Amelia “Bindi” Ray sat on her Florida lawn crying as neighbors hauled away her toys. Her mom couldn’t afford a storage space big enough for all 30 years’ worth of memories accumulated in her family home.

“We’ll make everything back someday,” Dr. Sandhini Ray told her daughter before they flew back to their Baltimore County apartment.

It had been a rough couple of years for the family, who were grappling with the deaths of Bindi’s father and grandmother. They’d resettled in Maryland in 2023 to be closer to Bindi’s older brother, flying back and forth to clear out the old house every holiday break. Bindi was thrust into in-person school for the first time in her life, at first too scared to walk to class by herself.

Now in fifth grade, the 11-year-old pushes along the hallways of Riderwood Elementary School like other kids. She’s made new friends, performed in a play and modeled in an environmental-themed fashion show.

This week, she’ll take the national stage as the youngest Maryland competitor in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Studying with her mom, she beat out dozens of spellers in school and regional competitions, earning a chance to test her knowledge of words like “lupercalia” and “sangfroid” against kids from across the country.

The spelling bee, which starts Tuesday at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in Prince George’s County, will cap off a healing journey for the mother and daughter.

‘Knowledge is in every corner’

Sandhini Ray read to her daughter every day, starting when Bindi was still in the womb. She continued during the thick of COVID when Ray, a frontline healthcare worker, had to distance herself from her kids. Storytime happened over FaceTime instead of in person.

Reading, she believes, helped make Bindi a talented speller. Her son, now a student at Johns Hopkins University, is one, too.

On walks, Ray shows her daughter that “words are everywhere.” She’ll pull a plant out of the ground, point to its root and ask Bindi what it is.

“Knowledge is in every corner if you keep your eyes and heart and mind open,” Ray said.

During one of their walks, Ray started to cry, still overwhelmed by her mother’s death. That‘s when Bindi told her about the “Just be Glad” game, inspired by the book “A Little Princess.” The main character, Sara, imagines herself in better circumstances to briefly escape her reality.

“When you’re the saddest in your life, you have to think about the things that you’re glad for and just be glad that you have those things still,” Ray remembered Bindi telling her.

Bindi gave her mom 10 minutes in the morning and 10 at night to cry. The rest of the day, she had to play the “Just be Glad” game.

These days, it’s a lot easier to be glad.

R-i-d-e-r-w-o-o-d

Bindi likes to experience new things. This school year, she joined the Riderwood Elementary spelling bee club.

“I usually try the little clubs that come my way because, otherwise, you don’t know what you like,” she said.

The 28 club members meet with teacher J. Heather Buchman during lunchtime to play spelling games, practice spelling out loud and learn the spelling bee rules.

Buchman described Bindi as one of her most passionate learners who’s intensely curious about the world and excels in every subject. She’s a deep thinker who asks good questions and catches details other students miss, Buchman added.

“She is very mature in the way she approaches learning new things,” her teacher said. “She truly has a love for learning.”

Buchman has been impressed with Bindi’s grasp of science words. The teacher suspected Bindi’s mom, a medical director, played a big role in that.

“Science is basically one big explanation of how the world works,” said Bindi. Her favorite word is “chlorofluorocarbon,” a gaseous compound used in refrigerators.

One Friday afternoon, as she was getting picked up from school, Bindi told her mom some good news: She was one of the top 10 qualifiers for the schoolwide spelling bee. The contest was the following Monday.

“When did you find this out?” Ray asked her daughter.

“Today,” Bindi responded.

“The teacher could not have told you this today. There’s no way,” said Ray.

Ray considered having Bindi skip the school bee. There wasn’t much time to prepare.

“But then Bindi said, ‘Mommy, maybe if we try really hard, if I study hard, I can do it,’” Ray recalled.

That weekend, they studied for 10 hours in the conference room of their apartment complex. It paid off. Bindi and another student emerged as the winners and qualified for the regional competition.

Virtual spellers

For the first time this year, the regional spelling bee, hosted by the Maryland Sports Commission, happened on a computer. Graham Whaples, project administrator for the commission, said the change was so all competitors are able to participate regardless of a family’s schedule or available transportation.

It was a surprise to Ray. She and Bindi had been practicing spelling orally, and Bindi didn’t know how to type, so typing the words was added to their study routine — two hours each weekend and 30 minutes each school night.

The regional level was challenging. Kids had to spell and define 35 words in 40 minutes.

Bindi left the regionals feeling upset, even though she answered 34 of the 35 questions correctly. Her mom treated her to McDonald‘s before going home to do homework. Bindi has been slowly rebuilding her toy collection with Happy Meal prizes.

Weeks later, Ray received an email from the Maryland Sports Commission saying Bindi won regionals and qualified for the Scripps National Spelling Bee. At first, Ray thought the email was spam and called the school to find out.

Buchman, Bindi’s teacher, was emailed the good news at the same time. She screamed and ran into the hallway with Bindi and showed her the message.

“That poor child probably has trauma from me doing that, but it was so exciting,” the teacher said.

Buchman and Ray shed a few tears on the phone together.

“My children have gone through so much,” Ray said she thought at the time.

Bindi mostly smiled about the news. To celebrate, she only wanted one thing: a McDonald‘s Happy Meal.

‘Already a champion’

Handwritten words are taped around the Rays’ apartment. “Demitasse,” for instance, is pasted near the coffeemaker since it means a small cup of black coffee.

Studying for the National Spelling Bee happens “a little every day,” Ray said, using a dictionary or an app made by Scripps. The words are so difficult that even Ray struggles to understand what they mean.

“One word is taking us 20-30 minutes because we’re looking up the definitions of the definitions of the definitions,” she said. “These are words that I don’t expect my child to even be able to half pronounce, let alone memorize.”

One of the harder words Bindi has come across is “tlingit” because it‘s pronounced as if it starts with a “K” rather than a “T.” There’s also “sangfroid,” a French word pronounced as sahn-fruh-ah.

Competition will be stiff. Spellers can be as old as 15, and some, like Anne Arundel County Public Schools’ Quint Karlsson, are returning competitors. The 13-year-old tied for 22nd place last year.

The preliminaries start Tuesday, with quarterfinals beginning Wednesday morning, both televised on the streaming service Bounce XL. The semifinals and finals on Wednesday afternoon and Thursday will be on Ion.

Quarterfinalists receive a $100 gift card, and semifinalists get a $500 gift card. Cash prizes are given to spellers who finish in the top seven, ranging from $2,500 to $50,000 for first place.

Ray and Bindi aren’t expecting to win the whole thing, but do have plans to return next year with the goal of going further than they will this year.

“At this point, she’s already a champion, having come this far,” said Ray.

Still, Bindi has tentative plans for the cash prize: putting $100 toward McDonald‘s Happy Meals.

About the Education Hub

This reporting is part of The Banner’s Education Hub, community-funded journalism that provides parents with resources they need to make decisions about how their children learn. Read more.