gulf news job vacancies: 'D-i-r-i-g-i-b-l-e': 6-year-old nails it at Spelling Bee

Thursday, May 31, 2012

'D-i-r-i-g-i-b-l-e': 6-year-old nails it at Spelling Bee

Jacquelyn Martin / AP

Smart young people from across the nation compete to become the next National Spelling Bee champion. Above, Lori Anne Madison of Lake Ridge, Va. is the youngest-ever contestant in the National Spelling Bee.

By msnbc.com staff and NBC News

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. -- "W-i-t-t-i-c-i-s-m." And with that word, correctly spelled by?Kevin Lazenby, 13, of Opelika, Ala., the?85th National Spelling Bee got under way on Wednesday morning.

Each of the 278 participants spells two words?during the day's preliminary rounds, and their scores will be combined with their scores from a 50-word computer test they took Tuesday to determine the field of no more than 50 semifinalists, The Associated Press reported. You can follow along with the day's rounds here.

?This year's contest includes the bee's youngest speller ever: 6-year-old Lori Anne Madison of Lake Ridge, Va. Lori Anne, speller No. 269, correctly spelled "dirigible" during her turn just before noon Wednesday. The Washington Post reported that she asked for a definition, got the word right and quickly took her seat.?

She's a home-schooled student?who loves swimming, math and the outdoors?-- and says she wants to be an astrobiologist.

"She loves it and she does it because it's a passion, and we never push her into anything and want her to make her own choices," her mother,?Sorina Madison, told The Associated Press.