All homeschooled children from qualifying counties are invited to join CHEC’s annual spelling bee! Winners are then eligible for the statewide Denver Post Spelling Bee, and qualifiers from that competition will compete in the National Scripps Spelling Bee. (All homeschooled children are invited – not required to be affiliated with CHEC.)
Be creative and have fun with your preparation. Spelling study groups can be formed from your support group, with other families, or within your own family with multiple siblings. Work hard to prepare, then bring the family for competition day: it’s a positive experience for all participants and will help students prepare for the statewide bee!
See photos from the 2017 Spelling Bee
CHEC Spelling Bee
- WHEN? January 27, 2018 (tentative).
- WHO? Any homeschool student in the state of Colorado (except for Boulder County residents, who must participate in the Boulder County Spelling Bee). The speller must not have passed beyond the 8th grade on or before February 1, 2018. The speller must not have reached his/her 15th birthday on or before August 31, 2017.
- COST? $25 per student.
- REGISTRATION? Registration will open in the fall for the 2018 spelling bee.
- SCHEDULE? The Bee includes the written test, a break, and the oral test. Schedule will be announced later.
- PREPARE? Go to myspellit.com. You’ll see a list of words by language of origin available on the left. These are the SpellIt! words and will be the main source of words for the written portion of the Bee. Once you register, we will send you a classroom list to study from as well. Additionally, spellingbee.com has a section titled Students and Parents that has some good suggestions for making studying fun.
- SHARE? Join the event on Facebook to share with your friends.
Official Rules
The CHEC Spelling Bee is organized under the guidelines of the Denver Post. The age and grade requirements are as follows:
- The speller must not have passed beyond the eighth grade on or before February 1, 2018.
- The speller must not have reached his 15th birthday on or before August 31, 2017.
- The focus of the Bee will be for students in the 4th to 8th grade. However, younger students are welcome to participate.
Preparation Materials
The written portion of the CHEC Spelling Bee is also the qualifying portion for the Colorado Statewide Bee. Find the MAIN source of words for this section at the Spell It website. On the left, you’ll see the list (a total of approximately 1,000 words) categorized by language of origin. Consider studying one language at a time – reading the rules and then working through the list of words. It is challenging but great preparation for success at the Statewide Bee!
In addition, a FEW words for the written test will come from the Classroom list (only available to registrants for the Spelling Bee).
You can also find study helps on the Spelling Bee website. On the top, click on the “Parents and Students” link for helpful tools and resources. Also consider signing up for the Word Club – it’s a wonderful tool that many of our previous winners have used to study their SpellIt! words.
