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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I bat she wil beet ole peepol on this bored.
Good for her. But what a ridiculously trite article.
You are being rather captious.
cwfwhatever: fox much?
My 8 year old son is a great speller, and when I first started reading this article I thought, "hey, he'd probably have
fun doing this, how do I sign him up for a spelling bee". Then I read that the mother and child had been practicing for years, using flashcards and finding obscure words to spell. That sounds exhausting. I'd much rather
have my son outside playing and well, just being a kid. This little girl seems to enjoy doing this, but
I do worry about children being pressured to compete at such a young age.
Chris- unlike ur son who will prob end up being in prison, this little girl will be having a great education and prob the lawyer for your son. Why would u say something so negative?
*****i meant debbie
MATT ;
MATT ; unlike ur son who will prob end up being in prison, this little girl will be having a great education and prob the lawyer for your son. Why would u say something so negative?
Debbie, I totally agree. Kids should be allowed to be kids.
I agree. Rather a well adjusted, imaginative child than one who knows how to spell lots of words, but not how to interact socially. My spelling bee champ put down her dictionary to ride her bike with her friends instead.
Matt,
Debbie's is a perfectly valid point. She didn't say anything negative about that kid or the kid's parents. She merely voiced her opinion which just doesn't warrant your saying "your son will probably end up in prison". Who is being negative now? If the child shows interest in activities such as "spelling bee", that's great! However, there are many parents who put a lot of pressure on the kids for their own satisfaction. Sometimes, letting a child have a normal childhood is much more precious than trying to make your child into some sort of a prodigy.
I'd say it really depends on a kid though. In my case, I would read to my son a lot of books, then I noticed him reading all by himself before he even turned three. Now I had to slow him down a bit cuz I want him to enjoy being a kid. But next thing I know he wants to learn other things like math etc. The kid is the one who is so willing to do it and he would ask more information all the time. He is really good at any sports that I try to introduce to him too. lol Even if I did not teach him anything about the solar system, he's the one who figured things out from the games that big sister has.
I agree, Debbie.
There's room for both, Debbie. My six year old wants to be a mathlete. We already work with him daily on multiplication and he is memorizing facts and we're learning WHY the answers are what they are. He taught himself subtraction by making an equation with the parts of the equation he knew, essentially solving for x. He does extra math worksheets everyday. He says when he wants to grow up, he'd like to disprove infinity. This year he just decided that he wanted to learn WHY there's infinity.
He goes outside and plays (the other thing he wants to be is a marathon runner) like any other kid, but frankly, when it comes to math, he's not a regular kid. I won't hold him back from learning math. He also likes to learn new words and how to spell them. He reads at a 4th grade level.
His goals for this summer are to learn to play tennis and to finish all of the reading levels in his school.
I don't know who said it, but spelling bees aren't about rote memorization. IF you watch the national bee, you will see how many kids ask about parts of speech, language of origin and many other questions to spell their words. All of these are clues as to how to spell them.
I'm proud of my son and I'm proud of this little girl.
"Her parents said it was a word she had tripped her up before." Would it be possible for CNN to at least have someone proofread their articles...especially those pertaining to spelling bees.
Chris- unlike ur son who will prob end up being in prison, this little girl will be having a great education and prob the lawyer for your son. Why would u say something so negative?
MATT : unlike ur son who will prob end up being in prison, this little girl will be having a great education and prob the lawyer for your son. Why would u say something so negative?
Wow, Matt / namethattune! We have our March nominee for the stupidest comment of 2012. And you posted it 4 times using 2 names. And you responded to yourself, (apparently) with 2 of them, and once erroniously to Chris.
Kids who go outside to play end up in jail, and good spellers become successful criminal lawyers. The way your brain works borders on scary. You are a fine one to talk about negativity. There is nothing negative about Debbie's comment.
Sofa King! You're prices are Sofa King low! haha, best joke i've heard in a while on npr.
SOFFA KING : You are jumping to conclusions based on very little information.
It is great to see kids achieve such status...but all work and no play can make Jill unhappy in the long run. Balance is very important for kids as they grow and develop.
Long before computers could play a four-year old beginner to a draw in chess they could beat anybody in spelling. That's because spelling is about mechanical memorization, not thinking and problem solving. Training five-six year olds to remember the spelling of the words they don't understand and most likely won't ever use is not the best way to help them develop their minds.
Actually I have to disagree there because part of the problem solving with spelling bees is understandng the root of a word and extrapolate from that how it could be spelt. It isnt all simply memorizing words.
Astonishing, glad more people are being allowed to compete in the bee before third grade (typically the lowest grade level allowed to compete at most schools). I was five when I was allowed to compete in my elementary school bee, but I finished in eighth place. Will be pulling for her!
Re the last few comments, now BOMBO is confused. And I actually agree with Debbie – or Chris or whoever said go outside and play instead of memorizing Scripps flashcards. But I would add, make sure you UNDERSTAND the subjects they are teaching you, first.
Good for her and good luck. Nice work parents in helping her.
i know . . . she did so A-M-A-Z-I-N-G too bad nobody cares !
I'm wondering why these kids are asked to spell Spanish words instead of English words. Don't get me wrong, languages are great (I'm bilingual myselt), but really, even though we have a large hispanic population, we are in the US of A. Next thing they'll be asked to spell "buttero" (Italian for cowboy).
Half the words in the english language have a foreign origin and have been adopted over the years.
She sure is amazing! Good promo for homeschooling. I guess kids will have to be multilingual to compete.
Congratulations.
Another home-schooled kid kicks butt. Another example of why we need school choice.
No...No we dont...
i know right
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.
Home schooled, I bet she is a Christian. Guess Bill Maher is the villaige idi ot after all.
Christians aren't the only people who home school, but she probably is.
Bill Maher was still correct though. It's only a madrassa at Santorum's house.
Where in the article did it say anything about her being a christian? Only a idiot would make a assumption without knowing the facts. Loser
Home schoolers are all Christian? Since when?
That wasn't a hard guess, since the majority of people in this country are Christian: c-h-r-i-s-t-i-a-n, Christian. The school system is so bad nowadays I don't blame parents for home schooling, especially at the grade school level.
maher's farts are smarter than most religious zealots....christainity....an ancient belief system by people who thought the world was flat and the sun revolved around THEM!
Sad little t, if anyone is the village idiot...
I don't know if you can even say that anymore. There are lots of atheists, agnostics, Muslims, Buddhists, etc. You are just generalizing without facts. Also there is still nothing to say whether she is or isn't, and what does it matter anyway?
Nothing is sacred. Even a 6 year old spelling bee girl gets turned into a political jab. YOU SUCK.
Poor little girl, can only imagine how uptight that home must be.
It doesnt matter, but the person who wrote the comment feels it's thier god given duty to spread thier right leaning views every where. I'm also guessing they support Pope Santorum, since they had to make thier dig at Maher.