Avinash Kumar, an 8th grader at Hidden Oaks Middle School in Palm City, is among 10 area spellers competing in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
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This is his first year competing, and to prepare he's studying the roots of words.
“The thing about spelling bees is it's not really just familiarity and memorization. It's also a little bit of logic and using root words to figure out how to spell the words," said Kumar.
The written part of the competition starts Tuesday morning. The on-stage spelling portion begins later in the day.