Leighton's big day

This past week, we've been cramming (apparently this child has gotten a touch of my love of procrastination and didn't want to study during our many, many days of leisure over the school holidays!) for two big events for Leighton.  Friday ended up being a very big day for our little guy!

On Thursday, he took a written test to try to make the team for Name That Book.  It's a competition in the school district where the students read a selection of books and then are required to correctly identify which books different quotes/passages come from.  We had to read and study 7 books for the team try-outs, and he did amazingly well!  On Friday morning about 10 minutes before the start of the Spelling Bee, it was announced that he made the team!

On Friday, he participated in the school Spelling Bee with about 50 other students in 2nd-5th grades.  Every day we studied, he learned more and more words.  If we would have had 2 more days (ahem, the downfall of procrastination!), he would have been exceptionally prepared, but instead he was just really well prepared!  He made it to the 3rd round (and was the last 2nd grader standing and stayed in longer than about half the students! IN the videos you can see the number of other students still on the stage getting less and less each round) by getting ATOMIC and CURFEW correct, and then he got out on a word we had barely paid attention too - oops!  He will now never, ever forget the word MOGUL (he spelled it m-o-g-l-e), I'm sure!  A lot of the words in the 4th and 5th rounds that other children got would have been words he would have gotten correct, so it is a good gauge for how to prepare for next year so he can hopefully get further! By the time it was the 7th round, they were getting into words that I would have difficulty with!  Rounds 10-15 were just two students battling it out, which was really exciting and entertaining for the other kids!  Leighton was so smiley and really enjoyed it, and we were SUPER proud of him.

Round 1:

Round 2:

Round 3:

In the afternoon on Friday, when I was driving to pick up the kids, I got a phone call from the Assistant Principal at the school.  I didn't answer since I was driving, but listened to the message when I parked at the school and was walking to get Riley.  The message was saying that Leighton had received a Positive Behavior Referral from his teacher for taking risks and giving it his all for the NTB try-out and the Spelling Bee.  These phone calls are an initiative that the principal implemented last year to have there be more positive communication between the admin and parents instead of those phone calls usually being about students who are in trouble or hurt at school!  This was Leighton's first one!  It made me teary when I heard it.  Just so proud of this little guy for working so hard this week and doing so well!