Third Place!

Last week, Casey came home from school all atwitter with the exciting news from his third grade teacher, Miss Caputo: "Mom, we're having a spelling bee!!"

He threw his backpack on the floor and couldn't get the word list out of his homework folder quickly enough. I stood there scratching my head, wondering, "Where did this kid come from and where is my son?"

"Mom, have you ever done a spelling bee before?"
"Yep," I told him.
"Have you ever won a spelling bee before?"
"Yep," I told him.
"No way!! You won a spelling bee?!!? What grade were you in?"
"I think I was in 5th grade. Or maybe 6th. Or maybe it was 2nd...."
"Mom, they don't do spelling bees until you're a big kid. You have to be in at least the 3rd grade."
"Oh," I said. "Thanks for telling me."
"Dad, have you ever been in a spelling bee?"
"Of course," Mitch says.
"Did you ever win ?"
"No. I couldn't spell beagle correctly," Mitch says.
"How do you spell it?" Casey tests.
"I don't know," Mitch shrugs. "B-E-A-G-E-L."
"B-E-A-G-L-E," I correct him.
"That proves it. Mom's the smartest one in the family," Casey says.
"Yep," Mitch agrees.

This spelling bee talk went on for days. Every evening we each took turns asking Casey how to spell the words on his word list. Even the girls pitched in to help him study. I was impressed that he could spell so many of them correctly and quickly, especially considering that Mitch still has trouble with beagle. I was even more impressed with how hard my son tried to learn all the words. I had no idea that he enjoyed spelling so much!! Oh the joy of parenting when your kids impress you!!

When Casey was four years old, no one could understand a word he said. We sent him to be evaluated by the speech pathologist and she could not determine if he had speech issues or more serious underlying cognitive issues, because she could not even understand his answers to her questions. For the next six months I took him to speech therapy three times a week because it was assessed that only 5% of his speech was intelligible. While he was in the room with his therapist, I sat there in the waiting room, session after tedious session, worried about my son as I read pamphlets about all the things that could possibly be wrong with him. It seemed like all my friends with children his age were more worried if their child was Mensa material, or if preschool was "challenging enough" for them. Meanwhile I was praying for my kid to be normal. Whatever the heck that means.

Apparently Casey was just fine. After six months, the 5% turned into 95% and Casey no longer needed speech therapy. The pathologist remarked that she had never worked with a child so eager to learn and one who picked up sounds as quickly as he did. I breathed a sigh of relief, gave her a hug, and cried. My child was normal after all! Hurrah!!

What we did learn from this experience was that Casey is the type of kid who learns on his own timeline, when he's ready and interested. In first grade when I tried to get him to read "Frog and Toad" with me, he said: "Frogs don't talk. This is dumb." Yet he would intently listen to books about snakes and airplanes and ask thousands of questions. He wasn't ready for fiction until this school year, and now his teacher tells me he loves "story time" and always asks for more.

....so back to the Spelling Bee. They held it on Wednesday, and I found out Casey placed third in his class! I am so proud of him that I could burst. Third place is awesome!!!

He obviously gets his spelling skillz from me.