Can you say extraordinary?
I suspect that 6-year-old Lori Anne Madison can spell it - and it's one of the best words to describe her.
The young girl from Prince William County, Virginia, has just become the youngest speller eligible to participate in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, according to the event's record books, which date to 1993. Mike Hickerson, the bee's communications manager, said there have been four spellers since 1993 who were 8 years old.
Lori Anne, who is home-schooled, beat out 21 other kids in the county to win the bee, which enters her into the national bee.
The word that thrust her into the spotlight? "Vaquero," the Spanish translation of "cowboy," which is often used in Spanish-speaking parts of the South such as Texas, according to InsideNova.
The paper reported that after one of the last spellers missed her word, Lori Anne stepped up to the microphone, was given her word and without hesitation rattled off the spelling correctly.
Her parents said it was a word that had tripped her up before.
“We practiced that word several times because she kept getting it wrong,” mom Sorina Vlaicu Madison told InsideNova. “We really insisted on that word, so I knew for sure she would nail it.”
And nail it she did.
“It was better this time. It felt better,” the 6-year-old told the newspaper as she held her trophy.
“Look, this trophy is different from last year's,” Lori Anne said.
That's right, this isn't the little girl's first time at the spelling bee. Last year, she made it into the local top five. This year, she was determined to best herself.
Now, Lori Anne will have to dust off her flashcards and perhaps pop in a DVD of documentary "Spellbound," which looks at the phenomenon behind the famous spelling bee, in order to check out what the national spotlight would be like. Lori Anne will surely have the world watching her in May if she makes it through the rounds to ESPN's prime-time viewing of the Scripps Bee.
I've got a hunch that this girl is destined to be n-o-n-p-a-r-e-i-l.
"Could I get the definition, please?" you ask.
adjective: having no equal; peerless.
noun: a person or thing having no equal; in printing a "6-point type."
But Lori Anne probably already knows that.
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Reblogged this on Meir Weiss' Blog and commented:
cool
I heard of a baby learning the alphabet at 11 months. Imagine that!
Surely an Indian will win...
bigot
I love hearing stories about these amazing kids. It gives me hope for America's future.
But really, I'm so happy for Lori Anne and hope that she keeps it up and uses her amazing brain to do something awesome when she gets older, even if she makes me feel vastly inferior. 
Great job, Lori! I'll be pulling for you at the Scripps Bee.
I think it's great that there are kids that are so intellectually advanced at such a young age. I know that I could never win a spelling bee, never-the-less be even close. And she's only six. I hope she does really well in the State competetion and everybody else better step up their game because it would suck to be sent home by a six year old.
"never-the-less be even close" – maybe you should ask her to tutor you (although make yoda proud you do...)
Way to go home schoolers!
Seriously? You're so closed-minded you'll only root for a kid who's homeschooled? That's the problem with homeschooling. If you have parents like you the kids don't get to experience anything different from themselves. Pathetic.
It's easy to do spelling drills when you don't have to worry about pesky "science."
Jack, that comment was really enough to make you angry? THAT'S pathetic.
Yes Candace, because science isn't included in home schooling. Idiot. They are still required by the state to take the same type of courses to get a high school diploma.
While an interesting achievement, Lori Anne's abilities do not strike a stronger chord with me than any child with an above-average ability to memorize lists and a few rules. She will impress me when she uses a few of those words to compose original poetry or write a literary comparative analysis. Right now, her skills are a novelty, albeit useless in the real world. I also heard of a kid who memorized the value of pi to 120 digits. Not impressed. As soon as he can make any headway on the Riemann hypothesis, then we'll talk.
Clap, clap. Nice speech.
I don't know about useless. I have rejected job applicants for improper spelling and grammar. It's a little short-sided to say that proper spelling is useless. I'm pretty sure she is probably picking up some vocabulary in there too, lady. Jealous of a six-year old much?
i do not give one poop about this. moving on
I live in Miami, FL and apparently our schools do not give our 6yr olds the opportunity to try out for the spelling bee. My 1st grader, 6yr old (he just turned 7 a few weeks ago) son is 99 percentile gifted and has been reading since 3 and knew the alphabet since he was 2. His spelling skills are amazing. He used to get overwhelmed and anxious and spelling words for me was my way to focus him since he was 3 yrs old. His older sister is in 4th grade gifted and she tried out for the spelling bee as it is only open to 4th and 5th graders at our school. My son joined in with us while we were practicing spelling with her and he was blurting out 5th grade level word after word! He was amazing, but I guess he was never given the opportunity to be the youngest ever. There may be many kids like him out there, but are not allowed to participate because of their age or grade level.
If you talk to your school I'm sure they can give you information on how their students become eligible for national spelling bees.
What, "Vaquero" tripped her up before? How often has it come up? I'm not an expert on this thing, but does Scripps have a "list" of words that they cycle through and expect people to memorize, rather than randomize the entire dictionary? If, so, this is just a memorization test rather than a literacy test. Well, congrats anyway, but like I've told my kids while discussing school or helping with homework, understanding is better than memorizing.
that is a Spanish w word, they are required to know that in an English spelling bee?
Noam Chomsky would agree with you there.
Amazing. Definition: The most overused adjective in the English language.
As a friend and I were playfully arguing a few years ago, another friend decided to chime in, "FAILURE!!! F-A-I-L-E-R!!!" Our argument stopped cold in the face of such pure, delicious irony and we both turned on the mutual buddy and began mercilessly mocking him.
Thet gerl sher kan spel gud butt iz shee reely smort liek mee?
I'm so happy for you, Lori Anne.