Spelling Bee

All Colorado homeschooled children 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.

CHEC Colorado Homeschool Spelling Bee

WHEN? January 2022
- 8:00 am — Doors open
- 8:30 am — Written test begins
- 10:00 am — Break (grading of written tests)
- 10:30 am — Oral competition begins
- 12:30 pm — Tentative end time
WHO? Any homeschool student in the state of Colorado. The speller must not have passed beyond the 8th grade on or before February 1, 2022. The speller must not have reached his/her 15th birthday on or before August 31, 2021.
WHERE? Reformation Church of Elizabeth: 489 Rocky Cliff Cir, Elizabeth, CO 80107
COST? $25 per student.
REGISTRATION? Opening in fall 2021.
CAN I JUST WATCH? Yes! You’re welcome to come and experience the oral competition with your children to support participants and learn if you’d like to participate in the future. Just contact us (events@chec.org) to find out what time the oral competition begins.

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, 2021.
The speller must not have reached his 15th birthday on or before August 31, 2020.
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. The vast majority of the words for both the written and oral portions of the CHEC Spelling Bee will be taken from the “Words of The Champions: Your Key to The Bee,” and you’ll receive a pdf version in your registration confirmation email.

You can also find study helps and other tools and resources on the Spelling Bee website under the “Parents” tab.

For those interested in also studying for the State and National Spelling Bees, we recommend checking out this website for tips.

See more photos from the 2021 Spelling Bee