MAYA DID IT!!!!

Maya has made history!

This morning, Maya competed in

the first ever Cary Homeschooler's

Spelling Bee...

AND WON!!!

(The Cary Homeschooler's group

just celebrated their 10th anniversary this month.)

Maya at home before the Spelling Bee.

Not only was this Cary Homeschooler's

first Spelling Bee, however,

it was also the first time 

that home school groups

have been allowed to compete

in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Scripps began nationwide spelling competitions in 1941.

No competitions were held 

during the war years of 1943 - 1945.

As of this year, home school groups 

will compete with all public and private schools

in future competitions.

The seven students that competed in the local Bee at Cameron Village Library.

When Maya began practicing her words in mid-October,

the list seemed pretty daunting.

There were about 13 kids at that time

who had chosen to take part in the bee.

(The average number of kids who compete in the local Bee

 according to Scripps, is about 9.)

By the time competition day rolled around,

Maya had mastered approximately 350 words

and 7 kids gathered to participate.

Maya with her friend and co-participant, Natalie.

Maya was nervous, but composed,

and she did beautifully.

As the competition moved along,

kids began to drop out.

As we expected,

three of them remained for quite a while.

In all of the practices we had,

these girls were consistently the top three

and it was no different during the actual Bee.

At the end,

it was between Maya and Yael,

(pictured on the left).

Maya missed her word, which was

crepuscular.

This was frustrating for her

because she knew this word but got nervous.

She came and sat down,

disappointed and a bit confused

thinking that the competition was over.

The next word for Yael was also missed

which put Maya back in the competition.

She went back up with renewed vigor.

There were a few more rounds

and then when Maya spelled her final word correctly,

babblative,

tears came to my eyes and everyone began to applaud.

Her name is faint in the photograph, but it's there!

Maya was the champion!

What did she win?

K12.com is an online education resource 

that is a spelling bee prize donor

and supporter of the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

They will award the Local Bee winners

 a free semester of online foreign language instruction.

Maya has not decided which language she is going to learn,

but she can choose between Spanish,

Latin, French, Chinese or German.

She also won a year's subscription 

to Kids.Britannica.com.

She will have access to two different programs

specifically designed for kids ages 8 - 15

that include encyclopedias, atlas, dictionary,

thesaurus and interactive learning activities.

She gets a t-shirt as well,

but here's the really cool part...

Because Maya is the official Cary Homeschooler's Champion

 she will represent her group

at the Regional Bee

held on February 26th

at the NC State campus.

She will be competing with the other 83 champions

from Wake County's other home school groups

and public and private elementary and middle schools. 

Can you spell N.E.R.V.O.U.S.?

You better believe Maya can!

We have another huge list of words to master,

but she doesn't want to talk about those just yet.

We have promised her a week in Washington, D.C.,

absolutely spelling word free.

We are enormously proud of Maya,

and better yet,

she's proud of herself.

She has worked incredibly hard 

and she's earned this accomplishment.

Yay, Maya!