12 More Days Until the Bee/Habits/Wall of Words

I do not believe that there are only twelve more days until the preliminary written round.  There are ten days until most spellers leave to D.C. Spellers, get ready!

Habits

A habit that I had since I started competing in competitive bees, was digging my head in my hands. I was not crying, but thinking. Unfortunately, everyone, even the pronouncer thought I was crying. This happened in Geography Bees, Math contests, and other contests as well. One day, my parents told me to get rid of the habit, because it was not pleasant for them to watch. Although I knew that I had a time limit, I would not be paying attention to the time while I was spelling. This year, that habit was gone.

There are other spellers who have habits. Some have their hand behind their back, some have their hands on their waist, some pick on things, some cover their mouth to think about the letter, some use the finger-writing technique (the one I use most often), some look at the floor (another habit of mine I still have), or close their eyes. If you have seen Akeelah and the Bee, the way she focused was by patting her hand on her side.

Wall of Words

During competition, I usually close my eyes, then I vividly see the word I received. During the Utah Lutheran Schools Spelling Bee last year, I received the word syllogism. I did not remember if it had two "l"s or one, but when I closed my eyes, I saw the word from my wall of words. I went with two "l"s. After I won, I went home, then saw saw syllogism.

I got the idea of having a wall of words after I saw the extras on Spellbound. I found her style very fun, and entertaining. Although I still have binders, notecards, books, and my lists on computers, it is fun to add words onto my wall. My dad would occasionally pronounce the words, then I would throw a ball at them if I spelled the words right.

Some of my favorite words up there are gemeinde, swartrutter, fenestella, ennead, denouement, rapprochement, bathyscaphe, bhutatathata, and Boeotian. 

I will post photos of them tomorrow of my wall of words!

The Word of the Day is escrow - [French] a bond or deed