RAISING ‘STAR’ KIDS: Cherish Amby-Okolo Wins at North American Scrabble Championships

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Earlier, Motherhood-In-Style Magazine brought you a feature on child prodigies, RAISING CHILD STARS. You really should read it, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Beat the drums! One of our child stars has done it again!

Cherish Amby-Okolo, 10, who featured in our 2015 article “RAISING STAR KIDS” won the 1st price in the Band C group of the North American Scrabble Championship held in New Orleans (July 2017).

Cherish’s mum told us this about her,

“As a toddler, her favourite toys were puzzles. She is able to stay in her room for hours just to put a puzzle together. Growing up with this attitude made it possible for her to learn to be by herself to read, and while her mates were asking for dolls, she was asking for puzzles: number, word and floor puzzles. By the time she was 6 years, she was already putting together 750 and 1000 piece puzzles. She won all the spelling Bee in Grange school for her set and she has always been on top of her class. She has also gone on to win top 10% Academic Award consecutively. Parents should watch out for those activities that their children naturally enjoy and help them harness them. When children are interested in a particular activity, they will be self-motivated and excel.”

Her big win did not come as a surprise to us, because in 2015 she set her sights on winning the National Scrabble Competition in Makurdi and International Scrabble Competition in Ireland.

Mrs Amby-Okolo told MIM that it took a lot of sacrifice and dedication on their part as parents to enable Cherish fulfill her dreams and achieve excellence;

“The journey so far has not been easy; we have been trying to balance academic demands and other co-curricular. Sometimes, she has had to miss classes to go to some competition and that will result in more work input to make up for lost time. However, I have tried to create an enabling environment. I encourage her by providing her with all the resources she needs and pushing her to exceed her own expectations, which of course, meets some resistance sometimes but at the end, the result has always been rewarding.

“Playing scrabble has really helped her to be more outspoken, forthcoming and alert. It has also served as a reward mechanism for excellence since she must maintain such standards to continue with the activities.”

Some of the Awards Cherish has won are:

SPELLING BEE Award (SKYE BANK SPELLING BEE 2012/2013)

SCRABBLE PROTÉGÉ SCHOOL AWARD 2012; 2ND Position

SCRABBLE PROTÉGÉ SCHOOL AWARD 2013; 3RD Position

10% ACADEMIC AWARD; 5TH Position (GRANGE SCHOOL EASTER TERM 2014)

LAGOS STATE SCRABBLE COMPETITION FOR SECONDARY 2014; 3RD Position
See Also

Inspirational

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10% ACADEMIC AWARD; 3RD Position (GRANGE SCHOOL SUMMER TERM 2014)

Cherish’s daily routine starts with prayers and her day ends with storytime with her dad.

“My regular routine starts with morning prayers, cleaning and dressing up. After making my bed, I go downstairs for breakfast before going to school. I always take a quick nap after school and then attend to my homework and go for co-curricular. If there is time after that, I will ride my bike with my brother. I end my day by taking a bath and dinner with the whole family. My dad normally tucks my brother and I in with a story after night prayers”

We wish Cherish Amby-Okolo and her family future achievements and success. Congratulations!