The Imperfect Spelling Bee Works Perfectly

The smells of a quick lentil/spinach dal sauce with rice wafts through the air as the house rumbles with the murmur of 8 people quizzing each other in preparation for the spelling bee tonight.  What a cozy combination!  Super easy meal, quick and yummy!

I just finished a grueling day of trying to finish up our "Great Conversations" reading for our 3 pm discussion and it is time to unwind...and plan out menus for the rest of the month.   Sigh.  Maybe not.  Ideas for this blog post are competing with a darling seven year old daughter who wants me to quiz her on spelling.  I love the passion and enthusiasm shown as they quiz each other. It normally only surfaces 30 minutes before the bee itself, but I have seen the effects of the spelling bee spill over into their writing and vocabulary so it is worth it!

Read "Laddie" and their spelling bee.  We have adapted that to our home.  We host a grueling once to twice a month showdown: boys vs. girls (with Pipalicious--age 9--graciously helping out to even up the numbers since my Isaak in heaven isn't helping beef up the numbers right now :S).  Dad has the different "levels" take turns and alternates words between spellers, with a missed one available for the other team to match.  Here is a sample:

Piper and Hava:

stem

hem

gem

amen

men

brain

shape

cape

tape

paper

Drew, Lily, Hyrum:

speech

language

memories

lobe

position

logic

image

figure

castle

mountain

leadership

kindness

responsibility

service 

sacrament

beautiful

sign language

tranquilizer

unicorn

cymbals

picture

geography

machine

circus

elephant

Kel, Tova, Mary, Quinn:

occipital

parietal

metallurgy

aggregate

mnemonically

fetishes

repository

matrilineal

animist

syphilis

hypothalamus

amygdala

hippocampus

vitreous humor

sclera

corpuscle

Chernobyl

mustache

Don Quixote

theoretician

There are many sites to choose from for words but normally I just pull them from ones I have spelled for the kids, ones I have missed recently or things we are studying.  The kids can also gain extra points for their team by "spelling up" and successfully spelling words on the list older than themselves. (In the case of the oldest ones, Quinn pulls some out of the hat.)

Shoot.  Spent too long doing things outside of the kitchen.  The three year old boy is raiding the sugar cookies we are icing and eating after the bee.  Darn.

I would like to say that we have it on schedule twice a month.  Well, maybe I wouldn't, then you would realize you can have great spellers if you only have 15 total spelling bees in your home.  Ever.  We have times when we are good to do it, times when we don't, but something about opening up the world of spelling is contagious.  They learn basic patterns from the lists we do end up doing and it is not "do or die" so Mom and Dad don't stress about it if it gets postponed.

The winners out of five "rounds" (spelling bees) get to have the losers make dinner for them, serve them, and clean up...so cool!!

Tears, pressure, cheers, support...it is all a part of the "fun," I just sit there  willing them to get them right, knowing how quickly they feel crushed.  Maybe it is also good to feel "failure" in a safe place?

My kids love it.