I sometimes entertain the thought of what it would be like to be the parent of a kid who could spell better than myself. The other night I watched the annual Scripps National Spelling Bee on T.V. It amazes me to see kids who have yet to reach puberty spelling words I never knew existed. Ever play Balderdash? Almost reminded me of the type of words you would find in that game and instead being asked to spell them.
Latin to Greek origins. Italian origins. Even Hebrew origins. This of course would prompt clues into letters of the word and how they were spelled.
I remember 15 years ago words these kids had to spell were words like: gorgeous, accomodate, acknowledgment, acoustic, and so on. The words these kids had to spell were absolutely unreal. Almost impossible in my eyes unless they had some how come across the word before and happened to remember the spelling. Here is a list I got from here:
abseil
acariasis
aniseikonia
apocope
apozem
araneiform
beccafico
biwa
bouleuterion
burelage
Sorry but I don’t even know what these words are. Abseil I think I may have heard before. The others… well… I never knew they existed.
But the winner this year was Evan M. O’Dorney, age 13, of Danville, California. He even said the Spelling Bee was not his favorite competition and enjoyed math and music much better. He likes Math because of the logic behind it. Well for someone who doesn’t care for the spelling bee he did a pretty good job wouldn’t you say? Nothing against the kid but the parents should clue the kid in and at least have him pretend to enjoy it. It is just more respectful towards those other kids who have a passion to win.
The kid is obviously gifted and I can’t imagine raising a kid with such talent.
Anybody else watch the spelling bee??
-sillydad
I watched the spelling bee. I like you were totally amased. I couldnt spell any of the words in the finals, nor did I know what they mean, so I guess there really is no point in knowing how to spell them. The kid was won is amazing. I would love to find out what his mother does to homeschool him. It did seem like a really happy kid. Best of luck to him
Becky, I was wondering the same thing. Is the mom doing something that helps this child become brilliant or is he simply gifted? Both? He did seem like a real happy kid and it is obvious his parents really care for him a lot.