My son is a leftie

[Candi]

My 10 year old boy is left handed.

He wants to make crafts like I do for something to do during the summer.
I started making friendship bracelets and now he wants to learn as well.

I tried to find left handed instructions on youtube or the web with no luck.
We've ran into this problem quite a few times.

What is the trick in trying to teach a leftie how to do something, when I am right handed? He is getting so fustrated...

[NewWorldOrder]

Don't stand or sit beside him, sit in front of him. My grandmother is left handed, and that's one way she learned. If the instructions have photos, make copies of them but transpose them, so their facing the other direction.

[Mrsppmrxky]

I'm a leftie..........it is very hard sometimes for people to understand how hard it is to be a leftie in a rightie world! (knives are sharpened for a right handed person, so using kitchen knives can be hard!)

Thankfully, I can do many things right handed.

When my grandmother was teaching me to tat, I had to sit directly in front of her so that to me the 'instructions' looked correct for me.

[lisa]

Don't stand or sit beside him, sit in front of him. My grandmother is left handed, and that's one way she learned. If the instructions have photos, make copies of them but transpose them, so their facing the other direction.

:nod I'm left-handed and this is how my folks taught me to do stuff with my hands.

The one thing it didn't work with was croquetting. However, I doubt a 10 year old boy would really want to do that.

[Candi]

The one thing it didn't work with was croquetting. However, I doubt a 10 year old boy would really want to do that.



:pound Actually, he's gotton as far as doing the chain... lol..
You meant crocheting, right?

[kgreen20]

Croquet, he might just be able to manage!

[ZeldaCA]

I'm a leftie, and I feel his pain! Let him watch you and learn, even though it may take more time than for someone who is right handed. Speaking from experience, he will be dealing with this his whole life, so it's good practice!

And remind him that we lefties are the only ones in our "right" minds! :hug

[firstoftwelve]

Im left-handed and have a difficult time teaching my right handed kids how to tie their shoes!
on a funny note my first son when first coloring and drawing, was coloring w/ his daddy and his dad was using his right hand. so my son took the pen out of his dad's hand and moved it to the "correct" hand that mommy uses!! :) the son is now right handed though. :)

[Rinji]

My mom actually learned to do the left handed way herself sometimes just for fun and then when she taught me, I'd pick up off of her.

A lot of times I would figure it out on my own or eventually learn it the right handed way. It just took a little longer to work out the kinks.

Some times my mom and I would use our non dominant hand just because we could.
I also did things like try to write with my right hand, writing in cursive backwards with my left, or use my opposite hand for things just because I could. Having that type of flexibility really helps if a left handed option isn't available.

Doing thing like puzzles and stuff that requires you to have to have a good sense of spatial dimensions like mensa puzzles or I.Q. tests for fun actually helped me a lot.
Learning to draw things like people from memory and coming up with posing without a reference helped out a lot too, because I could make a model of what I saw in my mind, and transpose it to left handed if I really needed.

I suppose I'm one of the lucky left handers. I knew I was a lefty, I never really started noticing it until about 5th grade, when teachers automatically tried to impose left handed equipment on me without asking first. I couldn't use lefty scissors back then to save my life! The left handed desk was so awkward, I liked my arm to free float, not lay still. I also determined that left handed desks are fire hazards. You get up and smack into someone coming out of a right handed desk. Or a right hander exits the left hand desk the wrong way and takes out a walk way.

A couple of things I have learned:
Get spiral notebooks if possible, and glue binding notebooks get pressed open by the left hand and the pages fall out. Not good if you have homework on them!
Most entry ways to the front of buildings are made to be open with the right hand, carry with the left, and open with the right.
Paper mate write bros. pens are great because they write smooth and don't smudge badly.
Gel pens are evil and smear.
Don't get cooking spatulas with an angled edge.

I hope some of those things help in the future.

[mustardseed]

My grandmother was a leftie, my brother was a leftie, and my mother-in-law was a leftie. Lefties are (generally speaking) more creative thinkers who use the right hemisphere of their brain more efficiently than the righties do.

Our son and daughter are both ambidexterous. Interestingly, they both use their right hands to write, do math, etc. but are definitely lefties when it comes to sports or crafts. I also (being a bland rightie) sat or stood in front of them to teach them how to do craftie things. We never encouraged or discouraged either handedness in anything, and they're both quite proficient at anything they try. :thumb