I mentioned a few weeks ago that C. had won his class spelling bee. So last Monday, he and I traveled several hours, along with other winners from his school, to the district bee for his school’s association. It was a long day, but one full of excitement for us.

First up were the individual grade bees. C. joined the other fifth-graders, learned the rules (from the “Spelling Master” — a judge title that cracked me up), and got ready to spell. He glanced at me nervously as things got underway. He’d confided in me earlier that his goal was to be in the top four (since those were the spellers who received a ribbon at the end of the day), and there were about 16 kids in the room. All of them good spellers.

In the early rounds, C. breezed through words like private, sunflower, and countries. Words started getting harder and before long, he found himself in the top four. Woo-hoo! Mission accomplished!

Now some really tricky words started coming out — completion and conduit are two I remember. Before we knew it, we were down to C. and one other boy. The two boys were very evenly matched, and because of the way the bee rules worked (the winner had to spell two words in a row correctly), they went back and forth time and time again.

The tension in the room was palpable. I was a wreck. I’m pretty sure I had more butterflies in my stomach than C. did.

Now, the Spelling Master was throwing out words from unpublished lists. Words like homeostasis. C. spelled that one without so much as a blink.

The other boy missed a word, and it was C.’s turn again. His first word was synthetic. He got it right!

The second word: sentimental. I could see C.’s eyes brighten. He knew this word well and didn’t stumble a bit as he spelled it.

C. looked thrilled as he turned to me. He was the 5th Grade Champion!

Uh-oh. Now he had to compete in the Spell-Off that afternoon. The top two kids from each grade would spell in front of everyone, with a mixture of words from various difficulty levels.

As C. and I chatted over lunch and before the spell-off, he seemed ready to go. Sure he would love to be in the top four (after all, trophies awaited those spellers), but he was really just thrilled that he had made it this far. And that there were medals for the spell-off kids who didn’t get trophies.

1:00 came, and the spell-off began. Through a random draw, C. was chosen to go first.

I didn’t even attempt to write down the words C. had in the spell-off. I just knew I was holding my breath every time he stood up to spell.

Spell-off contestants were eliminated quickly (I heard someone behind me say, “Good grief! They’re dropping like flies!”). That’s the weird thing about spelling bees. A kid can study and study, and know how to spell all kinds of ridiculously long and convoluted words, but if the judge happens to throw out a word they haven’t heard, or a word with an obscure rule, or a word that just trips them up, they can be out. And that seemed to be happening left and right.

I almost couldn’t believe it when I looked around and realized: Only 2 kids were left. And C. was one of them!

Yes, C. and an 8th-grader were the last two in the spell-off. Same rules applied — in order to win, a contestant had to spell two words in a row.

The 8th-grader stumbled over the word obsolescent and sat down. C. stepped up to the microphone, received the word neural, and got it right!

Then the judge said, “Your second word is manumit.” And then she gave some sentence about Abraham Lincoln doing something to manumit the slaves or something like that.

Um…huh? I’ve never heard that word. Even as I thought that, at least three people behind me whispered, “I’ve never heard that word.”

C. did well. He didn’t try to over-complicate things, as I surely would have. He just spelled it out the way it sounded. M-A-N…U…M…I-T?

The judge smiled at C. and said, “That is correct. You are our winner!”

As I’m sure you can guess, this sappy mom was practically in tears at this point. C. looked like he could have jumped up and down with joy, but instead just came over to me and let me hug him — a good, long hug — right in front of everyone.

So here we are. Words like homeostasis and neural…weeks of reading over word lists…a long drive to a bee and a long drive home. And C. won “the big trophy” and the title of District Spelling Bee Champion. His school put his name up on their sign out front, and he’s been receiving congratulations all week.

I hope you’ll excuse this very gushy and braggy post. We’re very proud of C. And it looks like we’ll be heading to the Regional Bee in a few months. Where I’m guessing there will be even more words I’ve never heard of. Good thing I’m not the one who has to spell them!