The BEE

After three written tests at the school site, Karly scored within the top 11 4th graders in County thus sending her to the Placer County Spelling Bee. We were a little nervous, we had never been to an oral spelling bee before and had no idea what to expect. We found nervous children, a few with over zealous parents (laptops in their laps and dictionaries in hand) and yet Karly was all smiles and made a new friend the moment she sat down in her place. While other kids took advantage of a last chance to study, Karly met her competitors and chatted away.

The competition was single word elimination. They did however offer a practice round and the pronouncer (an English professor) was a sweetheart as he was fabulous to balance the grace for nerves with assuring the integrity of the event. Karly correctly spelled: balloon, buffalo, mosquito and bleat ("the sound a sheep makes") but met her demise with "twelfth", forgetting the F. She went out in 4th place but was all smiles and even cheered the kids she was competing against. We found such to be some of our especially proud moments.
Another amazing observation I'd like to share is in regards to race and it's relevance. We, as older generations noticed the stage was full mostly of non-Caucasian kiddos. Karly, never mentioned it, seemed to completely be unaware of it and wrote down the name and address of the little girl in one of these pictures who is her new pal. We will likely never see this little girl again, but it was obvious to me and hopeful as well that my children do not see color/race the way generations of the past did. REALLY, I'm not sure my kids even "see" it--the differences. A cool life lesson I never expected to find in the Placer County Board of Education meeting room.
We are proud of our little speller. Proud she is smart, but even prouder that she sees beyond herself to encourage her very competitors and sees potential in all people!