Spelling bee mania!

This year, the boys' school sponsored a spelling bee.  Ollie was selected to go straight to the school level (I'm guessing not many first-graders spell the way he does).  Stone had to start at the classroom level.  Stone got second-place in his classroom and then second-place at the grade-level bee. That meant he had qualified for the school bee! They ended up doing just a participation bee for first- and second-graders with only two rounds.  Ollie did great and didn't make any mistakes. The school bee for third- through sixth-grade was held at night. Stone did a fantastic job and ended up coming in second-place!  He beat out everyone but one sixth-grader.  The word he missed was gnarled. He will probably never misspell that word again! Both kids did a great job and we were so proud of them. For me it was one of those "pat-yourself-on-the-back", parent payday moments. I've tried so hard to teach them to read and spell and excel and it was so fun to watch them succeed on their own.