Losing never tasted sweeter...

Friday was the annual Spelling Bee at Heritage Academy.  To both of our surprise... both SW and NN entered.  NN hates losing.. so she hates competition.  SW...well... he just doesn't know what's going on.  Upon arriving to pick them up after school... NN tells me that no one in her class got out... and there will be another round next Friday with 3rd grade words.  And then she blurted out that "But SW came in 2nd!!"

Whoaaaaaaaaaa..... our son came in 2nd???? My first thought was... did only two people enter the contest?!?!? 

I was so proud of my son.  It was hardly believable for SW... who barely knew any English when he started in September.  Major props goes to his Kindergarten teacher.

A friend of ours took a video of the final moments of the Spelling Bee.  And the final word that he mispelled...? "Was."  It's not phonetic word, it's a sight word.  If you spelled it phonetically, it would be "W-U-Z."  You can tell he was lost.  He started sounding it out and spelling it....

"W"

(silence... 2 -3 seconds go by)

"H"

(an audible gasp from the audience....)

(more silence....)

"E-R"

"Sorry...." His teacher says. 

And calmly SW steps down from the stage, clapping cheerfully for his friend, as his happy-go-lucky self. 


Watching that video at night... and hearing him spell "her" made me realize that the past two days, Joyce has been going over 5-6 words every night with him.  Just to make sure he knows how a Spelling Bee works.  And time and time again, she kept drilling him with the word "her" because he kept spelling it "H-R."  And at the time of desperation... he went back to what he was trained to do the most.  Sigh.... makes me wonder, if we really did spend time coaching him... would he have won????  Monday Morning Quarterbacking...

But alas... Losing never tasted sweeter...