Homeschooling a lefty

[happynurse]

So,this is kind of random, but it has become abundantly clear that my almost-4-year-old is left-hand dominant. My brother is also a lefty, and he went to a private school that aggressively tried to make him write with his right hand (to the point of punishment for using his left).

 

Anyway, I have terrible memories of what my parents went through with him and the school and his left-handedness. So that leads me to this: What recommendations would you have for homeschooling a lefty? Are some beginning writing programs better than others? Any tips or tricks? 

 

If it makes any difference, we've always planned on homeschooling, and LoE Foundations is where we've intended to start.

 

Thanks for listening to me ramble!

[....]

Just some random thoughts:

 

My son (13) is left-handed and it wouldn't surprise me if our youngest son ended up being also.  He did really well with Handwriting without Tears.  We just used the workbooks - not all the other stuff.  His handwriting doesn't look as nice as the girls' writing.  You can read it, though!   :tongue_smilie:  

 

That's ridiculous that someone would make your brother write with his right hand.  Ummm...no?  They can't?    

 

Scissors were always impossible.  Anytime there was some kind of "cutting activity", we would all just take the scissors and cut stuff out for him.  Notebooks with spirals on the side are awful.  I stupidly bought a bunch of those when he was little and his hand/wrist would slide over the spirals as he was writing (what was I thinking!?).  We now only buy notebooks where the papers are attached at the top or the non-spiral notebooks (but even those are awkward).  Dry erase boards can be another issue.  His hand would slide across what he just wrote.  Now, he's pretty good about writing on a dry erase board without smearing everything.  

 

 

[Butter]

That's ridiculous that someone would make your brother write with his right hand.  Ummm...no?  They can't?    

 

They can and it used to be "normal" to force lefties to switch.  My dad is one of them.  Today he is ambidextrous, but still writes with his right hand like he was taught.  My MIL and 3 of her sisters are lefties.  They believe their parents were both originally lefties but were forced to be righties in school because they were adamant that their girls not be forced to switch (which was seen as very unusual a thing to do when they were entering school in the 40s and 50s).

 

Homeschooling a lefty is like homeschooling a righty.  They just write with their left hand.  Scissors are really the only annoying thing.  In fact, when it was clear Fritz was a lefty I asked my MIL what problems she had encountered being a lefty and scissors was the only thing she came up with.  You can get ambi or lefty scissors, but even those are kind of awkward.  My son learned quickly on his own how not to smear stuff as he writes.  I think all lefties figure that out and it's not really something that can be taught.  He has to do a little contortionist thing to write on right hand pages in his 3-ring notebook.  He used to take pages out, but now he just prefers to leave them and twist his arm and hand around.  Again, that's something he learned on his own.  It's actually quite convenient having a lefty.  I put him on my left side and the 7 year old righty on my right side at the table for school and I can see what they both are writing very clearly.

[J-rap]

Just make sure you get scissors that are actually meant for a lefty.  Don't get ones that say something like, "Can be used for either hand."  They can't.

[Annie Elle]

Yes, buy lefty scissors but otherwise teaching a lefty is no different. My lefty has better handwriting than my righties!

[JudoMom]

I've got 3 lefties. We don't do anything special (my oldest prefers Energel pens because they don't smear), and they don't have difficulty with the scissors we own (which must be righty).

 

The only thing that has been different is they need to slant their paper the opposite way.

[Ellie]

So,this is kind of random, but it has become abundantly clear that my almost-4-year-old is left-hand dominant. My brother is also a lefty, and he went to a private school that aggressively tried to make him write with his right hand (to the point of punishment for using his left).

 

Anyway, I have terrible memories of what my parents went through with him and the school and his left-handedness. So that leads me to this: What recommendations would you have for homeschooling a lefty? Are some beginning writing programs better than others? Any tips or tricks? 

 

If it makes any difference, we've always planned on homeschooling, and LoE Foundations is where we've intended to start.

 

Thanks for listening to me ramble!

 

Well, the teachers in the private school were just stupid.

 

You'll want to do some of the same things with him that you would with a rightie: Help him shape his hand properly when he's holding anything in his left hand--a pencil, a spoon, anything (I wish more parents of righties would do that, but that's another thread, lol). When he writes, turn the paper so that his hand is not hooked over the top. You'll want to emphasize the left-to-right eye movement when reading; for example, when you read aloud to him, always have him sit on your left and move your finger from left to right across the page. Help him learn to write circles beginning at the top instead of at the bottom, vertical lines from the top down, horizontal lines in the direction that we read and write.

 

Spalding and its spin-offs do an excellent job of teaching children to write their letters correctly, so that would be my recommendation for reading/spelling.

 

Mr. Ellie is a lefty. :-) He learned to use right-handed scissors (he worked in a fabric store for awhile) and can openers and whatnot. But thankfully, his teachers didn't try to make him use his right hand. He does tie bows funny, though, lol.

[ReadingMama1214]

DD4 is a lefty and has been pretty consistently a lefty since before turning 2. I know they say that children don't display handedness that early, but she's used her left hand for coloring, eating, and anything that displays a dominant hand since that young. Nothing has been different for us. We have scissors meant for both hands, but not specifically lefty ones. I might look into those though. Her handwriting is great and she can cut out shapes required in preschool. She does get lots of smudges on her hand, but I am sure that will correct itself over time! So I would agree that I wouldn't homeschool a lefty any differently than I would a righty. 

[Tanaqui]

That's ridiculous that someone would make your brother write with his right hand.  Ummm...no?  They can't?  

 

Oh, you can. With enough practice, you can write almost as neatly and quickly with your non-dominant hand as you could with your dominant one - perhaps better if the training starts early enough and they're strict enough about not letting you use the hand you prefer. Forcing this is a good way to harm a child's educational and emotional well-being, though.

 

Now, I'm sure many people are tired of me saying this, but I firmly believe that every left-handed child deserves the right to see if lefty scissors work best for them. True lefty scissors are jointed "backwards" from righty scissors. There IS no such thing as ambidextrous scissors! Those are just righty scissors with funny handles. If you suspect your child is left-handed, and they tend to cut with their left hand, get them those scissors! (It's not unusual at all to do some things with this hand and some with the other. Many lefties cut with their right hand, probably because using righty scissors in the left hand can be super awkward. If your child prefers to do this, that's also fine.)

 

Some other tasks are easier with the appropriate tool, or in the appropriate hand. I use can openers with my right hand, but it took me a long time to train myself to do that - I kept trying to open cans with my left! Retraining my hands was easier in this case than buying a new can opener! I sharpen pencils with a knife - I was never able to retrain myself to sharpen them with my right hand, and using my left hand with a righty sharpener is painful and prone to breaking the pencil. Pay attention to what hand your kid uses when using these tools, and if you think he can't easily be redirected, consider buying a lefty version.

 

I suggest you google for pictures of how to hold the paper when writing with the left hand to minimize smearing or "hooking" the hand. That will help immensely.

 

I also suggest that you teach your kid how to set up their workspace. Righties, of course, usually put their writing paper on the right and their book on the left. And I've seen that righty teachers and parents often unthinkingly model this behavior - or even tell kids to do it this way! - and never realize that of course, lefties have to mirror it :)

Edited January 14, 2016 by Tanaqui

[Tanaqui]

One more thing - this practice of "switching" lefties is one reason I strongly suspect our statistics for the prevalence of left-handedness in the world are outdated. Most people have a fairly simplistic idea of handedness - if I write with the right hand, I'm right-handed, simple as that! But of course, it's common to switch tasks, to perhaps do mostly gross motor skills with this hand and fine motor skills with that, or to divide them up more or less arbitrarily. For example, I cut vegetables for dinner with my left hand (holding the food down with the right) but I cut food on my dinner plat with my right hand (holding the food down with a fork held in the left hand). I use can openers with my right hand for pragmatic reasons, but I pick my nose with my right hand and I don't know why, the left hand just feels "wrong". (I couldn't think of another example! I use my left hand for nearly everything! I even swipe Metrocards with my left hand, and turnstiles are not designed with lefties in mind!)

 

From what I've seen of children, not adults, I guess the number is closer to 20% lefty than the often cited 10 - 15%. But that's really very anecdotal, and extremely prone to bias. I really, really want to see a new comprehensive study on the subject.

[EmilyGF]

My lefty naturally tracked R to L and we've used the Apples and Pears spelling to much success. She isn't really dyslexic (she reads incredibly well), she just tracks opposite of most people by nature.

Emily

[sbgrace]

My husband is left handed and so is one of my sons.

It's really not a big deal. In writing, he will naturally do a few things differently, like cross his t's right to left. I tried to watch the tilt of paper as described in Handwriting Without Tears. That program specifically adapts to left handed in instruction. My son didn't like the booklets with the edge on the left side, but he adapted by writing in different spots. Having said all that, I switched to Getty Dubay in 4th/5th grade and wished I would have used it from the start. I can't say for sure how it would have worked for a lefty, but it's working well for my son now. It doesn't have a slant, but it's a lot nicer looking than HWOT imo.

 

Scissors matter. Get actual left handed ones. When my son was little I couldn't understand his cutting. First, he hated to cut. Then his finished products were a mangled mess compared to his right handed twin. I was using scissors labeled universal, so I thought it was just my son. One day I mentioned it to hubby. He told me that scissors just don't work well with left hands and suggested I try cutting with the "universal" scissors with my left hand. We bought actual left handed scissors. It made a world of difference.

 

My son can cut now with either type, but he still prefers left handed scissors.

 

ETA: Hubby is really picky about his pen choices.  Pens are probably another issue to watch someday. My son just prefers a pencil, so I pay no attention to the pens hubby buys for himself.   My son also prefers loose paper or top bound notebooks, but he adapts to whatever as does my husband.

Edited January 15, 2016 by sbgrace

[908874]

I'm a lefty (both my children are right handed!!) so I don't have advice on how to teach a lefty. But here are some thoughts:

 

1. I always tried to make the words slant to the right so when I write I curl my arm awkwardly... I would suggest finding a cursive (when you get there) that isn't slanted.

 

2. I learned to use right hand scissors. But I never had left handed ones. So yes that is a big deal. I've bought a few left handed scissors as a grown up and end up not using them.

 

3. My hand always gets totally dirty when I write as my hand/arm brush over everything I write. This is why I dislike pens. Some pens - even ball pens, somehow don't work well for lefties. This can be avoided? Maybe if it had been ok for my writing to be slanted to the left it wouldn't have been an issue. I don't know. But I was in a catholic school that graded calligraphy and my lettering had to look exactly like the book... I did what I could.

 

4. I find writing on the right side of spiral notebooks very uncomfortable. This would be a problem when using workbooks that are spiral bound.

 

5. There are a few other things. Like right handed people like to put their baking supplies on the opposite side a lefty would want them (or ironing supplies, cutlery, the glass next to the plate...). It's annoying that a stick shift car has the stick on the right, that most computers have a right-handed mouse... Other things that may need a small accommodation are if the child wants to play guitar or learn crochet... I could keep going. The point is that you get used to living in a right handed world.

 

My mom was the only right handed girl in a house with three left handed women and one left handed brother (only my grandfather and one of her brothers were right handed). She has stories! May of which would come out when I would serve myself and move the handle of the pot to the left side, or if I would set up the ironing table and then call her for help for example. Lol

 

My dad is lovely and he made me a left-handed desk. With extra room on the left side and all the drawers on the left.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited January 14, 2016 by 908874

[happynurse]

DD4 is a lefty and has been pretty consistently a lefty since before turning 2. I know they say that children don't display handedness that early, but she's used her left hand for coloring, eating, and anything that displays a dominant hand since that young. 

 

This is *exactly* my experience. My son started waving bye-bye at a year...with his LEFT hand! After paying attention, I could easily tell that he was left hand dominant by the time he was two. Now that he's writing, coloring, etc. at almost 4, there is no doubt that he's a lefty!

[happynurse]

Oh, you can. With enough practice, you can write almost as neatly and quickly with your non-dominant hand as you could with your dominant one - perhaps better if the training starts early enough and they're strict enough about not letting you use the hand you prefer. Forcing this is a good way to harm a child's educational and emotional well-being, though.

 

This is so true. My brother ended up being diagnosed as dyslexic, and struggled for YEARS thinking he was stupid. He graduated from an alternative high school for kids at risk of dropping out. Today he is a successful computer engineer!! He traces his struggles and lack of success in the public schools back to his kindergarten days of being scolded for using his right hand. Seriously. 

[Butter]

DD4 is a lefty and has been pretty consistently a lefty since before turning 2. I know they say that children don't display handedness that early, but she's used her left hand for coloring, eating, and anything that displays a dominant hand since that young.

 

Some kids just do.  Fritz was decidedly left handed at 8 months.  His one year birthday pictures show him eating his cake with his left hand only and his right hand is in his lap perfectly clean.  That was normal for him by then.  He was so incredibly left-only his whole life refusing to use his right hand that it took until about 8 months into doing taekwondo for him to start using his right side consistently in forms.  I actually wondered sometimes if he had had a stroke in utero like the child of a friend of mine because he was so averse to using his right hand for so long.

[Tanaqui]

This is so true. My brother ended up being diagnosed as dyslexic

 

You know, I think I've read somewhere about forcibly "switching" a child's hand being linked to dyslexia, but I don't know what the mechanism behind that would be or whether I'm recalling this at all correctly or not.

 

[Shoes+Ships+SealingWax]

Top-bound spiral notebooks, left-handed scissors, no-smear pens, soft white or kneaded gum erasers for pencil work. Little changes can make a big difference in convenience.

[Mrs. Y]

I have 3 lefties. I really haven't done anything special except for when they asked for help about something.

 

My dad and brother are lefties as well. Dad sufferes some abuses at school for that and has always been outspoken on letting a lefty be a lefty.

[rocassie]

Both my DH and middle DD(6) are left-handed.   When DD started writing she was doing mirror writing and had a tendency to read R-to-L as well.  Now she writes most of her letters correctly and only a few are backwards and reads wonderfully.  However the one thing with her writing that I'm not sure about is that she wants to form most of her letters from the bottom.  My DH does this too.  I have worked on correcting her gently, but I waver because I'm not sure if it just one of those things that are done to compensate for living in a right handed world or just bad form.  I've been thinking about just starting cursive with her and see if that solves the issue. 

[tori729]

My hubby and I are right handed and our two older kids are left handed! My MIL is a leftie and remembers the teacher trying to get her to write with her right hand in school, but I think it was being phased out by then because she never listened.

 

The only thing I've really noticed is our HWT book actually says some words are written differently if you are a leftie - like they have them cross t's from right to left instead of left to right. I'm not sure what else. I do know that it seems like you have to work with them a bit more on handwriting because they tend to want to form things wrong right off the bat (like circles from the bottom, l's from the bottom, etc.). like others have said.

 

We have never had left handed scissors and the kids have never complained. My 7yo cuts well and my 5yo cuts okay but I wonder if she would do better w/ left handed scissors. I just had them both show me their cutting skills and they both happily cut w/ left hands and right handed scissors.  Interesting.

[Tanaqui]

We have never had left handed scissors and the kids have never complained.

 

Well, no, how could they? They have no basis for comparison. I didn't complain either until I saw how much better lefty scissors are for me, now - boy, you can't shut me up!

 

When you get the lefty scissors, do yourself a favor. Draw a straight line on a piece of paper, put the scissors in your right hand, and try to cut neatly along the line.

 

[tori729]

One more thing - this practice of "switching" lefties is one reason I strongly suspect our statistics for the prevalence of left-handedness in the world are outdated. Most people have a fairly simplistic idea of handedness - if I write with the right hand, I'm right-handed, simple as that! But of course, it's common to switch tasks, to perhaps do mostly gross motor skills with this hand and fine motor skills with that, or to divide them up more or less arbitrarily. For example, I cut vegetables for dinner with my left hand (holding the food down with the right) but I cut food on my dinner plat with my right hand (holding the food down with a fork held in the left hand). I use can openers with my right hand for pragmatic reasons, but I pick my nose with my right hand and I don't know why, the left hand just feels "wrong". (I couldn't think of another example! I use my left hand for nearly everything! I even swipe Metrocards with my left hand, and turnstiles are not designed with lefties in mind!)

 

From what I've seen of children, not adults, I guess the number is closer to 20% lefty than the often cited 10 - 15%. But that's really very anecdotal, and extremely prone to bias. I really, really want to see a new comprehensive study on the subject.

 

 

My hubby and eye have weird things like this. Like, I was taught to tie my shoes left handed so that's how I do it. 

Both hubby and I change diapers the "wrong" way - with the baby's head facing the right and butt on the left. When we change the diapers at church, the table is always set up "wrong" - with right handed people in mind. But we are both right handed and do it that way. 

[HS Mom in NC]

My youngest is a lefty.  It's a complete non-issue.

[sbgrace]

Both my DH and middle DD(6) are left-handed.   When DD started writing she was doing mirror writing and had a tendency to read R-to-L as well.  Now she writes most of her letters correctly and only a few are backwards and reads wonderfully.  However the one thing with her writing that I'm not sure about is that she wants to form most of her letters from the bottom.  My DH does this too.  I have worked on correcting her gently, but I waver because I'm not sure if it just one of those things that are done to compensate for living in a right handed world or just bad form.  I've been thinking about just starting cursive with her and see if that solves the issue. 

 

I was not able to have my son consistently write top to bottom. I tried as we used HWOT, and this is a big deal. Left handed hubby also does this, so I finally let it go. Cursive would make it a non issue, yes.

[happypamama]

My sweet little leftybaby is four also. These are the things I do to make life a little easier for him. I figure he's going to spend his entire life adapting to the world, so I'm going to help him when I can.

 

True lefty scissors. Fiskars makes a nice pair that are true lefty, red and blue. I ordered them from Amazon. Never mind the picture because it's backward. They are true lefty scissors.

 

I used my ProClick to bind notebooks on the opposite side for him. Now, he's my quietest child, sandwiched between two outgoing siblings, and he's the fourth child, so it's easy for him to get lost, so I'll admit to doing some extra little things to make him feel special. But he likes his little notebooks.

 

I make it a point to go over letter formation carefully with him so he develops good habits, which I like to do anyway, but my righties have picked it up pretty intuitively from the diagrams.

 

Other than that, nothing special needed.

[BusyMom5]

I have 2 lefties- we have left-handed scissors for them :)  I also 3-hole punch anything in a notebook on the right side, and put it in  backwards(I like things in folders w/ brads) so that it won't hurt their hands- they start at the back and go forward, I know it's weird :)  I have considered doing the spirals at the top- that would be best (McRuffy Handwriting is like this).  I also write spelling words in their notebooks on the right side, so the hand does not cover the words when they copy them. 

[SLT]

I am a leftie and teaching my "righties" how to write. The only tip I have is to definitely get left handed scissors- I remember cutting things used to be a pain in school- they never had leftie scissors! 75% of my family members were lefties  growing up (only my mom was right-handed). My dad was a leftie and went to Catholic school- they also tried to make him switch to writing right handed. He got smacked in the hand with a ruler MANY times daily by the nuns. Poor guy!

 

Anyway, I don't remember having any difficulty learning to write, even though I was taught by teachers who were likely right handed. 

[SLT]

I was not able to have my son consistently write top to bottom. I tried as we used HWOT, and this is a big deal. Left handed hubby also does this, so I finally let it go. Cursive would make it a non issue, yes.

My husband is right handed and also writes bottom to top. His writing isn't the neatest, but he is a fully functioning adult, too. I try to encourage my (right handed) son to go top to bottom as well, but I don't think it's a hill to die on either. 

[ReadingMama1214]

Top-bound spiral notebooks, left-handed scissors, no-smear pens, soft white or kneaded gum erasers for pencil work. Little changes can make a big difference in convenience.

I'm going to have to look on Amazon! Dd doesn't seem inconvenienced by being a lefty, but these might help.

[happynurse]

So many useful tips here! I suspected there would be some things that would be helpful. Thanks, everyone! I ordered a pair of the truly left-handed scissors from Amazon (Fiskars). I'm going to be revisiting this thread a lot as we embark on pre-k next year. Thanks again!

[Tanaqui]

So many useful tips here! I suspected there would be some things that would be helpful. Thanks, everyone! I ordered a pair of the truly left-handed scissors from Amazon (Fiskars). I'm going to be revisiting this thread a lot as we embark on pre-k next year. Thanks again!

 

:)

 

Just remember that every lefty is different. What one person says is super helpful is superfluous to another, etc.

[happypamama]

Also, I have not yet tried to teach my lefty to tie shoes, but I have heard that having them sit opposite you instead of next to you, so it's like a mirror, can help with tying and knitting.