Homeschooler wins spelling bee!

She might not have spent as much time studing as you think. If she has talent for this it might have been a lot easier than you think. Plus if she is homeschooling that was part of her day not an add on to 7-8 hours school day already.

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Maybe she exaggerated? Anyway like my OP said, I am not too worked up about it. It is her hobby and I would spend hours reading (my hobby) as a kid. I just get a little sad every time I hear about young kids doing something that seems like "training" for hours a day. Silly.

Have you ever seen the documentary Spellbound? It's excellent. The feeling I got is that most of these kids are really into it, the parents are supportive, but not at all pushy. I agree, if she likes it and has a talent for it, then maybe we should be really happy (and not at all sad) that she's been recognized for being good at what she loves to do.

I don't find it unusual. Some kids just love to learn stuff and if given an option to play a game or crack open a dictionary, some crack the dictionary. I know because my oldest son is like this. His newest hobby is studying world geography. We encouraged what we saw as a natural curiousity and bought him a world atlas with facts and a globe. He will spend an hour or two at a time studying the globe. Interesting.

DC

I don't find it unusual either. My best friend growing up LOVED reading the dictionary and would have a "word of the day" that she'd use all day long in proper context. They were not "simple" words either.

My 7 year old is into map reading right now, she is constantly taking off with the atlas and just reads it and looks things up in it. It's not unfounded to see her in her bed with her bum up in the air, chin resting on her hands while she is looking at a map in detail.

If the children are honestly into doing the spelling bees, love words and spelling and the compatition, more power to them. Watching spelling bees, I'd say most seem to enjoy it, and I love seeing them applaud and high-five each other. When the kids miss and they sit down with their families, I see lots of love and support and you did well type reactions from their families. If my children were intersted in academic compititions, I'd find a way to let them try it out.

I think lots of homeschooled children have won the National Spelling Bee. Probably because they have more time to devote to the subjects they're most interested in.

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I wonder if we would even be having this conversation if this were about some sports victory.

I didn't read it, but did it say she studied 7ish hours a day? If a kid worked on a sport that many hours a day, I'd think it worse, personally! That's a lot of hours for anyone to do any single thing.

Anyway, I did see Spellbound - it was fabulous.

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She's quoted above as saying "a couple" of hours/day.

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TBH I think it was watching a documentary about kids in sports that led to my initial reaction. It was about gymnastics, I believe. I thought it was very sad for many reasons. Now every time I hear about a child training for something for a couple of hours a day, it is the first thing I think of, and that colors my reaction. I remember reading the dictionary as a girl (although with my terrible grammar and spelling it is hard to believe I even learned English) and thinking it was fun. As I said in my OP, I try not to judge, but it is hard to break an instinctive reaction.