Congratulations and Good Luck to Paul and Zarin!

We will have two homeschool spellers representing us in this year's Capital District Regional Spelling on February 7. The winner of our 2010-2011 homeschool bee, Paul Capuano, placed among the top five contestants at last year's Capital District bee, so he automatically returns to the Capital District bee without needing to participate in our homeschool preliminary bee this year. The winner of our 2011-2012 homeschool bee, Zarin Tuten, will join Paul onstage at Proctors Theater, along with about 100 other students from public and private schools in the greater Capital District. The February 7 bee at Proctor's Theater is free and open to the public, with free parking available in the Proctor's parking lots. The bee begins at 5 p.m. and can easily run until 9 p.m. It will also be televised on local cable.

When & where will this year's spelling bee take place?

UPDATE for 2011-2012 year:

This year's Homeschool Spelling Bee will take place on Saturday December 3, 2011.

Homeschool bee held at Calvary Church 1230 Rugby Road in Schenectady at 10 a.m. Spellers should arrive by 9:45 to register and get preliminary instructions.

Spellers do NOT need to register in advance. We ask that parents of spellers contribute $2 per speller (maximum of $5 per family) to contribute towards the cost of heating the building for the bee and to provide a small prize for our winner and runner-up.

This year's bee schedule has been moved earlier in the year due to the scheduling of the Times Union/Capital District BOCES bee deadlines.

Excellent free study materials from the Scripps Spelling Bee are available here.

Answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about our homeschool spelling bee are available here.

The FAQ will answer many of your questions about eligibility to participate, how to prepare, and what happens next for the winner of our homeschool bee.

If you have additional questions after reading our FAQ, please feel free to contact me.

Mary O'Keeffe
mathcircle@gmail.com
Home School Bee Organizer

Frequently Asked Questions about the Spelling Bee

Click on each question to go to the answer.

When and where is the bee for homeschoolers in our area?

Suppose I win the homeschool bee? What happens next?

Who is eligible to spell in the bee?

What kind of weird words will I have to spell at the bee?

How do I prepare for the bee?

What are the rules for the bee?

What's the history of the local homeschool bee? How long has it been going?

We don't live in your area. How can my child participate in a spelling bee?

I have a question about the bee not answered above. Who can I contact for more information?

Please email the bee organizer, Mary O'Keeffe, at mathcircle@yahoo.com.

Congratulations!

The first and second place winners of today's homeschool bee were Jien Ogawa and Peter Schonberg, respectively.

Jien will represent homeschoolers at the Times Union/BOCES bee to be held at Proctor's Theater on March 15, 2010 at 5 p.m. Admission is free and open to the public and the theater doors will open at 4. Parking is also free.

The bee will also be carried on local cable.

How can my child participate in a spelling bee if we don't live in the Albany Times Union area?

Our bee is open to all homeschooled students in grades 4 through 8 who reside in the nine county circulation area served by the Albany Times Union: Albany, Columbia, Montgomery, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady, Schoharie, Warren and Washington Counties.

Around the country, there are hundreds of other sponsors for regional bees leading up to the Scripps National Spelling Bee around the country. Most sponsors are newspapers.

Call local newspapers near you and ask if they sponsors a regional spelling bee. If it's a large newspaper, ask for their "Newspapers in Education" department. You could also try searching the electronic archives of your local newspaper. If they've sponsored bees in the past, they surely published articles covering it. In some cases, your local bee might have been sponsored by a community organization rather than a newspaper, but, once again, searching the archives of your local newspaper may turn up the name of the sponsor. Your friendly local public librarian will surely be happy to help you track down that information if you're having trouble.

Some states have a sponsor with a bee that covers the entire state, but most regional sponsors cover only a part of the state. For example, there are close to 20 sponsors bees each in states such as Indiana, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas. By contrast, Maine has one sponsor bee that covers the entire state.

Once you find the name of a newspaper or organization that sponsors a spelling bee for spellers in your area, ask how a homeschool student may qualify to participate in their bee. All sponsors provide such arrangements, though the exact details of the "qualification structure" may vary from place to place.

Click here to return to Frequently Asked Questions list.

Frequently Asked Questions

Click on each question to go to the answer.

When and where is the bee for homeschoolers in our area?

Suppose I win the homeschool bee? What happens next?

Who is eligible to spell in the bee?

What kind of weird words will I have to spell at the bee?

How do I prepare for the bee?

What are the rules for the bee?

What's the history of the local homeschool bee? How long has it been going?

Suppose I win the homeschool bee? What happens after that?

The winner of our homeschool bee will represent homeschoolers at Greater Capital Region Spelling Bee sponsored by the Times Union and Capital District BOCES, which will be held at Proctor's Theater in Schenectady in February. This bee will also include about 100 students representing public school districts and private schools in the twelve county circulation area served by the Albany Times Union. Admission is free and open to the public, with the doors to the theater opening at 4 p.m. The bee will also be televised on a local cable station.

IMPORTANT: Students spelling in the Proctor's bee will need to have parental permission in order to participate, due to the television coverage this year. Capital District BOCES must receive a signed consent form prior to the bee, or the speller will not be able to spell in the Proctor's bee. Here is a link to the consent form.

The winner of the regional bee at Proctors wins an all-expenses trip to Washington DC to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee during "Bee Week," which traditionally begins on Memorial Day weekend and continues through the following Friday. Parts of the Scripps National Spelling Bee are broadcast live on ESPN and/or ABC.

Click here to return to Frequently Asked Questions list.