So I was watching ESPN last night and they started telecasting live from washington the final of national spelling bee contest.
First thing I noticed that majority of finalists were indians.
And then there were two left, both indian origin again, and they fought were almost 45 minutes. Both of them really put up a clinic and spelled every word from different language origins like a machine. It was amazing to watch.
In the end, judges had to declare both tied and winner of the the competition together.
It was luvly to see their expressions and especially the parents. The parents were glowing with joy and teary at the same time.
How would you raise your kids or train them to be a good spelling bee contestant? Or you wont at all?
Re: How would you train your kids or raise them for Spelling bee?
I am going to get bashed at my reply but hey these are my thoughts and I am open to have them changed if someone logically proves so.
For me any contest should be something which should add towards your profession etc. Spelling bees isn't something that it would add (other than confidence in the personality). I would much rather have my kids focused on Speeches rather than spellings bees. But if i have ultimate choice, I might have them focused more on science competition. Having participated in such competitions by myself, I believe that they add to your curiosity and would make you question, inquire more things.
That being said, If i have to prepare my kids for any sort of competitions, I might start competing with them at a very small age. Rather it be a spelling bees, speeches or programming hackathons.
Re: How would you train your kids or raise them for Spelling bee?
I am going to get bashed at my reply but hey these are my thoughts and I am open to have them changed if someone logically proves so.
For me any contest should be something which should add towards your profession etc. Spelling bees isn't something that it would add (other than confidence in the personality). I would much rather have my kids focused on Speeches rather than spellings bees. But if i have ultimate choice, I might have them focused more on science competition. Having participated in such competitions by myself, I believe that they add to your curiosity and would make you question, inquire more things.
That being said, If i have to prepare my kids for any sort of competitions, I might start competing with them at a very small age. Rather it be a spelling bees, speeches or programming hackathons.
but doesn't it increase their vocabulary, how to use those words, their meanings along with learning spellings? Nothing wrong in it though.
Re: How would you train your kids or raise them for Spelling bee?
I am going to get bashed at my reply but hey these are my thoughts and I am open to have them changed if someone logically proves so.
For me any contest should be something which should add towards your profession etc. Spelling bees isn't something that it would add (other than confidence in the personality). I would much rather have my kids focused on Speeches rather than spellings bees. But if i have ultimate choice, I might have them focused more on science competition. Having participated in such competitions by myself, I believe that they add to your curiosity and would make you question, inquire more things.
That being said, If i have to prepare my kids for any sort of competitions, I might start competing with them at a very small age. Rather it be a spelling bees, speeches or programming hackathons.
I completely disagree. It is a competition like any other. You instill in kids about achieving a goal, putting in the work necessary to get there and to stay with it till you do. Knowing words and how they are formed may or may not help in your career, but the values you acquire competing will stay with you.
Re: How would you train your kids or raise them for Spelling bee?
I suggest people watch some of the documentaries out there on spelling bee kids. It's not some wholesome competition that instills anything worthwhile.
Re: How would you train your kids or raise them for Spelling bee?
I completely disagree. It is a competition like any other. You instill in kids about achieving a goal, putting in the work necessary to get there and to stay with it till you do. Knowing words and how they are formed may or may not help in your career, but the values you acquire competing will stay with you.
we should have an IQ competition between a spelling bee topper or any other (better) cmopetition topper. that might give us an answer. Otherwise, both of us will keep on arguing without a fruitful result.
Re: How would you train your kids or raise them for Spelling bee?
we should have an IQ competition between a spelling bee topper or any other (better) cmopetition topper. that might give us an answer. Otherwise, both of us will keep on arguing without a fruitful result.
Well.. its not about IQ. For example, there are sports that kids compete in. Even those kinds of competitions instill the same things. There are even cheer-leading competitions. Once we starting calling one competition better than the other, it becomes subjective. Are football players better than cheerleaders? Are they really?
Re: How would you train your kids or raise them for Spelling bee?
I agree with @MustafaQuraishi, even though I am proud of these spelling bee champs. One of the recent ones belongs to the school district my kids go to and another Pakistani kid we know,belongs to the same school school district represented our state as well. The Pakistani kid is smart otherwise too. That said, the parents especially the dad focused a lot on their studies and got some CDs to help prepare his daughter for the spelling bee. His other daughter was the school champ too.
At the end it boils down to parental involvement a lot. My kid made it to the school level spelling bee without any help from us. I just encouraged my kids to read from very early on. That's it. My husband thinks it's not a skill that is very useful nowadays due to computer spell check etc. . However, in our town most desi kids are smart, everyone is getting scholarships and so on so forth but the thing is I feel the learning is focused on more gaining a skill to earn tons of money than to acquire a love of knowledge. It's sad in a way, like producing robots.
Re: How would you train your kids or raise them for Spelling bee?
It is not just about spelling. It is about gaining an understanding of the meaning, the context in which the word is used etc.
Every competition requires intense preparation. Not sure synchronized swimming adds much to a person's IQ. Or helps that person climate the professional ladder. A championship in kho kho gets u only so far - maybe not even to khi. Ditto u thu thu thu thu thu.
But kids do these activities intensely.
From most accounts, these SPB kids have gone on to bigger and better things. Some even make perfectly round rotis.
