Anyone watching the Spelling Bee? Question....

[LadyyRedd]

What happened that got Saryn reinstated in the competition in round 2? I didn't get home until about 9:20, so I didn't see the first half and keep hearing reference to it.

Kimya

 

[redshoes]

Okay- It's a thrilling night at our house and we are watching this . Saryn spelled a word correctly, the judges had the word spelled incorrectly (they had an extra "C" in the word and the correct spelling did not). She was eliminated. The judges then corrected their mistake and reinstated her.

 

[mom2boys]

 

[mom2boys]

I don't know. I just turned it on & have never heard of any of these words. And I have a four year liberal arts degree. I am feeling stressed for those two girls.

I think I have weltschmerz - the current word

 

[momof2inPA]

It was that Hebrew word about food certification. She was a beautiful little girl, wasn't she? I can't believe that girls finished first, second, and third. The boys usually do much better than the girls.

 

[UnderTheMistletoe]

I have wanted Katharine to win for years! I am super excited for her! I really like Hannah Rea last year, too... she was so cute and sweet. She got to aword she had never heard before and just said, "Whatever," before trying to spell it.

I'm very, very glad to see a girl win and so excited that they placed 1-2-3.

We watch it every year...had a field day with the re-runs on ESPN earlier in the week, too.

 

[ColoradoBuffaloMom]

I think I was as nervous as the contestants.

I coordinate the Spelling Bee at the Elementary School I work at so I know how nerve wracking it is for the kids even at that level. I always tell my kids that for a word to be in our school's Spelling Bee I have to know how to pronounce it and I have to be able to put it in a sentence

 

[frndofpooh]

We love the Bee! For my DS8, the national spelling bee is as captivating as any SuperBowl (shhhh - he'd want me to keep that secret ). Katharine is a fantastic competitor - it was great to see her win. I too am mystified by some of these words - I can get the medical ones but many of the others I could barely pronounce. I did know the hebrew word though - when I heard her spell it and then the bell rang, I ran for a dictionary. What a geek I am!

Have you ever looked at the Scripps website for the previous winning words? The words all seemed to be pretty normal until the early nineties. What happened then? Did people start feeding their kids superspeller brain food or something?

 

[UnderTheMistletoe]

Have you ever looked at the Scripps website for the previous winning words? The words all seemed to be pretty normal until the early nineties. What happened then? Did people start feeding their kids superspeller brain food or something?

I think that's about the time it became a competition and people started studying/training for it.
ETA: May have also been around the time it hit media outlets (usually ESPN) and the numbers of interested participants mushroomed. My guess that with it being on Prime-Time major network television and with "Akeelah and the Bee" just being released to theaters, that they are going to see a tremendous spike in interest and participation.