Cacophony

Now I have to brag a little about my kids, after all this is a blog ;)

Aleana and Trent are complete opposites in just about every way. From how they whine and fight, to how they share, to how they learn, they are VERY different. School is no exception. They are both bright. They are above grade level on just about everything. I must say it is not to my credit. I feel that sometimes as a society, we put too much pressure for our kids to be the smartest and greatest, and forget to let them be kids. So I intentionally let them set the pace on what they want to learn. No pressure. Aleana taught herself how to read before kindergarten and Trent didn't even know the whole alphabet when he started school. Aleana loves to read, and Trent could take apart my sewing machine and put it back together before he was three (sigh...only one screw was left over). One is like a sponge, she just soaks it up and one learns by hands on and asks a whole bunch of "why's" until he is satisfied with the answers. For the most part, they seem to figure it out in their own little way.

Imagine my surprise when I learned that they had BOTH qualified in their classrooms to compete in the school spelling bee. Honestly, I wasn't shocked that Aleana did (with all the reading she does) but I figured Trent could have cared less about about some silly spelling bee (where's the fun in spelling words...aloud?!?). They had a week to prepare themselves. I loved listening to Aleana and Trent practicing their list of words. Aleana would go on and on and on...and Trent would lose interest after about 5 minutes. What I thought was really neat, is for a small moment (five minutes max.) after school they shared a common ground and they had FUN studying...to-geth-er. No fighting, yelling or crying. A spelling bee brought peace to my house...who knew?!?

At the school level (Neither Tracy or I were able to go because of his new job and me just having had the baby - which really bummed me out and no pictures...) Anyway, they both did really well. Trent made it three rounds and then got out. I am so proud of him. When I asked him which word he got out on, he said, "I don't know. It was just some hard one." A very Trent response. :)

Aleana made it to the top two students and qualified for the district competition. It was held in the evening, so Tracy was able to go. Aleana did a super job! She lasted eight agonizing rounds. She was so nervous, her legs were moving and swinging and tapping the entire time she was on stage. She placed third overall, which is awesome if I do say so myself :)

Aleana - nervous just before they started.

Spelling bee underway...

After all is said and done...the look of relief on her face says it all.

The word she got out on was cacophony - I am ashamed to admit - I had to look it up to know the meaning. Defintion: ca-coph-o-ny n.pl. 1. loud, jarring, disagreeable sounds. Hmmm - that's exactly what my house sounds like when there are not any spelling bees buzzing around.