The Ballad of the Spelling Bee

Ashli participated in her first spelling bee.  It was a community planned event that divided kids up by grade level.  There were 14 fourth graders from various schools.  What surprised me is that words would take out numerous people at a time.  Gnaw took out 3 kids and llama took out 3 more.  Ashli was defeated by the word ballad.  She spelled it ballet and I think she thought that is what she was supposed to be spelling.  I don't think she was familiar with the word ballad, at all.  When she got out there were only 3 other people on stage.  She was the first speller for the round and the person immediatly behind her also misspelled ballad (balled), so Ashli tied for third.  She was a lot more upset about being eliminated than most of the kids. 

Leading up to the bee, she didn't really study.  Jung, of course, was pushing her, but I told her to let Ashli handle it her way and see what the results are.  Before the competition, Ashli was very confident that she would win.  I told her that confidence was the right attitude, but that studying would also have been a correct attitude.  In the end, she was tripped up by a word that she wasn't familiar with.  Had she studied, she might have seen it once or twice.  I told her this while talking once we got home. 

All in all, she did very well.  I told her I was proud of her and how she could have improved her performance.  I don't think she will ever misspell ballad again.