Spellling Bee

Well, the good news is that Horse made it through her classroom spelling bee. She was first in her class, actually. This means that she and the second place individual will be representing their class in the school spelling bee that takes place tomorrow.

Horse and her classmate were the only two students who had no written homework tonight. Their teacher wants them to study the list of 125 words that he sent home last week. Those words are pretty much guaranteed to be on the school spelling bee, so that list was given to everyone who will be participating.

Did I mention Horse had a three-day weekend and did not once take a peek at that list? Procratination, thy name is Horse.

Meanie mother that I am, I am making her study that list today. This would explain all of the loud sighing, moaning, and general griping that people driving by can probably hear over the noise of their blaring car stereos. I suggested that Horse take a dictionary and actually look up how to pronounce a lot of those words so that she does not get tricked by pronunciations that are slightly different than what a typical fourth grader might think. She glared at me, but at least pretended to comply.

Eventually (translation: half an hour later), Horse decided she had enough of studying this nonsense and asked me if she could stop. I told her I would quiz her on a few random words from the list, and if she spelled them correctly, she could stop her studying.

She could not spell one word correctly. Apparently, studying a list of words involves a lot of daydreaming. Either that, or complaining took up all of the time she should have spent spelling each word.

     Me: "Let me see...'aborigine.'"
     Horse: "A-B-O-R-I-G-I-N-Y."
     Me: "Aborigine. A-B-O-R-I-G-I-N-E. Spell 'elucidate.'"
     Horse: "I-L-U-C-I-D-A-T-E."
     Me: "Elucidate. E-L-U-C-I-D-A-T-E. How about 'feud?'"
     Horse: "F-U-E-D."
     Me: "Switch the U and the E. F-E-U-D. Endocrine?"
     Horse: "Endocrine? That's a word?"
     Me: "It's number 105 on your list!"

As Horse's mother, I feel more than slightly miffed that I am expected to drop everything (and that involves a heck of a lot right now, what with errands to run, end-of-the-school-year programs to attend, our house on the market, and a trip coming up that requires packing, baking, and freezing foods for our allergy-prone family to bring with us) just to be at school for a child who had almost a week to not study words for her spelling bee.

As I type this, I hear Horse in her room, presumably studying for tomorrow's spelling bee, but actually complaining to no one about how horrible it is that her mother is having her practice.

I don't honestly care if my daughter fails spectacularly at the spelling bee. (And after testing her on the words today, I'm fairly certain that is the most probable outcome for tomorrow.) I am not one of those mothers who insist my child be the best at everything. She already aced her class bee. That's pretty darn good, in my opinion. I just hate that she won't actually care about learning any of those spelling words until she realizes everyone else spent the past five days studying them.

Parenthood often means having to comfort a distraught kidlet while avoiding the words, "I told you so." I hope I am up to that task tomorrow.