Im confused. My daughter will be doing a spelling bee Feb 15. We have a word list that includes grades 1-8. Should she study all the words or just her grade level? Any other advice/tips would be greatly appreciated!!!
If all the words in a grade group get used up, they'll go to other grade lists, so studying them all wouldn't hurt. Visualizing the word well helps (like seeing it written on the blackboard on the inside of your eyelids, then spelling off what you "see"). Knowing the roots and affixes helps, and so does the language of origin (like spellings that are common to Greek, French, etc.). In the national bee you can ask for meaning, language of origin, and a sentence containing the word, so I guess you can do that locally and regionally too. Good luck!
I agree with everything Lindina says. I was in lots of spelling B's, and it's very important to practice ALL the words they gave you, because they WILL use ALL the words. No stress, just fun!!
If it's like the one here, there are no grade divisions. All homeschoolers compete at the same time. About 3/4 of the kids will be out by the end of the 3rd or 4th round (appx 3rd grade level list). After that, the handful of kids who studied and/or are much older will go several more rounds to find a winner. Yes... you need to know all of the words! I don't know if everyone gets the same list, but the one we got this year is much harder than the one we got last year. Last year, he only had to study the last couple of columns, and he came out near the top. This year, he's been working hard on more than half the list. Spelling has always been his best subject, so I'm happy it's more difficult this year, but at the same time, it's tough watching him struggle with it.
Thank you for your help. Sorry it has taken me a while but I forget I post lol. I guess we will going over all words.
Don't even get me started on spelling bees..... :roll: Batgirl was in a spelling bee a long time ago. It was held at a homeschool conference. It ended up getting down to Batgirl and another girl as the last two left. Batgirl was given a word and spelled it wrong. The other girl was given the same word...she began to spell it but got halfway through and said a wrong letter, the moderator interrupted her with, "Uh oh....try again." She started over, spelled it right, and won. Tell me how that was fair?! :evil: It's not like I'm still mad about it or anything after all these years.... :lol:
Oh, that's terrible!!! My dd (14) just did one last month with our homeschool group. She was the oldest one participating. She'd been studying all those tough words but all the kids were out before she could spell any of them. It's easier for the older ones to make it far than the younger ones. We had to give up her spot to the 2nd place person because the next steps and final bee were on dates when we have more important competitions.
