State Spelling Bee

Mason participated in the state spelling bee today. There were 160 students from grades 4th-8th that participated. Because of the large number of students, they had everyone participate in Round 1 spelling a word on stage. Rounds 2-6 were written down by each student. After the written test was scored, they read off the numbers for who made it to which round. I kept listening for Mason's number to be read, #49. I didn't hear it until the coordinator announced that the next names he read were going on to compete in the finals. Sure enough, Mason's number was called! So awesome! There were 35 students left for the final rounds. Mason went on to compete in the finals, but ended up getting out in round 2. There were 10 other kids who got out before him, so I guess you could say Mason came in 25th place. I couldn't believe how far he went. The winner of this competition gets to go on to the National Spelling Bee in Washington D.C. and Mason was right there with them. My mind hurts from spelling all these words mentally as the kids on stage spelled them out loud. We have spent the last 2 months looking over and spelling 1200 words from all different language origins. Mason put a lot of effort into this. Neither of us are going to look at spelling words for awhile. And if you are interested, the words Mason spelled correctly were: dogma, daffodil, ostentatious, prerogative (which I just had to use spellcheck to get the correct spelling), piccolo, filibuster (spellcheck as well), and springbok. He was mad at himself because he went out on a word he knew how to spell, but misheard the guy say it. It was tahini and he spelled tahiti. Amazing effort by this kid!