How to Help Your Child Prepare for a Spelling Bee

The most useful things you can do to help your child prepare for a spelling bee are to get the official study list for this season, quiz your child by reading words the way a real pronouncer does, and keep sessions short, frequent and encouraging. Protect your child’s sleep in the weeks before the bee, and learn the rules too, including the questions your child is allowed to ask. What you need is the list, a bit of time most days and a calm attitude toward mistakes. You don’t have to be a strong speller yourself.

Get the right study list

For the 2026-2027 season, Scripps provides two official study resources. Schools enrolled in its program receive the 4,000-word Words of the Champions, which includes the 450-word School Spelling Bee Study List (Scripps FAQ). Scripps says the 450-word list is what to study for a school bee. It runs from first-grade words up through eighth grade, and the full 4,000 words are for spellers who advance past the school level (Scripps Study Tips).

Start by asking your child’s teacher. If the school is enrolled, you can also create a free account in Scripps’s Spelling Bee Resource Center and download your child’s grade-level study lists and the full School Spelling Bee Study List (Scripps Resource Center). If your child’s bee includes vocabulary questions, Scripps suggests studying the version of the list that includes definitions and parts of speech (Scripps Study Tips). Our guide to spelling bee word lists covers every list in detail.

How to act as pronouncer

Scripps’s official pronouncer, Dr. Jacques Bailly, recommends that spellers practice with a friend or family member acting as pronouncer, answering their questions and treating each word as if they were at the bee (Scripps, How to Study for a Spelling Bee). Here’s how to do it the way a real pronouncer would under the 2027 Suggested Rules for Spelling Bees (Scripps 2027 Suggested Rules):

• Say the word clearly, the way the list marks it. Real pronouncers work from the pronunciation markings in the competition list. If you aren’t sure how a word is said, look it up before the session. Merriam-Webster Unabridged is the bee’s official dictionary.
• Answer only the questions the rules allow. Your child may ask you to repeat the word, define it, use it in a sentence, or give its part of speech, language of origin or an alternate pronunciation. Real pronouncers don’t answer root-word questions, give a second definition or say the word more slowly, so don’t do those things either.
• Define words that sound like other words. If a word has a homonym, the pronouncer indicates which one is meant by defining it.
• Let your child finish without help. Your child should say the word, spell it and say it again. Under the rules, letters can’t be changed once they’ve been said.

At a classroom bee, the word’s language of origin may not be offered. Scripps’s quick guide for school bees lists it as something students can ask about only at the school level (Scripps Rules). Our guide to what you can ask in a spelling bee explains how each question helps.

Keep practice short and encouraging

Little and often

Spreading practice across many days beats saving it for a few long sessions. A 2013 review of ten study techniques gave its highest rating to two: distributed practice, meaning study spread out over time, and practice testing, meaning recalling the answer instead of looking at it. Rereading was rated low (Dunlosky et al., 2013). Quizzing your child a little on most days, and returning to words they missed, fits both findings. Our guide on how to practice for a spelling bee at home lays out a daily routine.

Praise effort

In a 1998 paper reporting six studies, fifth graders who were praised for being smart showed less persistence, less enjoyment and worse performance after a failure than fifth graders praised for their effort (Mueller & Dweck, 1998). After a tough word, try something like “You worked that one out well” or “That’s a hard one, let’s add it to tomorrow’s list” rather than “You’re a natural.”

Let your child steer

A 2007 meta-analysis of 47 studies found that parenting explained only a small share of children’s anxiety overall. Among the parenting behaviors it looked at, though, parental control was more closely linked with child anxiety than rejection was, and granting autonomy was one of the more strongly linked parts (McLeod et al., 2007). Those are associations, not proof of cause, but giving your child a say costs nothing. Let them choose which words to practice, when to run a mock round and when to stop.

Sleep and stress

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends that children ages 6 to 12 sleep 9 to 12 hours per 24 hours on a regular basis, and that teens ages 13 to 18 sleep 8 to 10 hours. The American Academy of Pediatrics endorses these recommendations (AASM; Paruthi et al., 2016). The AASM panel linked regularly getting less sleep than that with attention, behavior and learning problems. The CDC uses the same ranges, though its teen row covers ages 13 to 17. Its sleep habits include going to bed and getting up at the same time every day and turning off electronic devices at least 30 minutes before bedtime (CDC). So skip late-night cramming before the bee.

Nerves are normal, and Bailly points out that spelling in front of an audience makes some people nervous, which is why he suggests practicing the performance itself (Scripps, How to Study for a Spelling Bee). A few mock bees at home, with you as pronouncer, take much of the surprise out of the real one. Our guide to spelling bee nerves has more ideas.

Know the rules your child will compete under

Scripps’s suggested rules are guidance only. Local bee officials can adapt them, and Scripps tells parents to check with local officials for the rules in effect (Scripps 2027 Suggested Rules). A few points from the 2027 version are worth sharing with your child ahead of time (same source):

• Judges may not disqualify a speller for forgetting to say the word before or after spelling it, or for asking a question.
• Spellers don’t have to say capital letters, accent marks, hyphens or spaces. Only the letters and their order count.
• A speller can be disqualified if their family behaves in a way that doesn’t promote fair, honest rivalry, courteous relations and graceful acceptance of the results. On the day, the most helpful thing you can do is be a calm, supportive audience.

For the day itself, see our guide to spelling bee competition day.