10-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, November 9, 2002 B Kids Kernel ♦'l i Homeschoolers Want Others To Join Them For Upcoming Spelling Bee LOU ANN GOOD Food And Family Features Editor EPHRATA (Lancaster Co.) Spelling some students love it, others hate it. No matter what their stance, many students are preparing for upcoming competition that can lead to national recognition. The winners of the Lancaster County Spelling Bee will qualify for the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal Champjon Spelling Bee. That winner will qualify for the Scripps Howard National Spell ing Bee in Washington D.C., dur ing the week of May 22-June 2, 2003. Students can participate through their schools. Home schoolers must have a group of 25 to be eligible to participate. The deadline for registration is Dec. 1, for the annual Lancaster County Home Schoolers’ Spelling Bee scheduled for Monday, Feb. 3, at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 2151 Oregon Pike, Lan caster. Some students are a bit skepti cal of participating in the event, but realize the benefits of partici pation. “I feel like I will be embarrass ed because the audience will be watching, but I’m doing it,” said Matthew Woodcraft, 111. His parents Bradley and Elaine Woodcraft, Ephrata, and many other parents believe par ticipation is a valuable experi ence. A free paidcia, which is a booklet of spelling word lists is available to those who registers. The paideia is designed to help students improve their spelling, increase their vocabularities, learn concepts, and develop cor rect English usage that will help them all their lives. Jacob Labonte, Kennett Square, is open-mouthed with wonder as he gazes at large metal moths on display in the new Transition Exhibit at Longwood Gardens. The moths are actually models of insect-themed shutter handles that will be part of Longwood’s future indoor Children’s Garden. The Transition Exhibit underscores the strong tradition of change throughout Long wood’s history by highlighting major past, present, and future projects to renew the Gardens. The Exhibit uses flow charts and photographs to give an overview of planning at Longwood and the inter-relationships between the Garden’s research, plant produc tion, and horticultural display divisions. Isometric drawings, conceptual illustrations, and models explain four future projects: the construction of a new indoor Children’s Garden, the renovation of the East Conservatory, the construction of a new outdoor Winter Garden, and the renovation of the Ballroom Complex and historic 10,010-pipe Aeolian organ. The Transition Exhibit is open during Conservatory hours, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. For more information, call (610) 388-1000 or visit online at www.longwoodgardens.org. Photo credit: Longwood Gardens photo by L. Albee. Homeschoolers preparing for upcoming spelling bee, from left, are Nathaniel Wood craft, g; Virgina Manness, 11; Matthew Woodcraft, 11; and Titus Jones, 13. More home schoolers are needed in order to qualify for the competition. Registration deadline is Dec. 1. The paideia has 3,700 words grouped into 27 categories and three levels: beginning, interme diate, and advanced. You could say the paideia makes kids smarter. Not only do they learn how to spell words, but they learn how to use the words in coversation, and recognize them when reading books. Of course, standing in front of an audience helps prepare stu dents for the transition in the working world where speaking before an audience is often re quired. Titus Jones, 13, has partici pated in the annual event before. He knows what it is like to know how to spell a word, but have his mind go blank when standing in front of an audience. Nevertheless Titus is going to try again. His sister took second place in the regional competition two years ago. Virginia Maness, 11, daughter of Paula and Tim Maness, Roth- sville, said that spelling is an easy subject for her but she doesn’t re ally like it. She, too, plans to par ticipate. She believes it is impor tant to learn to be a good speller. More than 230 newspapers around the world participate ih the E.W. Scripps Company Spelling Bee. It is open to students attending public, private, parochial, char ter, and home schools. Partici pants must have reached their 16th birthday on or before the date of the national finals and must not have passed beyond eighth grade on or before Feb. 1, 20003. A comprehensive set of re quirements may be found in the Suggested Rules for Local Spell ing Bees at the Website www.spellingbee.com. Most homeschoolers plan to practice independently by using words from the paideia. While studying, students will often write down a word that their mother or other instructor pronounces. But on the day of competition, all spelling is done orally. Students will not be able to write out the word and decide whether or not it looks correct. The word will be pronouced. The students may ask to have the word repeated or for the pro nouncer to use the word in a sen tence or for a definition. This method is a precaution against misinterpreting the word. Titus said that he lost one time because he thought the pro nouncer was saying a word that sounded similiar to the one actu ally spoken. The annual event began in 1925. Nine students participated in the first national finals. This year, more than 10 million stu dents at the local level and more than 240 national finalists will participate. To register for the Lancaster County Home Schoolers Spelling Bee, send your child’s name, grade, parents’ names, address, and phone number with $2 for each child to Elaine Woodcraft, 174 Parkview Heights Rd., Eph rata, PA 17522. Checks can be made payable to Woodcraft, who will forward details. For more in formation, call Woodcraft at (717)738-9735. m-’
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