Proud of our speller!

I love homeschooling but it has its pros and cons like all things. One of the negative aspects is that the kids sometimes miss out on group activities like informal sports, group games, clubs, and other group activities such as spelling bees. However, because homeschooling is becoming more and more common, there are starting to be more opportunities for homeschoolers to participate with other homeschoolers in these kinds of activities. That being said, Evan had a neat opportunity in January, to participate in a spelling be with 3 other homeschooled kids in our "school" spelling bee for Regent Christian Online Academy (RCOA), the school we are enrolled through.

Evan is a great speller and he was really enthusiastic about the bee, until the day came and he started to feel quite nervous, especially when he saw the kids he was competing against. There was Tara, a girl we know, who is in grade eight, a boy in grade seven, his grade four brother, and Evan (who is also in grade four.) The boys' older sister had been in and won a spelling bee before and Tara had been in a spelling bee previously as well, so Evan was the only one with absolutely no idea of what this was all about. Thankfully he's a pretty confident kid so it didn't phase him too much. Also, the teacher who facilitated the spelling bee was his regular resource centre teacher and she didn't mind reminding him to say his word before and after he spelled it every time!

Anyway, I'm going on and on here. In the end, Evan wasn't the first one to misspell a word and that was my hope, so that he wouldn't lose his confidence and desire to try it again. So we proclaim loud and clear that he came in third place (woo-hoo Evan), so what if there were only 4 kids!! :) Pretty great for his first try and he's excited to try it again next year.