We love spelling

Miss B has been on a competition break since the 2012 Spellmasters.

This year, she announced that she had no plans to take part, despite having made it to the finals for the last two years, and winning the Junior and Senior rounds.

I wisely kept silence, because hers is the kind of personality that if pushed, becomes even more recalcitrant.

Last week, she casually mentioned that there had been a spelling bee at school for the Grade Fives, and she had won. She was to go up against the Grade Sixes this week.

Today, as I was waiting to pick her up, her friend C came up to me. "Bethany won the spelling bee against the Grade Sixes!"

A while later Miss B herself came up, and, with a (rare) broad grin on her face, announced that she is going to represent the school in the Wyndham Spelling Bee at the Year 5/6 level. She then proceeded to give me a blow-by-blow account of the nail-biting rounds and the words she'd had to spell against two Grade Sixes before she won.

I think what was even more important to her than just spelling well was that her friends were there cheering her on and witnessing her giving her all. At Spellmasters, it was always her and a crowd of strangers. Totally different feel.