Miss Spelling

Most fully grown adults would pause for a minute or two if someone asked them to get up in front of a room full of people and spell "cosmozoic." Or "gnomonics." Or "spadiceous."

Yet 12-year-old Tricia Ann Powles intends to tackle hundreds of similarly difficult words while competing against kids from across the country later this month at the 77th Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee.

The resident of 13th and Tasker streets will travel to Washington, D.C., on May 30 for the competition, where she will face more than 260 other grade-school spellers taking aim at a grand prize of more than $12,000.

The bee has gained attention in recent years, thanks to the 2002 documentary Spellbound, which detailed the background stories of competitors as well as the drama of the contest. The letter-by-letter action even has been captured on ESPN.

Powles’ presence at the contest is that much more significant because she is a home-schooled student — one of just 35 to make it to the mother of all spelling bees this year.

Although the specter of performing on a national stage against hundreds of "regular-school kids" might seem intimidating at first, Powles is taking her adventure one syllable at a time.

"I didn’t even expect to win the last one," the student said of the regional spelling bee that she clinched in March at Grover Washington Jr. Middle School on East Olney Avenue.

Powles beat out 32 spellers from the Philadelphia area in the regional competition, surprising the seventh-grader and her family.

"Last year was her first time in the competition, and it was tough — two other girls went at it, round after round," said Tricia’s mother and teacher, Pamela. "This year was better — the pressure was off — but we were still shocked that she won."

Pamela Powles is not surprised, however, that home-schooling has seemed to benefit her daughter. She decided to home-school her children after the birth of her first child, 17-year-old Cassandra.

As a schoolteacher working in Princeton, N.J., Powles said she saw things she didn’t like about the education system and quickly realized she could enjoy the best of both worlds — as a mom and a teacher — if she taught her children at home.

"It just clicked for me. I fell in love with my kids and wanted to be home with them, but I wanted to make sure that they still received a good education," Powles said.

To become a home-school teacher, Powles had to file paperwork with the School District of Philadelphia and prove she was a high-school graduate.

The rest — the curriculum, the amount of time her kids would spend in the classroom or enjoying a holiday — was up to her.

"They don’t get off for snow days," Pamela quipped, adding that she usually gives her kids off for national holidays while adhering to the school district’s 180-day schedule.

Describing her children as "extremely self-motivated," Powles said each of them, including 6-year-old son Nathaniel, expressed interest over time in extracurricular activities.

An avid reader and writer, Tricia won a PBS Reading Rainbow contest when she was just in third grade.

"I did worry a little that my kids would be a little shy when it came to interacting with other school kids," Powles said. "There is a little bit of that element there, but Tricia went right into the spelling bees and made us so very proud."

As big a challenge as the regional competition was, it pales in comparison to the task that is before Tricia and the other youths gearing up for the national bee.

Participants already received a list of more than 10,000 words to study in preparation for the competition.

The bee, which could go on for more than 15 rounds, will include just more than 850 words, which are picked a year in advance by a three-person panel.

"It’s a lot of words. A lot of words," Tricia remarked about her lengthy study list.

The sheer volume of vocabulary is enough to make a speller shake, and the winning words of previous champions could twist more than a few tongues. Those words have included "antediluvian," "eudaemonic," "succedaneum" and "xanthosis."

Tricia admitted to being somewhat apprehensive about coming up against such tough words in the middle of the competition.

"Yeah, I’m a little bit nervous about it," she said.

Still, her mom thinks that with the right amount of focus and studying, her daughter will be fine. Home-schooled students have been faring increasingly well in the national bee in recent years, Powles pointed out.

"She’s already a winner in our minds, no matter what happens in Washington," she said. "All she has to do is stay calm and try her best."

That, and try to remember that "succedaneum" is spelled with two c’s instead of one, of course.