Gettin’ ready for D.C.

Jonathan Hohstadt loves words. 

The fifth-grader enjoys the challenge in finding out their origins and definitions.

Plus, being on a stage spelling words isn't much different for the 10-year-old as performing in a play at his church as Jiminy Cricket.
"It's just fun to do," the home-schooled student said. "It's school, but it's still fun to know that you're able to spell something."

Jonathan won the 30th Annual Odessa American Regional Spelling Bee on March 1 to move on to the Scripps National Spelling Bee May 29-30 in Washington, D.C.

He finished second in Odessa in 2007, and Jonathan returned this year battling it out with 2007's first-place winner Ramesh Babu Ghanta. This year, Jonathan won first-place after spelling "exuviate" correctly.

Jonathan's mom, Kathy Hohstadt, said her son learned to read before he was 2 years old, and that skill has helped him as a speller.
Plus, Jonathan spends time with his dad, Lowell, who performs on stage as the music minister at their church, Odessa Christian Faith Center.

"I think the key thing is that he practices a lot," Kathy Hohstadt said.

Since the regional bee, Jonathan and his mom have reviewed different vocabu­laries such as ballet terms to learn French origins and musical words to study Italian.

"We've toyed with a little bit of that," Kathy Hohstadt said, noting she also teaches Jonathan and his 14-year-old sister, Sarah, other subjects like math and history.

Jonathan said he hopes to win the national bee and at least make it to the later rounds to be on TV.

While in Washington, Jonathan plans to visit Mount Vernon, the White House and both the Lincoln and Washington monuments.
"I've always wondered what the White House looks like," he said, noting he hopes to meet first lady Laura Bush.

In addition to spelling, Jonathan plays piano and violin, writes books, draws, works on 3-D animation on his computer and learns German through a computer program.

Jonathan published a book in 2006, and he's currently working on a second book and has plans to write a series to follow.

Jonathan, who hopes to someday work for Pixar Animation Studios, said he's motivated to dabble in different things to broaden his perspective, and he enjoys them all.

"I just like being able to do other stuff," he said. "There's a lot of other stuff that could help me later in life."

ON THE NET:
>> Scripps National Spelling Bee: www.spellingbee.com
>> Merriam-Webster Spell It!: www.myspellit.com