students ahead of him spelled their words incorrectly. Therefore, the remaining 4 students were automatically the 4 chosen to go to the National competition in DC even though at that moment, they had not spelled any more words right than the others. At the start of the competition, the judge told the students that the spelling bee was not fair. It was the luck of the draw. At that moment I realized what she meant. Several students were given words I had never heard before and knew that if Josiah had gotten those words, he would have been eliminated. In round 7, Josiah spelled ECOSPHERE. By round 8, only Josiah and one middle school girl were left. In order to win, he had to spell 2 words correctly in a row. He spelled PATINA and misspelled VENTRICAL (correct spelling: ventricle). The girl then misspelled. On his next attempt, he misspelled GENIE (correct spelling: genii) When the judge spoke the sentence, Josiah was supposed to understand that she wanted the plural form. She pronounced it just like genie and I couldn’t understand how he had gotten it wrong. I was his arbitrator and had the right to approach the table when I thought something unfair had occurred. To Josiah’s mortification, I approached the table and asked the judge for the proper spelling. When the spell off for the final two students began, she had stopped giving them the correct spelling for the words they missed. She informed me it was genii. I sat down. (I do believe that she pronounced it wrong and should have made it sound like gean-ee-i) The girl missed her word and Josiah spelled PERPETUITY. He then misspelled FEDUCIARY (correct spelling: fiduciary) The girl received two words that Josiah was sure she could spell and he thought that he had lost, but she misspelled succumbed. Josiah then spelled METTLESOME and UNTRAMMELED to win. I jumped out of my seat and gave him a high 5 and shook his opponents hand. When I turned around, I discovered that everyone else was still sitting and now looking at me. My only excuse is too many days watching the families of game show contestant winners run up on stage. Josiah won a plaque and $125. He will now participate in the National Spelling Bee in Washington DC on May 10th. So, he is not yet untrammeled from studying his word list.

Abby participated in her 6th grade science fair today. She did her experiment on whether smell effects taste. Grandpa, Grandma, Josiah and Gabe were her lab rats for the experiment. They all loved the chocolate, but weren’t too happy about the onion. She concluded that smell does effect taste, but she would have to eliminate the effect of texture. She made her display board and had to answer questions from the judges. When she came home from school she told me that the project next to her was completely gross. The girl had a cow’s heart under glass and did her experiment on clogged arteries. During the awards ceremony, the Best in Show was won by the cow’s heart girl. Working with a cow’s heart to win the science fair just wouldn’t be worth it for my daughter. Gabe, however, was greatly disappointed that he didn’t get to see the cow’s heart. For the last couple months, Gabe has been asking me how he can win a trophy. When he finds out that you get a trophy for winning Best in Show in the Science Fair, I fear what he’ll come up with to outdo a cow’s heart.

Josiah participated in the school wide Math Olympics on Friday.  I was disappointed to discover that it did not involve a whiteboard, markers and a large time clock.  Josiah was a part of the reasoning team which solved word problems.  They all took several series of tests.  He came in 3rd place.  I asked him who beat him and he replied, “some other kid who looked like a nerd.”  I guess that’s to be expected.

Today was Gabe’s District Spelling Bee. The school had sent home a notification that the boys should wear ties. It was a bit of a surprise since Josiah was allowed to wear his regular school uniform complete with sweatshirt over it for his Spelling Bee. Josiah has been much relieved that he no longer is required to wear a tie to school. He is not a boy who enjoys getting dressed up. He has a bit of his Father’s fashion sense. Yesterday, he was wearing his blue school pants and blue school shirt and went to put on his belt. He put it on so that the brown side not the black side was facing out. His sister looked at him and suggested he change it to black side out. He was not interested in her opinion. She replied, “I’m just trying to give you some fashion advice.” I can’t wait until her Father returns and starts getting her fashion recommendations as well. My favorite fashion moment with Dale was when he went to buy a suit when we were in Germany. The sales girl convinced him that he looked great in a certain suit, shirt, and tie so he bought it. When he showed it to me, I commented that I was surprised that he was willing to wear a pink shirt. He said, “It’s not pink, it’s tan!” I then was forced to explain to my colorblind husband that he had really bought a pink shirt which was quite stylish at the time, but not exactly in his style. Why the Elementary students needed to be dressed to the nines, I didn’t know. Gabe, who on most occasions is dressed in rags, thanks to his unerring ability to stain, rip , and shred his clothing had gone to school over the last month in pants with a large rip in the knee. Thankfully, his Grandmother arrived last week to patch his school pants. I, however, decided that a large patch on the knee might detract from a nice tie. So, this week I went to purchase Gabe some new clothes. I bought him a new tie, a white shirt, and blue dress pants. Gabe decided that these new clothes warranted new actions. He decided to take a shower when he woke up. Grandma ironed his shirt and pants. Gabe found Josiah’s old black school shoes from Australia and went looking for polish. I didn’t have any in the house, so Grandpa decided to shine them the old fashioned way with ample quantities of spit. Grandpa combed Gabe’s hair and when Gabe was dressed he was looking quite good. Gabe didn’t win the Spelling Bee, but as his Grandma told him, “He was certainly the best looking one there!”

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!