spelling bee

I know that people want to see pictures of Africa and Nigeria, but part of us living here has been daily life and daily routine (if there can be routine here, which I really don't think there can be). One of our "normals" is the kids school. They are a great heartbeat as to what is going on here, crisis or no crisis. They do their best to maintain the best education possible while staying culturally relevant with 60% nigerians and 40% missionary, and my children love it. We feel so blessed and thankful for this school.

Yesterday, the fourth and fifth graders had their annual spelling bee. Gus made it to the actual spelling bee contest, which there were 12 from each grade that were chosen after a series of 6 weeks of spelling tests.

This picture to my left is of the 24 top spellers in these two grades. Gus did very well. He did not make it to the top five, but he definitely made it to the top 6 of his grade. It was fun seeing him go through this exercise because at the beginning he told me he was purposely going to miss a word so he wouldn't have to be in front of others spelling. Isn't that funny how it is sometimes in our human nature to perform poorly verses try and do the best we can.

I think these types of things are so valuable for children to experience and go through so they are better prepared for future real life opportunities. Overall, he said he had a really fun time and was glad he was a part of it. For the record, his misspelled word was "business"... he transposed the "s" and the "i". He did so well! Well done Gus!!