More words

Some of you were interested in some more of the words Number Six spelled correctly on Saturday, so I am adding some below.

algorithm
repertoire
maelstrom
diphthong
mnemonic
bureaucracy
vigilante
edelweiss
Fahrenheit
concerto
dachshund 
fallibility
angstrom
cravat
soliloquy
dystopia
parliamentary
audacious
manageability
teriyaki
Pyrrhic
howitzer
... and more

...and the three she missed on the written test, tying for first place with 47 correct out of fifty words:

erythrocyte
edelweiss (This was a silly lapse, she said later. She knew the word).
rapprochement

At Soliloquy, she looked back and smiled at me. It is her very-favorite word.

I must add: parents were invited to take the written test as well. Besides erythrocyte and rapprochement I missed eight more including teriyaki, Pyrrhic and howitzer. Husband however only missed five in total: rapprochement, diphthong, furlong, soliloquy and Fahrenheit, the last one a funny lapse he had to laugh about later, since he is in so many ways a climate scientist! My only real trump over him was getting diphthong right, while he missed it. (In Portuguese they are ditongos, and for some reason I always loved them in Grammar.)

Yesterday morning I handed her the Scripps Bee study guide and said, "...here we go, starting all over again". I must say I love our spelling study together. It reminds me of the weeks and weeks of preparing for the GeoBee every year with local four-time champion Number Four. We studied the Geography A to Z book every fall, from cover to cover, going through every known and unknown country of the world. The difference is, he retained an amazing amount of information as he found it all fascinating, while I... well, I can't even remember where I left my coffee cup just now.

So it is with Number Six. Our spelling study sessions, never under a couple of hours each it seems, happen in the sunny living room, we both comfortable and well-disposed. She usually has both the monumental Webster dictionary, one of the prizes of last year's State Bee, close at hand, and the Dictionary App of the iPad in her hands. As so many of the words are unknown, we look them up, read about them and listen to the audio. I spoke briefly with the word announcer after the Bee on Saturday saying how I have a hard time pronouncing words correctly (when they are unknown they all sound...hmmm... Portuguese?), and how the audio feature in the app helps immensely. She was very nice and said I pronounce them just fine. Maybe my accent makes me pronounce them more carefully and purer vowel sounds and in the end it may be helpful. It is however important that she hears a perfectly "American" pronouncing of each word lest she wouldn't recognize them at the Bee. Well, I admit most of the time she just rolls her eyes and corrects me. And we laugh.

Number Six does her Spelling studying only after her core subjects are done, and her homework for the different group, school and online classes including Government, Latin and French. She is hard worker, and willing learner. If Number Six wins Spelling trophies, it is like Thomas Edison famously said, "1% inspiration, 99% perspiration." She may love words, and be a natural good speller, but it is her hard, daily, consistent study that takes her to where she is.

May God bless and reward her.