Home-schooled girl perennial winner of County Spelling Bee

By NICK GEVOCK Chronicle Staff Writer

BELGRADE -- Anna Rose Wright isn't that intrigued with spelling.

The 12-year-old would rather be looking at bee legs under a microscope, reading a science-fiction book or dreaming about her first love, horses.

"Spelling doesn't excite her," Anna's mother, Cindy Wright, said. "She's more interested in science."

But the home-schooled Anna has a knack for spelling.

She won the Gallatin County Spelling Bee last week after 13 rounds, finishing off with "p-i-e-b-a-l-d."

It was Anna's third consecutive victory in the county spelling bee. Next month she'll be heading to Missoula to compete in the statewide bee.

Her success is largely due to a lot of time spent studying words and her penchant for reading.

But spelling also runs in the family.

Anna's father won the County Spelling Bee once, as did her aunt. And Cindy Wright won her high school bee back in her Pennsylvania hometown.

Yet Cindy Wright, who said she chose to home school her kids so she could spend more time with them, attributes Anna's success to her hard work.

Anna reads all the time and gains knowledge of words. She plays with a computer program that teaches words. And she regularly studies the list of words slated for the bees.

Anna is educated in the Wright's country home on Springhill Road. She and her younger sister, Lilly, focus on the basics: math, spelling, piano, science, history and Latin.

A knowledge of Latin, along with some familiarity with Greek, helps Anna identify the roots of words during the bees and that's key to success, anna said.

However, some words give her fits, she said.

"If the announcer says it's French, I know it's going to be weird," Anna said.

Anna's ability to keep her cool, focusing on the judge to avoid getting nervous during the bee, helps her keep her concentration, too, her mom said.

It's those moments when Anna tunes in the crowd out front that she gets a little rattled.

"I'm just hoping that it's kind of dark in there, then you can't see all the people," she said. "If I see the people, I get nervous."

Anna learned to spell mostly through reading -- lots of reading. She blazes through historical fiction, science fiction and other novels.

She said she loves getting her education at home. She doesn't have to sit in the classroom and can even sprawl out on the floor while studying.

Anna does have one "classroom" area, a room set aside for studying science. There's a microscope, and posters of ants. But her attention is already drawn to the window, where she will soon have a horse grazing in the pasture.

That's her motivation for what she wants most -- to become a veterinarian.

And spelling plays into that, too.

"Spelling helps to become a veterinarian, because you can write what you're trying to say," she said.

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