Super Speller

Last year at around this time Kendall had his first spelling be in which he took 4th place. This year when the announcement was made, he was one of the first to sign up. And this year he had a bit more notice and so he had more time to practice. The list of words they gave him contained pretty much every most commonly misspelled word in the dictionary but he did great with them.
The day arrived and he was ready and excited. (Although he's got his game face on apparently, in these photos.)

He did an amazing job and made it down to the last three this time when he was given the word "accelerated". He knew how to spell it but his mouth got ahead of his brain and he said 'a-r' instead of 'e-r'. He realized immediately, but there's no going back when that happens. You just have to finish it out the way you started it. He and we are delighted with his 3rd place finish, but he was kicking himself just a bit when the remaining two contestants had a show-down and they brought out a new list of even harder words that he was able to spell with no trouble. The realization that he most likely would have won if he hadn't gotten tongue-tied had him a little down about it for awhile. But we just think it's fantastic that he has the courage to do it at all. Having been in a spelling be myself as a kid and sitting in the audience holding my breath for other kids, it is such a stressful and nerve wracking experience! He never seems ruffled at all though and just focuses and spells the words. We are so proud of him!