I Forgot About This

One day last week, J. came home talking about the spelling bee. He's not old enough to participate yet. When I was in school kids could participate in the spelling bee from fourth through eighth grades. But I guess the third graders got to observe. I can remember my school doing that with the younger kids too.

So he comes home talking about the spelling bee and the kinds of words they were spelling. He told me, "Mom they were spelling words like 'tropical' and 'vacation' and I can't spell big words like that!" Mind you, "I can't" are words that I truly dislike hearing my kids say. So I suggested that he try. He tried, and he spelled them correctly. Perfect lesson about not saying "I can't" before even trying.

I also used this as the perfect time to talk to the kids about the cool opportunities they can have available to them if they study and really try in school. A lot of you don't know this, but I competed in the spelling bee when I was in school. My seventh grade year, I went all the way to the National Bee in Washington, D.C. I can still remember the name of the girl who won that year, and the word she spelled correctly to win. I can also remember the word that I spelled incorrectly to put me out of the competition. It was an incredible experience, and was one of only two times I've been to our Nation's Capital. The second time was during my Senior year, and was also an academic trip...a Young Leaders' Conference. That trip focused more on the politics...we sat in on a Congressional session, visited with our Congressmen, etc.

Anyway, my kids thought the spelling bee story was pretty cool. Maybe I can convince them that Mom's not as stupid as they naturally seem to think I am! I really hope they take advantage of as many opportunities as they can. They're both very smart (sometimes they scare me), so I'm working with them now on the importance of applying themselves and learning as much as they can, from the beginning.