Oliver Price has some advice to those who want to grow up to be good spellers: “Pay attention in kindergarten and learn all the phonetic stuff and how it works. Read big books with big words, and look up words you don’t know.”

Oliver, 10, son of Dan and Paula Price of Kingston, nabbed the runner-up place in the North Kitsap District Spelling Bee Feb. 13 and advances to the regional spelling bee.

A fifth-grader at Richard Gordon Elementary School, Oliver made it through 13 rounds to earn the second-place finish and was awarded a plaque and $50 savings bond. He came in just behind Max Gallant, 13, an eighth-grader from Poulsbo Middle School.

The regional spelling bee takes place at 6:30 p.m. March 19 at Bremerton High School Performing Arts Center. The winner there wins a trip to Washington, D.C. to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee May 29-30.

This is Oliver’s second trip to the regional bee; he placed seventh there in 2007. He gained the spot last year when he went 42 rounds to win first place at the North Kitsap bee. Just 9 years old at the time, at first he was told he couldn’t compete because contestants had to be 10. But after he pointed out there was only a maximum age of 16 for participants and no minimum age cited, Gordon principal Claudia Alves let him have a go of it.

To prepare, Oliver studies Merriam Webster’s “Tricks & Tips for Spelling Bee Success,” which emphasizes the prefixes and roots of words. Other word lists are provided for spellers to study, but as the rounds progress, words not on the list are used. Learning what they mean and how they’re put together, along with the origins, helps spell words he hasn’t practiced, Oliver explained.

Some of the lists also categorize words into their ethnic origins – Latin, Arabic, Asian, French and eponyms (words derived from the name of a person). There are even self-directed spelling programs online he uses.

Oliver estimates he’s studying nearly 5,000 words and began practicing last year. His dad spends long hours quizzing him; when he misses a word, he writes it out 10 times.

“He’s a lot more mature this year and now he’ll know all these words,” Dan said of his son. “As long as they’re learning the definitions as well as how to spell the words, then it increases his vocabulary. He’ll make a great debater or orator.”

Winners from Kingston schools who competed in the North Kitsap bee were: Oliver Price and Odin Coleman from Gordon; Rebekah Alecci and Karli Ashley from Wolfle Elementary; and Allie Swanson and Nicholous Thibault from Kingston Middle School.

Students from all elementary and middle schools in the North Kitsap School District competed this year, thanks to a grant from the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe.

For the first time, schools were charged $99 each to enroll in the Scripps National Spelling Bee program. NKSD committed to the nearly $800 it cost for all of its schools, but then S’Klallam stepped up and donated the funds, Dan said, acknowledging the gesture of community support.

The Central and South Kitsap and Bremerton school districts chose not to enroll this year. Two private schools, Silverwood and King’s West, are participating as well as a contingent of home-schooled students.