So far, so G-R-E-A-T.
Larry Liao, a fifth grader at Cold Spring Elementary School in Potomac, advanced to the third round of the preliminaries in the 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bee. He next will compete Tuesday afternoon in round three of the preliminaries.
Tuesday morning, he successfully spelled taedium vitae and knew the definition of cybernetics.
The 11-year-old has been studying about 40 minutes each weekday and multiple hours on the weekends since winter break. While that may seem like a lot, he still found time to swim twice a week, play tennis often and read a lot.
What he hasn’t quite found time for is fishing. His father promised if he succeeds in the third, and final, preliminary round, he will bring Larry’s fishing rod to the competition. Hopefully, the family can then find time for him to go fishing before the quarterfinals on Wednesday.
“I like to go fishing, but I haven’t gone in like five months, because I had to study,” he told MCM.
The young man gives a lot of credit to his teacher Cheryl J Sellitti for her encouragement, help and donuts. His fifth-grade class is following his progress on television, he said.
To start his studies, his father copied the Merriam-Webster abridged dictionary. Larry crossed out all the words he already knew, and his father took the other words and made an Excel spreadsheet for him to study.
He still is a little surprised he made it all the way to the nationals and was scared to be on the big stage at first. But as he heard some of the words before his turn at the microphone, he calmed down. He realized the words – at least for him – weren’t that hard, he said.
To others who want to compete in spelling bees, Larry advised, “Study hard. Try your best and do what you can do.”
The Rockville resident is one of 29 fifth graders and 27 11-year-olds to make it to the preliminary rounds that are being held currently at Gaylord National Resort. A total of 229 spellers began Tuesday’s competition.
Larry Liao, a 5th grader at Cold Spring Elementary School, is excited to compete in the 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bee but also can't wait to end hours of studying and go fishing again @mymcmedia @ScrippsBee pic.twitter.com/MhDqFhcI52
— suzanne pollak (@SuzannePollak) May 30, 2023
#Speller87 Lawrence Liao from Maryland has spelled the word taedium vitae correctly. https://t.co/1HnC4GBueL #spellingbee
— Scripps National Spelling Bee (@ScrippsBee) May 30, 2023
#Speller87 Lawrence Liao from Maryland has answered the word meaning question for the word cybernetics incorrectly. https://t.co/1HnC4GBueL #spellingbee
— Scripps National Spelling Bee (@ScrippsBee) May 30, 2023
Related Post
