By Vilma Angulo - St. Bonaventure Church
DAVIE | Win or lose, St. Bonaventure fifth grader Simone Kaplan is totally prepared to compete in the National Spelling Bee taking place May 30-June 1 in Washington, D.C. Her mantra is: “Day by day, letter by letter, one word at a time.”
Photographer: COURTESY PHOTO
St. Bonaventure fifth grader Simone Kaplan poses with her first place certificate after the Broward County spelling bee. She will travel to Washington at the end of May to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
According to Simone’s mother, Alana Kaplan, the 11-year-old winner of the Broward County Spelling Bee wakes up at 6 a.m. weekday mornings and studies for 40 minutes on her computer before getting ready for school. After school, she studies in intervals of 40 minutes, with 20-minute breaks in-between, until her bedtime at 9 p.m.
“Since qualifying for the nationals, Simone only participates in one after-school activity, the St. Bonaventure Children's Chorale,” said her mother.
Simone has two coaches, both former champions (who competed against each other twice): Mary Horton and Christal Sheremeister. Both girls are homeschooled high school juniors. Simone has one-hour telephone sessions with Mary every week, and in-person coaching with Christal frequently.
In addition to studying the words provided by the National Spelling Bee, Simone studies from the book “Words of Wisdom” by Scott Remer, and lists of words used in previous spelling bees. Many of these words have roots in German, French, Italian, Latin, Greek, Tagalog, Malay, Chinese, Welch, Persian, Farsi, Russian, Hebrew, Yiddish, Hawaiian, and Spanish.
Unlike many other champions who are going to the national Bee, Simone is a first-time competitor who has not had a sibling compete before her.
In addition to hard work and studying, Simone credits her success to a life-long love of reading. Among her favorites are the Harry Potter series, The Land of Stories series, and The Benedict Society series. She has been in St. Bonaventure’s Million Words Club since second grade.
“As a mother, I also credit lots and lots of prayer to her success. Hard word, prayer, hard work, prayer, and more hard work,” said Kaplan.
While in Washington, Simone will tour George Washington's estate, Mount Vernon, with her fellow spelling champions, and enjoy a Memorial Day barbeque at Nationals Stadium.
Prior to taking the stage for her oral round of competition, all 291 champions will take a rigorous written test which also has a vocabulary component. The combination of the two scores in the written and oral competition (May 30 and 31) will determine the 50 champions who will go to the final oral round June 1.
“This is our first step. In this process of winning the Broward County Bee, and studying, Simone has really risen to the occasion, and found something that she enjoys; something that she's successful at,” said her mother. “Even if we don't win first place at the National Spelling Bee, this has been an experience in devotion, determination, study skills, motivation, and discipline. We've already won.”
Then again: Simone is just finishing fifth grade. There’s always next year.
See www.spellingbee.com for details about Simone Kaplan’s schedule, and when the competition will air on television. Simone is Speller #13.
