U.I.L. 3rd Grade Spelling Contest

Atticus has been such a big speller this year! Back in October, he started studying the word list to make the U.I.L Spelling Team for 3rd grade. But, once he made it, he stopped because it was time to study for the Spelling Bee. Once that was over in December, we should have gone back to his other list. But, holidays came and we got busy. So, we didn't actually start back until the week before the contest. However, Atticus is a quick learner and is good at spelling, so while we worked hard for those days, he made it easy because he remembers them so well. We studied 600 words in 4 days. It was a struggle sometimes, but it was also very fun. We would sneak away to his bedroom and spell and spell. I love being able to help the kids do stuff like this and I know he enjoyed the 1-on-1 time with me too. On the big day, I think he was most excited to ride the school bus. He liked going to the other schools to pick up kids and loved coming home to tell me the story of how one kid missed the bus! He thought he did well, but we didn't know he earned 2nd place until that evening at the award ceremony. It was an exciting night. It was the day Mom and GG came in to watch the kids for MLK, so for once, we had a huge cheering section in the crowd. When you put our 6 with anyone, it becomes a bigger cheering squad. He was really nervous because he really wanted to win. There were over 35 kids on stage from all of the CSISD elementary schools who competed in spelling. They called out the top 6, and when they announced his name for 2nd place, his little face lit up and he made eye contact with me in the crowd and I was just overjoyed. My heart was so happy! He was so proud!

Here's some photos and a video of the moment. 

https://youtu.be/GGQ9_iTxerI - here is the video.