Jean in Newcastle Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 Congratulations and good luck! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-rap Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 Wow, congratulations to your whole family!! Doing what you do requires dedication, discipline, focus, commitment, and so much more. All of those well-earned skills will carry over to some many areas in their lives. Please ignore any dumb comments made by fools. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RegGuheert Posted May 25, 2015 Author Share Posted May 25, 2015 WOW - SMALL WORLD!! I woke up here in Bangalore this morning, got my morning paper, read the cute story about the American family with all the Spelling Bee wins and put it away. Only to find out you are one of the HIVE?? Well - you have made it to the international news as well (check out the webiste for the Bangalore Mirror - that is the paper I read it in!) Congrats and best of luck to your family!! Wow! Thanks! We'll be sure to tell DS13 he got coverage in India! Unfortunately, I was unable to find the article in the Bangalore Mirror. But after a bit of Googling, I found an article in The Hindu Business Line. That article is similar to, but different than, the one found in the Post. We have had other spellers covered in national press (Associated Press or Scipps News Service), but this appears to have been picked up by PTI, which is the Press Trust of India. Perhaps The Washington Post licenses international versions of some of their articles for use around the world. The whole publicity part of the National Spelling Bee can be a lot of fun! In 2006, DD22 got written up in an AP article and then ESPN sent a crew for two days in 2012 to make a spot on DS17. (I told a friend at church with children active in sports that ESPN was coming and I received a very confused look, since we are not active in sports!). That spot is a very nice piece of memorabilia we have from our years in the bees. I see that this piece has also been translated into DC Gangsta by The Washington Pist! I'm thinking this will likely be the children's favorite version of the article. DS13 and MomsintheGarden have already been stopped by one speller who recognized them from the article. That apparently gave DS13 a bit of a boost! It's fun for him even though he is not a top contender this year. 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soror Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 Many congrats to your family! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachel Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 Congratulations and good luck! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomtoCandJ Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 Good luck!!!!! I remember making to our regional spelling bee in the UP of Michigan when I was in 7th grade. As far as the comments, just jealous that they enjoy something that's useful and won't result in "career ending" injuries. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cammie Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 I'll try and take a picture and send it to you...PM me with your email if you want! It had a picture and everything! It did focus also on the numerous Indian-American kids in the spelling bees (of course that would be the focus!) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RegGuheert Posted May 25, 2015 Author Share Posted May 25, 2015 I'll try and take a picture and send it to you...PM me with your email if you want! It had a picture and everything! It did focus also on the numerous Indian-American kids in the spelling bees (of course that would be the focus!) The article sounds like the one I mentioned above in The Hindu Business Line except that article has no pictures. Did your article also say "PTI" at the top? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cammie Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 The article sounds like the one I mentioned above in The Hindu Business Line except that article has no pictures. Did your article also say "PTI" at the top? Yup. It was a very nice picture of everyone sitting with their trophies I think. The PTI is how all the local papers get international coverage for their international page. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RegGuheert Posted May 25, 2015 Author Share Posted May 25, 2015 Reg, are you picking strawberries? 6.5 pounds of them this morning: I gave the children a 30-minute break from studying spelling so that they could help. ;) The strawberries are hulled, rinsed and in the freezer now. (Not ENTIRELY off-topic. The National Spelling Bee always happens when strawberry season is peaking!) 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RegGuheert Posted May 25, 2015 Author Share Posted May 25, 2015 The National Spelling Bee Photo Gallery is online now with some pictures from yesterday. Check back every day for more pictures. If you're wondering what the picture with the girl signing into the microphone is all about, ESPN is filming their annual music video featuring the top spellers. Often it is to the tune of the Jackson Five's "ABC". 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luuknam Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 Well, it's less "cray cray" than having a kid get the world record in speed (Rubik's) cubing. And probably a lot cheaper than most competitive sports training (which, fwiw, I also think is a little crazy). I'm not sure how you prepare - the comments say something about 6 hours per day? If that's 6 hours per day of practicing spelling words on the computer (or w/e), then that's a bit much. Need to leave some time, for, for example, treehugging (or picking strawberries). But if that's mostly just reading a bunch of books (while keeping a dictionary nearby), meh. I'd reserve the "giving homeschooling a bad name" comments for people who actually neglect/abuse their kids. Of course, most of the people commenting on those sites are probably a little "cray cray" themselves. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idnib Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 Anyone know if people can watch if they don't have a TV or cable? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomsintheGarden Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 6.5 pounds of them this morning: I gave the children a 30-minute break from studying spelling so that they could help. ;) The strawberries are hulled, rinsed and in the freezer now. (Not ENTIRELY off-topic. The National Spelling Bee always happens when strawberry season is peaking!) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekland Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 To anyone who might think that anything a Hive member might do to their kids is abuse (like insist upon spelling or chores or math or...), feel free to send me a pm and I can relate some stories of real "families" from our public high school and their "decisions" for comparison. I suspect many of those making comments need an introduction to the real world to calibrate their scale. All kids get exposed to things their parents find worthy. For ours, this is travel (and farm stuff and other things). To others it may be various sports or music or dance or _______. Then there are those who truly lose the birth lottery and get exposed to crime and alcoholism/drug abuse or those who end up in uber strict families (or cultures) where they get disowned or shamed to the point of desperation for common things. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RegGuheert Posted May 25, 2015 Author Share Posted May 25, 2015 Have I rendered MomsintheGarden speechless...again? :lol: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwg Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 I have just read the op and skimmed until I got here but did you know there are people on the internet that post pics of their kids playing in poop? and then people who support people like that? It was probably one of them. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RegGuheert Posted May 25, 2015 Author Share Posted May 25, 2015 I'm not sure how you prepare - the comments say something about 6 hours per day? If that's 6 hours per day of practicing spelling words on the computer (or w/e), then that's a bit much. But if that's mostly just reading a bunch of books (while keeping a dictionary nearby), meh. You cannot attain a sufficiently-high competency level to be able to win (or even make the semifinals of) the National Spelling Bee by only reading books. Many of the difficult words, even at the lower levels of competition, are extremely rare and/or come from medical textbooks or from virtually every other realm of scientific study. To win the National Spelling Bee, some spellers have stated that they have studied 10 hours per day. And may maintain that pace for a year or more. It takes multiple years of study to learn enough words to have a chance to win the National Spelling Bee.* I don't know the exact statistic, but I expect it has been decades since a first-year participant at the National Spelling Bee won. * There are RARE exceptions. Once in a while we will see a child competing who has a photographic memory. But none of them have ever actually won the national bee (to my knowledge). It is quite fascinating to see them function: it is as if they are reading the word directly from the dictionary. Need to leave some time, for, for example, treehugging (or picking strawberries). :laugh: Unfortunately, if I sent my children out to hug a tree, I suspect they would go straight for the closest one we have. It is covered with poison ivy! Picking strawberries they can handle. FWIW, our family tends to be rather STEM-focused, particularly when compared with most students (public, private or homeschool) in this area. As such, spelling does not make our children LESS well-rounded, it makes them MORE well-rounded. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RegGuheert Posted May 25, 2015 Author Share Posted May 25, 2015 I have just read the op and skimmed until I got here but did you know there are people on the internet that post pics of their kids playing in poop? and then people who support people like that? It was probably one of them. MomsintheGarden is a gardener. As such, our children are not allowed to play in the poop. Instead, they are required to WORK WITH the poop. We consider that to be much more appropriate! :thumbup: (Don't get me wrong: MomsintheGarden does not require the children to do anything she doesn't do herself!) 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwg Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 lol I was talking about that family in kentucky- the Nauglers. There is another thread about them. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LucyStoner Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 It's also worth noting that people break up their spelling a bit and that the 6-10 hour days are more for weekends than every single day. Most spellers have too much else going on with school work and hobbies (many spellers are musicians or have some other serious hobby) to do 6+ hours day in and day out. Most do very well in school with very full courseloads, all of which takes time.So yes, my son is studying for hours a day but it's usually 3-4 chunks of time (some solo, some with me as a coach) of 1-1.5 hours each. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Newcastle Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 People who excel at any competition will often put in 6 hours a day at it (or something related to it). We tend to think of it as a virtue when it is a sport - esp. one of the popular ones on the Olympics. Good job finding your family's "sport", Reg. Your kids look happy and healthy and proud of their achievements. 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RegGuheert Posted May 25, 2015 Author Share Posted May 25, 2015 Anyone know if people can watch if they don't have a TV or cable? Good question! This has been a perennial frustration of ours. We do not have paid TV channels, so we do not have access from home. I think the hotel where the bee is held has ESPN, but not ESPN2, or some such, so you cannot easily follow from your room when you are not in the ballroom. The finals used to be on ABC, but no more. I think the bee ran over into scheduled weekly programming (causing complaints from viewers) one too many times. ESPN is much more used to dealing with events with unspecified length. ESPN3 is an internet channel, but it is only available from a handful of internet providers. That channel is only used for the preliminary rounds on Wednesday. That said, ESPN has been great for the National Spelling Bee. They do a terrific job each year and put a lot of effort into the bee. They also work extremely well with the children. Several of the staff members at ESPN have told us that they look forward to this event each year because of the children and a break from their normal venues. We got a glimpse of what they do when they made a spot on DS17 a few years ago. They assign a different producer to EACH child which they will produce a spot for (perhaps 10 of them each year) and that producer hires a team of a camera person and a sound person. Then they all travel to wherever the speller lives and spend a couple of days shooting everything that moves. Then they go back and spend a couple of weeks editing the piece (into three different-length segments) before it is ready for broadcast. The producer who created the spots on DS17 was extremely impressive, as was her crew. I told MomsintheGarden that with two full days of footage of our family in hand, they could paint our family ANY way they chose just by how they edited the piece. But the spots they make on the spellers are really outstanding! If you have ever watched the National Spelling Bee, you have seen the quality of these short pieces. They are every bit as good as a spots they do on a professional sports stars. I wish I had a better answer on being able to watch, but I don't. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RegGuheert Posted May 25, 2015 Author Share Posted May 25, 2015 Most spellers have too much else going on with school work and hobbies (many spellers are musicians or have some other serious hobby) to do 6+ day in and day out. Most do very well in school with very full courseloads, all of which takes time. Just to add to this thought: It is against the National Spelling Bee rules to exclude other schoolwork to train for the bee. Rule (8) reads as follows: (8) The speller must not bypass or circumvent normal school activity to study for spelling bees. The Bee defines normal school activity as adherence to at least four courses of study other than language arts, spelling, Latin, Greek, vocabulary and etymology for at least four hours per weekday for 34 of the 38 weeks between August 26, 2014, and May 17, 2015. In order to attend the National Spelling Bee, the parents are required to sign a form confirming that the speller is in compliance with all of the bee rules. IIRC, that form specifically calls out Rule (8). We have never met a student who won the National Spelling Bee who we thought was not also excelling in other areas of study. Most are simply incredible in what they have achieved. In fact, it is not at all uncommon for some of the finalists in the National Spelling Bee to also have been finalists or winners of the National Geography Bee (or some other national competition). :svengo: We have never felt that was a reasonable possibility for any of our children. 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RegGuheert Posted May 25, 2015 Author Share Posted May 25, 2015 The National Spelling Bee Photo Gallery is online now with some pictures from yesterday. Check back every day for more pictures. Scripps has uploaded pictures from today's picnic into the gallery (but got the date wrong...). Click on the link above to see what kinds of things spellers do at a picnic... :001_smile: 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idnib Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 Ok, I did some research. It turns out ESPN announced Sling in January of this year. It's a legit service, not an illegal virus-laden site, for watching selected channels without a TV, including ESPN and ESPN2. It doesn't appear to have ESPN3. Cost is $20/month, first 7 days free. You can add HBO (sorry, not related to this thread!) for $15/month. Here are some packages. I'm going to sign up and I'll report back on how well it works. Hopefully not too much of the bee will be on ESPN3. P.S. I looked into "adult swim", one of the listed channels, due to the name. It's a cartoon. I don't know enough to know if it's okay for children, but it's not what it sounds like. :) 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LucyStoner Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 Just to add to this thought: It is against the National Spelling Bee rules to exclude other schoolwork to train for the bee. Rule (8) reads as follows: In order to attend the National Spelling Bee, the parents are required to sign a form confirming that the speller is in compliance with all of the bee rules. IIRC, that form specifically calls out Rule (8). We have never met a student who won the National Spelling Bee who we thought was not also excelling in other areas of study. Most are simply incredible in what they have achieved. In fact, it is not at all uncommon for some of the finalists in the National Spelling Bee to also have been finalists or winners of the National Geography Bee (or some other national competition). :svengo: We have never felt that was a reasonable possibility for any of our children. Yup. I wonder if they ask homeschoolers to verify their other work? You folks must know, being homeschoolers and repeat bee competitors. I've been curious because I wouldn't want my son disqualified for lack of documentation in other subjects, should he ever be so fortunate as to get to the national level. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caroline Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 Adult swim is not a channel for kids. It is cartoons, but it is aimed at adults. Back to your spelling bee thread--I am impressed by people who can spell. I cannot. Ok, I did some research. It turns out ESPN announced Sling in January of this year. It's a legit service, not an illegal virus-laden site, for watching selected channels without a TV, including ESPN and ESPN2. It doesn't appear to have ESPN3. Cost is $20/month, first 7 days free. You can add HBO (sorry, not related to this thread!) for $15/month. Here are some packages. I'm going to sign up and I'll report back on how well it works. Hopefully not too much of the bee will be on ESPN3. P.S. I looked into "adult swim", one of the listed channels, due to the name. It's a cartoon. I don't know enough to know if it's okay for children, but it's not what it sounds like. :) 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annie G Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 Scripps has uploaded pictures from today's picnic into the gallery (but got the date wrong...). Click on the link above to see what kinds of things spellers do at a picnic... :001_smile: This is what I wish people would see- pictures of kids who excel not only at spelling but at tons of other things (see their bios!) but know how to kick back and have fun just like any other kid. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RegGuheert Posted May 25, 2015 Author Share Posted May 25, 2015 Yup. I wonder if they ask homeschoolers to verify their other work? You folks must know, being homeschoolers and repeat bee competitors. I've been curious because I wouldn't want my son disqualified for lack of documentation in other subjects, should he ever be so fortunate as to get to the national level. You do not need to provide any documentation beyond simply certifying that the speller has complied. I can send you the exact form which must be signed, but I cannot do it right now: All of the spellers are back in their rooms trying to prepare for the competition tomorrow using the online study tool, so the secure part of the National Spelling Bee website is overloaded and therefore not working. (This is one of those things which you learn from experience. DS13 has offline study tools in place, so he is not impacted by the Scripps website performance.) 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RegGuheert Posted May 25, 2015 Author Share Posted May 25, 2015 Joe Heim has just posted two more human interest stories about the National Spelling Bee: Indian Americans dominate the National Spelling Bee. Why should they take abuse on social media for it? Former spelling bee champ to professional poker player I think that first article is directly in-tune with the rest of this thread. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luuknam Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 You cannot attain a sufficiently-high competency level to be able to win (or even make the semifinals of) the National Spelling Bee by only reading books. Many of the difficult words, even at the lower levels of competition, are extremely rare and/or come from medical textbooks or from virtually every other realm of scientific study. To win the National Spelling Bee, some spellers have stated that they have studied 10 hours per day. And may maintain that pace for a year or more. It takes multiple years of study to learn enough words to have a chance to win the National Spelling Bee.* I don't know the exact statistic, but I expect it has been decades since a first-year participant at the National Spelling Bee won. :laugh: Unfortunately, if I sent my children out to hug a tree, I suspect they would go straight for the closest one we have. It is covered with poison ivy! Picking strawberries they can handle. The comment about hugging trees was referring to your username. :) I didn't say by *only* reading books. But spending 6 hours per day on most days on a spelling program is a little crazy to me, even if that's what it takes to get to nationals. So is training to get into the Olympics, to address Jean. Not an "OMG you're abusing your kids"-crazy. More of a "for every person that wins those things there are a LOT of others who also trained 6+ hours per day" kind of way. Not a lot on a societal scale - obviously most people don't put in that kind of effort into things like that, but how many kids go to e.g. the National Spelling Bee each year (and presumably practice that much)? And how many of them win? Anyhow, if the kid enjoys it, w/e. I'm probably just not a major competition kind of person. Crazy isn't always bad. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idnib Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 Ok, I did some research. It turns out ESPN announced Sling in January of this year. It's a legit service, not an illegal virus-laden site, for watching selected channels without a TV, including ESPN and ESPN2. It doesn't appear to have ESPN3. Cost is $20/month, first 7 days free. You can add HBO (sorry, not related to this thread!) for $15/month. Here are some packages. I'm going to sign up and I'll report back on how well it works. Hopefully not too much of the bee will be on ESPN3. P.S. I looked into "adult swim", one of the listed channels, due to the name. It's a cartoon. I don't know enough to know if it's okay for children, but it's not what it sounds like. :) Sorry, quoting myself. I signed up and it seems to work fine. I'm watching ESPN and we plan to watch the bee! I had forgotten how annoying commercials are. :glare: I'll give it a real test tonight during the NBA western conference final. Everyone here is going nuts about that so it should be a good test of the bandwidth and buffering. I'm happy to be at the bee in spirit! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RegGuheert Posted May 26, 2015 Author Share Posted May 26, 2015 The comment about hugging trees was referring to your username. :) Yes, I got that! :001_smile: I didn't say by *only* reading books. But spending 6 hours per day on most days on a spelling program is a little crazy to me, even if that's what it takes to get to nationals. So is training to get into the Olympics, to address Jean. Not an "OMG you're abusing your kids"-crazy. More of a "for every person that wins those things there are a LOT of others who also trained 6+ hours per day" kind of way. Not a lot on a societal scale - obviously most people don't put in that kind of effort into things like that, but how many kids go to e.g. the National Spelling Bee each year (and presumably practice that much)? And how many of them win? Anyhow, if the kid enjoys it, w/e. I'm probably just not a major competition kind of person. Crazy isn't always bad. I think you are missing an important aspect (that was also not obvious to us before we participated in these competitions): Competing at a very high level teaches the competitors that they are able to accomplish amazing things. If you read the article about the poker player that I linked above, you hear that sentiment clearly from Pratyush Buddiga. But your post seems to imply that somehow only WINNING at the National Spelling Bee is important. Nothing could be farther from the truth! Four of my children have learned a lot about themselves and what they were capable of simply by making it to the National Spelling Bee. And the payback has been very real and very significant: DD22 made it into the semifinals in her second appearance in the bee and has continued to excel throughout college in a major which relied heavily on her memory skills, and she graduated at the top of her class above thousands of other students in her major. (BTW, the scholarships she was awarded for college were worth several times more than the prize money awarded for winning the National Spelling Bee.) She is now working in a well-respected PhD program which continues to challenge her and requires a significant amount of very hard work. DS17 made it into the finals at the National Spelling Bee in his seventh-grade year, only to be the first competitor out in those finals. He came back to the National Spelling Bee in his eighth-grade year after training extremely hard only to be eliminated before the semi-final round. That was an immense disappointment for him, but he learned to deal with an emotion with which he had had little experience with previously. (One of the other finalists in DS17's seventh-grade year was Sriram Hathwar. He did not even make it back to the National Spelling Bee the next year. But last year he came back to become co-champion.) DS17 benefited immensely from his success in the National Spelling Bee. He became somewhat of a local celebrity and was invited to make a speech at our local library about his experiences. He was terrified! But a friend from church who was knowledgeable about speech and debate coached him and he did a fine job. This led our family to begin participating in speech and debate. DS17 has excelled in this venue, qualifying for national competition in four separate events both last year and this year. DS17 enjoys public speaking so much now that he wanted to teach computer programming this year. He did: He taught AP computer science (introductory college-level programming) to a group of homeschool students both fall and spring semesters this year. DS15 made it to the National Spelling Bee for the first and only time last year. He did not advance past the preliminary rounds. But this was a major success for him: DS17 was stricken with neurological Lyme disease a couple of years prior and literally was losing his ability to think sufficiently to even do his school work. He completed 18 months of difficult treatment on the day prior to the regional spelling bee last year. He barely edged out his brother, DS13, after over sixty rounds of spelling to make it to the national level. This was no minor miracle given his situation. His recovery has been a major victory for him and his berth to the National Spelling Bee was confirmation of his success. He continues to improve steadily. DS13 was happy for DS15 last year because he said it was his last chance to compete. But he has always wanted to compete in the National Spelling Bee. So he has always worked hard. And it shows. He has won (or tied) our local homeschool spelling bee for the three years that he could compete for the National Bee. And this year he finally made it to the nationals. How will his hard work benefit him? We don't know, but we are excited for him! We have no doubt that he will benefit in ways which we cannot even predict today. But the effort for the National Spelling Bee goes FAR beyond the six hours per day we are discussing here. MomsintheGarden has spent countless hours coaching these spellers and preparing training materials for them to use in their daily study tasks. DS17 has written software tools for them to use in their studying and I have spent some time preparing materials as well. So why do we do all of this? Is it really because we are crazy? Maybe, but I doubt it. I like to tell our children that MomsintheGarden and I were both good students in school, but neither of us EVER competed in anything at the national level. They have achieved something that they can be rightfully proud of and that can never be taken away from them. To me, one of the major promises of homeschooling is that our children might be able to achieve more than their parents did. So far, I would say that all of our children are well ahead of their parents in many different areas than we were at the same points in our lives. And MomsintheGarden gets the bulk of the credit for this. Her hard work and dedication to pushing our children to achieve has paid and continues to pay major dividends. I owe her my sincerest gratitude for all that she is and does! And I am proud of all of our children, regardless of whether they make it to the National Spelling Bee. 16 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RegGuheert Posted May 26, 2015 Author Share Posted May 26, 2015 Sorry, quoting myself. I signed up and it seems to work fine. I'm watching ESPN and we plan to watch the bee! I had forgotten how annoying commercials are. :glare: I'll give it a real test tonight during the NBA final. Everyone here is going nuts about that so it should be a good test of the bandwidth and buffering. I'm happy I'll get to be there in spirit! Thank you for figuring all of this out and teaching us about it! I might try the 7-day free trial. I'm guessing there is no way to record from this service. Do you know? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denise in IN Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 Reg & MomsintheGarden, congratulations to your ds! And to you, for leading and challenging your students in this way. I hope he competes well this week and has a great sense of satisfaction regardless of the outcome. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RegGuheert Posted May 26, 2015 Author Share Posted May 26, 2015 Joe Heim has just posted two more human interest stories about the National Spelling Bee: Indian Americans dominate the National Spelling Bee. Why should they take abuse on social media for it? Sorry, guys, but I couldn't help myself and I read the comments on the Indian-American article. So far they are mostly positive, but I did find this gem: Insightbyjake 3:58 AM EDT Spelling is not a talent, nor a skill. It is merely the absence of needing to look up stuff. These "contests" are a waste of time and substance. The memorization of obscurity is hardly a triumph for any ethnicity. Let me see if I can capture the essence of that first sentence: "Knowledge is not a skill but rather it is the absence of ignorance.". Thank you for that insight, Jake! Anyway, this morning the spellers will take the written portion of the preliminary rounds. This test contains 12 spelling words and 12 vocabulary words for Round 1 as well as one vocabulary word each for rounds 2 and 3. All of the students have the same set of words in Round 1, but they each have different spelling and vocabulary words in Rounds 2 and 3. The words in Round 1 come from the dictionary at large. The words in Round 2 come from a prepared list called Spell It!. This list is used for all levels of competition: local, regional and national, and has been around for years. The words in Round 3 come from a list of 600 words which are provided on about April 1 to all of the winners of the regional spelling bees around the world. Most people do not realize that the Round 1 portion of the written test is REALLY what determines who advances to the semi-final rounds on Thursday. It may appear that spellers are being eliminated during the oral rounds on Wednesday, but if those spellers are not able to correctly spell words from the two prepared lists which they have been given, then it is likely that all of those spellers were already eliminated by their scores on the Tuesday morning test. Rounds 2 and 3 really are a formality. ESPN will know who to be interviewing later this morning, but the spellers and their parents will need to wait until Wednesday evening to find out who advances. That's not to say that the preliminary oral rounds on Wednesday should not exist. They need to be there for a couple of reasons: First, they allow spellers to get up and spell at least one word on the big stage. If they spell correctly, they get another chance in the afternoon. This is important since these spellers have worked very hard to get to the National Spelling Bee and also their sponsors and others in their region have worked hard to arrange local and regional bees and have paid for them to travel to this bee. It would be extremely unfair to not allow them the opportunity to get up on that stage. Second, it gives all the spellers an opportunity to try to spell on the big stage with words they should know before (possibly) going on to the more difficult rounds. Basically, I consider the preliminary rounds to be immensely fair as they are currently administered: all students either spell or define the same words as their competitors OR they spell or define words that all competitors have received in lists well in advance of the competition. There is another written test administered to the semi-finalists on Wednesday evening. It is just like the Round 1 test: 12 vocabulary and 12 written words. Only this test is harder than the Round 1 test. I suppose that test is known as Round 4, but I am not sure. There are also vocabulary words given for Round 5 and Round 6: a different pair of words for each speller. The spellers will then compete on stage for Rounds 5 and 6 with individual spelling words. The words used in Rounds 5 and 6 do NOT come from any prepared lists like they do in Rounds 2 and 3, so those rounds are immensely more difficult (and some parents argue: more unfair). But that is the nature of spelling bees. The finalists who compete on Thursday night will not have missed any of their oral words and will have the highest combined score on their written tests. After that, it is all single-elimination spelling. And very hard words! After the test this morning, we'll be grilling DS13 to try to gauge his chances of advancing. (even though it is now virtually impossible given the difficulty of the Round 1 vocabulary test). If you would like to get a feel for how rounds 1, 2 and 3 work and the difficulty of the words, you can try it yourself with last year's words: Take the Test. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cammie Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 I've read interesting articles on how the Indian diaspora focused in on the Spelling Bees and organized themselves into community spelling support systems. They have many competitions within the community and it certainly is not looked down upon to spend the time preparing for these academic competitions. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekland Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 I didn't say by *only* reading books. But spending 6 hours per day on most days on a spelling program is a little crazy to me, even if that's what it takes to get to nationals. So is training to get into the Olympics, to address Jean. Not an "OMG you're abusing your kids"-crazy. More of a "for every person that wins those things there are a LOT of others who also trained 6+ hours per day" kind of way. Not a lot on a societal scale - obviously most people don't put in that kind of effort into things like that, but how many kids go to e.g. the National Spelling Bee each year (and presumably practice that much)? And how many of them win? Anyhow, if the kid enjoys it, w/e. I'm probably just not a major competition kind of person. Crazy isn't always bad. In my teen years I spent 6 hours many days riding and caring for horses/ponies. I got up before school (willingly, on my own) to work with one and either went to a stable or came home after school and worked with others. It was fun. It's what I chose to do. I was decent showing locally, and later intercollegiately, but we could never afford to show regionally or even nationally. I was often wistful about that, but it didn't matter. Spending those hours being like many of my school peers and watching TV or hanging out at each other's houses or in the malls would have been a really boring childhood & teen years IMO. My kids were never interested in riding. They were interested in chess, esp the older two. I wish I had done more to let them have greater involvement, but that wasn't part of my knowledge at the time. My guys led their high school chess team TO the state championships. One year the team won it (for their division)! By his senior year middle son won his division (individually) at the state level and was beating more senior (higher rated) people online. I'll never know what he could have done, but I wish I had known more to give him more opportunity than just what was available through school to be honest. That was merely a season. Chess is year round. He's so active in other things in college right now that he barely plays chess, but that doesn't mean the hours he spent improving his game were wasted. He has an incredible mind to both remember things and come up with unique solutions - a great skill for any other discipline. Humans (and their desires) really do vary. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junie Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 Good luck to all of the Hive Spellers!! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinder Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 If you would like to get a feel for how rounds 1, 2 and 3 work and the difficulty of the words, you can try it yourself with last year's words: Take the Test. Phew--just made it. I got 29, needed 28. I'm a decent speller but terrible at vocab. Depending on the list used that day I might not have made it. There was a nice article in the local paper about one of the GA contestants--Monisha Mahadevan. I wish I could link it but it's in the subscription section so unavailable for public viewing. The article is similar to the Guheerts with regard to describing her enthusiasm and hard work as well as the parents' support role. She said a couple things that I thought were very mature and insightful: On learning the words: "You gain a really broad understanding of the English language itself, and you learn history through finding how the roots are created and how they went into English, and I think you gain a lot of culture because you learn about these other languages," she said. "I think one misconception people have about the bees is that it's all memorization. But really, it's a lot of application." On why spelling bees are still important today: "It's not about knowing how to spell the words," she said. "The point of education is to learn how to think, to learn how to critically deal with and solve problems. That's what being a 21-st century learner is. And that's something the spelling bee does." 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Newcastle Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 Made it barely. I think there were only about 2 words I had never heard of. But I tend to be one of those people who starts to see all the words as wrong after looking at them. I'm much better if I don't see any spellings and just have a pen and paper. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 It is starting to be a family thing with more spellers, the homeschooler who air typed last year aged out but her little brother made it this year! He writes on his hand, no fun air typing, but I will root for him and your son. He is only 11 and it is his first year, but I am sure big sis has tips for him just like your family has tips and encouragement to pass on. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idnib Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 I think I got a 31, but I'm not sure. I took it a couple of days ago when this thread started and now I can't remember. Anyway, I made it. I would not have made it when I was at the age range for the competition, that's for sure. Preliminaries: Wednesday 8:00a EDT and 1:15p EDT, ESPN3 Semifinals: Thursday 10:00a EDT, ESPN2 Finals: Thursday 8:00p EDT, ESPN 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kerileanne99 Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 Did anyone post regarding the Buzzworthy App from the spelling bee? I am posting the Scripps link below. It looks like a fun way to get kids involved in the bee and follow along. In fact, it would be cool if the HIVE spellers want to share their code and we can all cheer them on, and spell with them:) I have a dd5 who is desperate to spell competitively so I think I will let her download it this evening:) http://us5.campaign-archive1.com/?u=af54d277651e6822d87b375a3&id=79468ff89a&e=1541d050b8 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RegGuheert Posted May 26, 2015 Author Share Posted May 26, 2015 Phew--just made it. I got 29, needed 28. I'm a decent speller but terrible at vocab. Depending on the list used that day I might not have made it. Made it barely. I think there were only about 2 words I had never heard of. But I tend to be one of those people who starts to see all the words as wrong after looking at them. I'm much better if I don't see any spellings and just have a pen and paper. I think I got a 31, but I'm not sure. I took it a couple of days ago when this thread started and now I can't remember. Anyway, I made it. I would not have made it when I was at the age range for the competition, that's for sure.Wow! I'm very impressed! I didn't make it. You guys are very good at spelling and vocabulary! It looks like DS13 will end up with 24 if he gets the Round 2 and 3 spelling words correct tomorrow. He misspelled one word which he should have gotten right, but the test was very hard. I'll try to post the test here if I have a chance to type it in. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arliemaria Posted May 27, 2015 Share Posted May 27, 2015 Phoey on those people! We just had our State homeschool conference and I went to a great workshop on Spelling and the Brain given by Andrew Pudewa. It was extremely interesting and he had some very compelling things to say about the importance of the study of Spelling. Haters gonna hate. Shake it off. :laugh: Is there a talk/article available online? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annie G Posted May 27, 2015 Share Posted May 27, 2015 Watching online at ESPN3 now, linked from the Scripps site. Pulling for your boy, Reg and Momsinthegarden! 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KarenC Posted May 27, 2015 Share Posted May 27, 2015 Great job! Why would anyone belittle a child's accomplishment? Any kid who works hard at anything for a prolonged period of time should be praised. Keep up the good work! 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*LC Posted May 27, 2015 Share Posted May 27, 2015 Congrats on the past winners & good luck to your son. Have fun. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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