Spelling Bee

Did you like the spelling bee? Did you hate it? Remember all your feelings about the spelling bee and then wonder what it would be like if it lasted all day, every day, forever. Well, maybe not forever, just for the next few months.

Welcome to my life. Tiger is officially reading books. He has been reading 3 and 4 letter words for about a year, but he really likes Dr. Seuss and other books on that level. He will read almost any book that we get at the library or have at home (even if they are for reading to him). He has some difficulty in sounding out words, but if he spells them instead of sounding them he has much more success in getting the word right. Spelling is his obsession.

He is always using the different alphabet sets (from puzzles, leap frog, fridge magnets, etc.) to make words he thinks are real. Where does he get all this spelling knowledge. Me, all day everyday. My life is a spelling bee. "How do you spell. . .? is the most common thing he says. Especially in the car. He usually spells the 2 and 3 letter words himself after he asks me. But I have been asked to spell dinosaur, stegosaurus, and other such words (not limited to junk science). It's difficult for me to spell "extraordinary" when I am trying to cook dinner and not slice off my fingers. I mentioned this phenomenon to a friend in church and then proceeded to spend the meeting trying to head off such requests quickly so that he didn't get loudly insistent "Mom, spell. . ."

I love that spelling is his favorite subject (it certainly wasn't mine) but it feels like I am in 1st grade spelling all day long. Just imagine if your kid asked you to spell every difficult word that came up in conversation with him. How much fun would that be for you.