Awkward spelling bee words

My son was the top speller in his class and will represent them in his school's spelling bee. This was a really big deal in our house, until we got the list of words. Yikes! I can't spell a lot of these words....all 6 pages of them. I realize that's not saying much...... We are spending 30-60 minutes a night on these words that range from easy to difficult. He's doing pretty well, but some of the words are, well, weird. The faces he makes when I say the word for him to spell have been downright comical. Like babushka...or meddle. The meddle one was frustrating - he spelled it metal, medal and finally looked at me and, in total frustration asked - "just how many ways can you spell it? I mean, really Mom!" Like I am the master inventor of all words and decided there needed to be 3 ways to spell a word! Geesh! I'm thinking Eve gets credit for the dictionary. While Adam named all the animals, Eve got the fun task of making all the words? If someone's going to get the blame, it's always going to be mom, right? Alas, I digress.... The best reaction I got was for one word I will never forget. Abreast. Take a moment and imagine telling your child that's a word in his spelling be and he has to spell it. Imagine their reaction. You get the picture. I won't bother to tell you the fun we had spelling assess.