Ten-year old Danica Matthews said she’s all about math, and spelling is more like her side job. But it took a front seat for the fifth grader from Edna, who won the Jackson County Spelling Bee for elementary with cyclops as her winning word.
“I was thinking ‘what is this word and where does it come from?’ I was picturing the word, because I have a photographic memory,” she said, “so I pictured the word in my brain and I spelled it.”
Danica said she owes a lot to her mother, Daniela, because she called the words out to her, helped her spell them, and had her write them down three to 10 times, depending on whether Danica missed the word or not.
“There were some words that didn’t stick,” Daniela said. “We’d practice every day for two hours and we’d watch winners on YouTube so she could study her competition from the years before.”
Daniela also had a tactic which Danica wasn’t hip to at first, but she understood the purpose behind it. The mother would have her daughter stand on a chair and spell her words to get used to spelling on a stage. Plus, it lessened her nervousness and caused her to fidget less.
“All the spelling bees I’ve gone to, the kids know the words, right? To get that far they have to know the words, but they miss because of anxiety and being scared,” she said. “I’ve seen so many, they just draw a blank. So it’s pretty neat to recall all that information and then spit it out.”
Danica said they also watched national winners and their tactics, which led to another one that worked for her.
“We tried me spelling as many words as I could in a minute and a half, and I started getting quicker with it and it started to become easier,” she said. “I tend to spell really fast because it’s easier for me to comprehend.”
Daniela said Danica’s county win was her trophy as well, and a relief, due to the amount of studying they did together. Through those pages and pages of words, a student might spell a few words on the list at most, and she said there’s Spanish, Latin, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, and medical terms.
“How can you help your child study if you can’t even pronounce them? Sometimes we had to have Google say it for us.,” Daniela said. “We tried to utilize any tool technology- wise to get her there.”
Danica is the daughter of Daniela and Carl Rayburn, and has an older brother, Austin.
At regionals, Danica lost out in the fifth round with the word fallacy, but it was no matter, because she’s just getting started.
“We went out to IHOP to celebrate after my county win,” she said. “I wanted chocolate chip pancakes.”
All in all, she said winning at county meant something to her, and now her mom has made a space for her certificate and trophy on the wall.
Danica has won Edna Elementary’s spelling bee for three years in a row, so here’s hoping there’s more in junior high.
