Spelling bee skillz

Granted, it's no Scripps National Spelling Bee, but it will provide some Saturday night entertainment. Plus, as an added bonus, it's fantastic p-r-a-c-t-i-c-e for Alena with her spelling words for the upcoming week (so far she's gotten perfect scores each week).

Introducing the kids to the concept of a spelling bee made for a novel idea to them, but has resulted in a great way to practice spelling that they see as a way to goof off and perform. Besides, the foot pedal on Alena's microphone which produces applause on demand adds a real-life effect when the speller answers correctly.

Our participants vary in their abilities, and the moderator chooses words accordingly. The current list of spelling words makes up Alena's turns at the mic (b-r-e-e-z-e/p-r-e-s-s); Alivia gets repeating word chunks (b-a-t/m-a-t/r-a-t); Alysse, our closed-eyes speller, gets the starters (c-a-t/d-o-g/A-l-y-s-s-e) with a new word thrown in here and there (l-o-v-e); and Trace, upon taking the stage, declares his own words (c-a-r/t-i-r-e-s/b-u-c-k-e-t) that we then have to spell letter by letter for him to repeat.

To date, the spellers haven't complained about the preferential treatment some competitors get. So far, so good.

We've held several of these living room bees and have yet to name a winner. I don't think it's yet occurred to them that a bee typically results in a top speller. But with them it's not about winning or losing, just pure F-U-N (well, that and the fake applause).