Spelling Bee Practice

Get ready, get set, spell!

This week is the last week that my oldest daughter and I have to prepare her for the spelling bee. The SPELLING BEE!!!!!! I'm so excited that I can hardly contain myself. But I promise, I am not living vicariously through my daughter. Daughter....D...A...U...G...H...T...E...R...daughter.

Okay, she didn't volunteer to participate in the spelling bee. You know, I told her that she had to volunteer. I think that means that she didn't volunteer herself. But I volunteered her! So it all works out the same, right? I mean, doesn't it?

Well, even if it doesn't, she's doing it.

I love my kiddo. She doesn't necessarily (necessarily...n...e...c...e...s...s...a...r...i...l...y...necessarily) love all things school. But she's good in spelling. It's one of her best subjects, in fact. And I'm trying to teach her to capitalize on her strengths. And that one can't go through life just doing the things that are easy or don't take any effort. What kind of a life would that be?

She's nervous to stand up there in front of all of those people. (She goes to a school that has about 90 kids, K-6.) But things are getting easier. This is the third year that she's volunteered, I mean agreed, uh, okay...she's reluctantly spelled on stage so that she can avoid losing the privilege of watching movies at home. But really, I didn't even have to bring that up this year. She just knew that she would volunteer. This year, she haggled back and forth with me a little, but in a playful, smiling behind the hand kind of way. She knew that she was going to have to do it. I really think she wants to (kind of) this year.

Last year, she placed third. There were not a lot of kids in the bee, but having her earn any sort of place really buoyed her confidence. Not that she would intentionally (intentionally...i...n...t...e...n...t...i...o...n...a...l...l...y...intentionally)let on, though. At the end of the day, our conversation went something like this:

Me--"Third place!!! Wow!!! See, all that practice paid off!
Her--"I guess."
Me--"You did a great job! Was it fun?"
Her--"No, not really."

When we stopped at Sonic, however, to get a celebratory (celebratory...c...e...l...e...b...r...a...t...o...r...y...celebratory) Sonic Blast, this was her face:


Oh, come on. You can see it, too. I know it! There's that smile that says that she's got a bigger one inside, but it just might not be the right thing to do to let Mama know that it DID really feel good! You gotta' keep the ol' (I loose that term loosely) Mama guessing!

Well, like I said, today begins our last week of preparation. Pray for us. Because while the bee might actually be secretly exciting, preparation for it is not. For her. Or for me. I've already begun to hear comments like, "Who taught me to spell it like THAT?" and ,"They're just trying to TRICK me!" and of course, "Why doesn't every body ELSE have to do it?" All right, and some tears. Prompted by pep talks like, "Anything worth anything in life involves hard work!" and "It feels great to work so hard at something and see it pay off," and, I admit it, "I'm not everybody else's Mama!"

Hmmmmm....now where did I ever hear that?