Homeschool spelling bee: Saturday Dec 5, 2015

This year's Homeschool Spelling Bee, open to all homeschooled students living in the Times Union newspaper circulation area, will take place on Saturday Dec 5, 2015.   This is the 22st annual homeschool bee for this area.   For the past few years, our homeschool bee has also been honored to include Augustine Academy students.  Our two spelling bee winners (i.e., the highest finishing homeschool speller and the highest finishing Augustine Academy speller) will both advance to represent homeschoolers and Augustine Academy, respectively, at the Times Union/BOCES bee at Proctor's Theater on February. The regional champion of the Times Union/BOCES bee in Proctor's will win an all-expenses paid trip to spell in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington DC in late May.

The homeschool bee will take place  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.

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 your students' 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

Spelling bee news

1)  Congratulations to our 2012-2013 homeschool spelling bee winner, Adam Roy, a sixth grader from Saratoga Springs, who won our homeschool bee in December, and did a fine job of representing homeschoolers at the Times Union regional spelling bee held at Proctor's Theater in March, spelling in a field of 118 students representing ten counties.  Adam was onstage under the spotlights for four hours and spelled "insidious" and "vainglory" successfully in the first two rounds.  Forty five students remained at the beginning of the third round, when the words got considerably harder, and only about 20 students survived that round.  The word that tripped Adam up was "schottische."  This is a word that would flummox most adults as well!

Here is a video clip from the second round of the Times Union bee at Proctor's.  Adam is somewhere in the middle of the seated group waiting his turn.  (Spellers are ordered alphabetically with homeschoolers sitting near the students from Hebrew Academy of the Capital District and Hoosick Falls School District.) Source (with additional coverage and photos):  Times Union.


Congratulations as well and best of luck to eighth grader Ryan Devanandan, a three time contestant from Sand Creek Middle School, who ultimately won the bee with "prevaricate" and will represent our region at the Scripps National Bee in late May.   More coverage of Ryan is here.

2) The Scripps spelling bee officials announced today that this year's national bee will have a vocabulary as well as a spelling component.  I applaud this change as it formally recognizes something that has always been a central value of the bee.  The strongest spellers always develop great vocabularies in the course of preparing for spelling bees, because a knowledge of meanings, word etymologies, and linguistic roots can often be very helpful in attacking unfamiliar words.

Bee officials have also announced plans to offer additional vocabulary materials to local bee organizers for optional use in next year's preliminary local bees.   I intend to review those materials as soon as they are released in August and will post more information about the format of next year's homeschool bee on this blog at that time so that all homeschool spellers have the information they need to prepare for next year's homeschool bee.

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

UPDATE for 2012-2013 year:

This year's Homeschool Spelling Bee open to all homeschooled students living in the Times Union newspaper circulation area will take place on Saturday December 1, 2012.    

The homeschool bee will take place  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.

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 your students' 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 homeschool bee

We generally hold a spelling bee for homeschoolers on a Saturday in early December or January each year.  The exact date, time, location, and directions will be posted on this site in mid-fall.

Here are some frequently asked questions.

Click on each question to go to the answer.

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?

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.

FAQ about our homeschool 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?

What are the rules for the bee?

What information am I allowed to ask about the word I've been given to spell?

You may ask for a definition of the word and the language of origin of the word. You may also ask that the word be used in a sentence.

Even if you are almost 100% sure you know the word you have been given, we always encourage you to ask for some information about the word. It allows you to collect your thoughts and you always want to be as sure as possible that you have heard the word correctly.

If you are not sure you heard the word correctly, you are encouraged to ask that the word be pronounced again for you.

It is YOUR responsibility to make sure you understand the word you have been given to spell, so take your time and ask the questions you need.

Do I have to say the word before and after I spell it?

It's a very good idea to do both, but you will NOT be eliminated just for failing to say the word before or after you spell it.

Saying the word before you spell it is a good idea, because the judges may be able to stop you if they think you have misunderstood the word. Then the pronouncer can repeat the word and try to make sure you understand the word you are expected to spell.

Saying the word after you spell it is also a good idea, because it lets the judges clearly know when you have finished spelling the word.

Do I have to indicate capital letters, for example, if I am given a proper noun to spell?

No. The rules do not require that spellers indicate capitalization when they spell a word.

Am I allowed to stop in the middle of a word and go back to the beginning and retrace my steps?

Yes, but you may NOT change any of your original letters when you do so.

Suppose my parents and I believe that I correctly spelled a homonym of the word given by the pronouncer, but I was eliminated?

If the pronouncer failed to give a definition or sentence that distinguished the word from its homonym, your parents may file an appeal by handing a note to the pronouncer. Such an appeal must be filed BEFORE you would have received your next word, had you stayed in the bee. The judges will then consider the appeal and make a decision on whether to reinstate you.

Are there any other rules I should know?

We've covered the rules that come up most commonly above, but you can find a complete set of the rules for the bee, with annotations highlighting important points is available here.

Click here to return to Frequently Asked Questions list.

What kind of weird words will be used at the bee?

At the homeschool bee, our practice has to been to use only words that we believe a reasonably well-read adult might actually expect to run across in their reading.

At all levels of the competition, the official dictionary for the bee is Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. There are half a million entries in that dictionary and any word is theoretically fair game. Some of the words used in the later rounds of the regional and national bees can be very obscure. It's not possible to memorize them all, but students can have a lot of learning about etymology in exploring the dictionary playfully.

Click here to return to Frequently Asked Questions list.

How to prepare for the bee:

1) Read, read, read! Reading widely, including books, newspaper and magazine articles on a wide variety of subjects that interest you, is the best possible preparation for the bee.

2) Study the word list and the etymology tips provided at Spell It! Early round words in our homeschool bee will come directly from the Spell It! lists. Eventually, our bee word list will move on to words that do not appear on the Spell It! list, but the etymology and language of origin pattern recognition tips will often help you make good guesses about the spelling of those additional words.

3) Keep a sense of good humor and perspective. Have a good time with it! Make up funny sentences or silly stories about the words in Spell It! Try quizzing your parents about some of the tricky words you'll run across in your studies. It's good to remember that everyone makes mistakes, even adults! (Or perhaps I should, especially adults! Some of the mistakes we adults make are doozies! And most adult mistakes are far more serious than misspellings!)

Click here to return to Frequently Asked Questions list.

Who is eligible to spell in our bee?

Our homeschool bee, which has run annually since 1994-1995, has always followed a policy of being open to all homeschool students eligible to participate in the Times Union bee.    The Times Union rules state that students in fourth through eighth grades from the twelve counties listed at the end of this post are eligible.  Students from Augustine Academy are also eligible to spell in our bee.

Our homeschool bee takes pride in providing a very friendly and welcoming environment where homeschoolers from a wide variety of counties, backgrounds, and worldviews come together once a year to celebrate the rich heritage of the English language.    

Students must also meet the national eligibility rules established by the Scripps National Spelling Bee.   Complete details of the national eligibility rules are here.

Sometimes homeschooling parents have questions as to their child's official grade for spelling bee eligibility purposes. For most students, the official grade is the grade listed on the Individualized Home Instruction Plan (IHIP) filed with the school district.

Parents of students who have been grade accelerated or subject-accelerated in multiple subjects and/or repeated a grade or who have any questions about their child's grade eligibility should read the national rules carefully and contact the bee organizer at mathcircle@yahoo.com with any questions BEFORE the homeschool bee to avoid disappointment later.

Times Union eligible county list
(updated April 2012):

Albany County  

Columbia County* 

Dutchess County 

Greene County 

Montgomery County  

Rensselaer County  

Saratoga County 

Schenectady County

Schoharie County 

Ulster County 

Warren County 

Washington County

*The Times Union bee includes all of Columbia County, except Germantown.

Click here to return to Frequently Asked Questions list.

History of the homeschool bee

(Updated 12/5/2015)

This year marked the 22nd annual homeschool bee as we select a speller to represent homeschoolers in the February 2016 Times Union bee. We are grateful to Calvary Church for hosting the bee in all these years. We are grateful to Mrs. Ruth Staver, who was our pronouncer and word list manager for many years.

We are also grateful to the pastors, custodians, and church elders who have assisted by getting to the church early to turn on the heat for us, set up the sound system, arranged furniture, and many other details that have helped to create excellent and memorable bee experiences for our spellers. We are also grateful to the many individuals who have volunteered as judges.

Here is the list of our past homeschool winners

1994-95 Heather Grambling
1995-96 Joshua Nare
1996-97 Sarah Newell
1997-98 Alison Miller
1998-99 Stephanie Johnson
1999-2000 Alison Miller
2000-01 Catherine Miller
2001-02 Catherine Miller
2002-03 Susannah Krewson
2003-04 Christiana Johnson
2004-05 Ryan Mason
2005-06 Leah Trouwborst
2006-07 Lynn Schonberg
2007-08 Mandy Ketttell
2008-09 Preston Law
2009-10- Jien Ogawa
2010-11 Paul Capuano
2011-12 Zarin Tuten
2012-13 Adam Roy
2013-2014 Elizabeth Oxaal*
2014-2015 David Barkevich*
2015-2016 Asher Andrews*

Augustine Academy winners
2013-2014 Christopher Oxaal*
2014-2015 Elizabeth Oxaal*
2015-2016 Ruth Zhang*

(*Beginning with our 2013-14 bee, we combined forces with Augustine Academy spellers.  The highest placing homeschool speller in our bee will represent homeschoolers at the Times Union bee in Proctors.  The highest placing Augustine Academy speller will represent Augustine Academy at the Times Union bee in Proctors.)

Click here to return to Frequently Asked Questions list.