1st Annual PAGE of Wake County Spelling Bee

Mylee rocks!

I told Maya she looked frightened in this shot. 

She said, "Then it's a true to life picture, mom! I am frightened!"

First things first:

Maya finished 13th overall in the Bee,

and won 2nd in her round.

We couldn't be more proud of her!

We're all doing Snoopy's Happy Dance!

When we started this whole thing

way back in the first part of October,

we really had no idea what we were jumping into.

That, perhaps,

is the case with a lot of worth while endeavors,

and that's what this became...

a very worthwhile endeavor.

All dressed up and waiting to head out Saturday morning.

When I got the first email from our friend, Sandra,

who coordinated Cary Home Schooler's participation

and jumped through all the hoops to get our group

registered and legal for Scripps,

I thought, "Hey! Maya's a good speller.

Maybe we should give this a shot."

 North Carolina State University Campus

When I spoke to Mylee about it,

she shrugged and said,

"Okay, whatever."

She's eleven.

This is about as excited as she gets.

We had our trials and tribulations the first go around.

We studied eight 50 word lists from first through eighth grade,

and then an additional 150 more challenging words

for the first Bee.

When she won and became the Cary Home Schoolers

Spelling Bee Champion,

she felt honored and surprised...

(although I knew all along that she had it in her.)

8:30 a.m.: The Witherspoon Student Center 

and the Spelling Bee participants waiting to be let in the building.

Cary Home Schoolers, (CHS)

just celebrated its 10th anniversary in January of 2011

and it had never held a spelling bee.

The local bee for Scripps was the first one,

and Maya was the winner.

Pretty awesome if you ask me.

I've said all of this before,

but it bears repeating so have patience, please.

Scripps started its Bee in 1941,

taking three years off during WWII.

Not until this year were home school organizations

allowed to compete.

Not only did Mylee get to participate in CHS's

first ever spelling bee,

but then she got to participate in the first ever

Scripps Bee as a home schooled student.

The last time Wake County participated in the Bee was in 1997.

PAGE of Wake County 

(Partners for the Advancement of Gifted Education)

became the local sponsor,

along with the North Carolina State University Colleges of

Education and Humanities and Social Sciences,

the News and Observer and the Carolina Hurricanes.

Maya was a part of this first Bee after a 14 year hiatus,

and, as far as we can tell, she was the only home schooled student

out of a total of 84 kids.

She won't be the only one, though.

Maya's wedged her cute, booted, home schooled foot into the door folks...

Watch out...here we come!

Our day started at 6:45 a.m.,

which is early for us Wings. 

Maya and I had spent about seven hours the previous day

going over and over and over her words. 

We thought this sign should have been much BIGGER!

She took this challenge seriously.

She told both Steven and I on numerous occasions

that she didn't want to go and not know in her heart

that she had worked as hard as she could.

Feeling some anxiety.

She knew these words,

but she had a handful of what we called 'fear words',

or words she feared she would be asked to spell.

These words, for whatever personal reasons,

were difficult for her. 

The expression in the above picture is a great illustration...

she's thinking about those 'fear words'.

Here we are...the Wing Spelling Team.

I dreamed about spelling words the night before

and the morning of the Bee.

Everywhere I go, I see one of her words.

We were immersed in it,

worked so very hard at learning these words.

(Do I look well rested? Not so much.

Do I look a bit stressed? Yeah. That was me...just a bit.)

Once we got her registered,

she put on her cool Bee shirt.

She was happy with her number...somewhere right in the middle.

When it was over, she joked that she'd kind of gotten used to

being called "Number 48" by the volunteers.

They had a lot of kids to shuffle around,

and they did a pretty darn good job for the most part.

We shuffled into the auditorium,

which was actually a cinema on the NC State Campus.

The spellers sat in the front and the parents and other spectators

took seats further back.

Maya during one of the many breaks in the competition.

The rounds took quite a long time,

and Maya made it through nearly eight of them

before, yep...one of her fear words surfaced.

She took the judges bell

and the pronouncer's soft, "I'm sorry," 

with absolute grace and walked off the stage

with her head held high

knowing that she'd worked as hard as possible,

that she'd been as prepared as she could have been,

and that she'd given it her all.

She came out of it with a sense of pride in her accomplishment

and with a greater confidence within herself.

What more could a parent ask of their child?

What more could a child ask of themselves?

Nothing.

She'd won!

She'd succeeded!

My heart was full to brimming.

 Maya's medal.

Did the Bee go off without a hitch?

No...

As instructed, all 84 spellers and their parents showed up at 8:30 a.m.,

steaming cups of coffee and breakfasts in hand in anticipation

of entering the building and beginning the Bee at nine a.m.

We all stood shivering outside the Witherspoon Student Center

for fifteen or twenty minutes

while the volunteers figured out the registration process,

but start time was only delayed until about 9:30.

 Scott was amazing. He was able to sit still from 9 am until 1:30,

while dressed up and with nothing to entertain him.

He was a bit punchy by the time we arrived at Chili's.

There were too many breaks in between rounds

and it took too long to get everyone back to their seats,

(including spellers who had to be pulled from the bathrooms

before the Bee could continue,)

and the children were somewhat confused by the system that was used

to get them up onto the stage.

You can't mess around with a nervous child.

You have to have your act together...

they're already thinking about way too much

and have so much pressure on them to do well.

Smiling and happy.

Bee is over and she's eating pizza and sipping on Coke.

This fact was highlighted only too well

when a poor child, (only two behind Mylee)

came up to the microphone, spelled his word correctly,

then proceeded to throw up all over the stage,

nearly missing the pronouncer and all three judges sitting

in front of him.

We felt so badly for him.

Nerves...

they can be brutal.

After another 20 minute intermission 

while the volunteers cleaned up the stage,

the boy returned, (yay for him!)

and the Bee was under way once more.

Scott has been a supportive brother, giving Maya encouragement and allowing us time to study.

It was announced that the Bee would go from 

nine a.m. to noon.

When Maya stepped off of the stage for the last time,

it was 1:30, with twelve more kids in the running.

The spellers got bottled water,

but there were no concessions

and we kept hearing rumblings from the audience

about being hungry.

We tried to calculate how long each round had been

to see when we all might be getting some lunch.

The apple muffins and Carnation Instant Breakfast

our kids had consumed on the ride to the campus

at eight that morning had long since burned off

and when Maya joined the rest of us,

she claimed that she was starving.

Scotty, Steven and I all seconded that

and decided that we, as well as a majority of 

the families before us,

needed to leave before the awards ceremony

to put some food into our bellies.

It was a bit long...

and, while no one can determine how well these children

will be able to spell,

(and more power to the kids!)

low blood sugar makes for an antsy group.

Knowing then what we knew now,

would we do it all over again?

My answer would be a resounding,

YES!

When I asked Maya this question she said,

"I would have protested a lot more loudly."

She did say, however, that she was glad she'd done it,

and she most likely won't understand how much this experience has given her

until she's much older.

Honestly, I'm not sure we can expect differently.

She is excited about the two Hurricanes tickets she won

for being in the Bee.

She and I are going to go and enjoy the game this Tuesday.

Go Canes!

Will she do it again?

If you ask her right now,

she'll tell you,

"I think once was enough."

We'll honor that decision,

but we'll definitely support her if she chooses to compete again.

I'm thinking that by the time Scott's turn comes around

in another two to three years,

a lot of the kinks will be worked out

and the process might run a bit smoother.

Until then, however, we are going to take a break.

The next Bee I see will hopefully be the big, fat, furry,

yellow and black kind that like to buzz around the azaleas

in the back yard.

Now that our spelling adventure is over,

the Writing Workshops have come to a close

and we are all taking a collective and cleansing breath of fresh air,

I find myself wondering how to break it to them

that now we need to start preparing for

the Geography Fair???

I'll give it a week.

:)