To left handlers or mums of left handlers

[Sugarbeach]

Dd (7yo) is a left hander in a family of right handers. We are thinking about learning to play the guitar, and also how to knit and crochet.....and I'm feeling a bit clueless about how she should learn.....i can knit and crochet but i cannot get my head round how to teach her the opposite handed.

Should she learn crochet and knitting right handed? Or left handed? Does she need a left handed guitar or can she learn right handed? based on your experience, which is better? does it make a difference? TIA!!

[shuckleberryfinn]

I'm the only right hander in the house. DH either plays a right handed guitar upside down or plays a left handed guitar.

I suspect that if you sit opposite her when you show her how to crochet, or knit she'll be able to mirror you left handed.

Good luck. I can see being in the minority in my house (4 of us) how much more difficult things can be left handed.

[mimbleandlittlemy]

Don't know if it's any use but DS is left handed, plays the guitar right handed with no problem because that's what he has been taught to do. Also bats right handed in cricket because that's how he was taught, though bowls left handed. Our problem has been shoe laces as no one can show him how to tie them left handed as opposed to right so I do understand the problem. Don't crochet or knit so can't help there either but guitar shouldn't be a problem.

[imnotmymum]

I asked our DDs guitar teacher if needed left hand guitar and said no here as well. Same as mimble really depends how comfortable she is with said activity.

[FireOverBabylon]

just show her how you do things. your DD will either mirror you or copy you or muddle through in her own way. I'm left handed, my twin sister is right handed. Mu taught us both to knit so I knit (badly) in a right handed style. I'm learning to do continental knitting as it's easier for southpaws. Your daughter may just prefer french knitting which can be done with either hand!

I deal cards with my left hand, as I was taught by my right handed dad who was taught by my left handed grandfather. People are actually more ambidexterous than you'd think.

[MrsJohnDeere]

My 6yo is left-handed but holds a tennis racket and cricket bat with his right hand.

[ThingsThatMakeYouGoHmmm]

You can get left handed pens and some such.. the problem for lefties is they drag their hand over what they just wrote, smuding it, so my DD tells me, so the best thing to do is get a pen that dries mega fast

Ok so thats not what you asked.. DD learnt a bit of guitar so far from DS1 but she does it right handed, there's a few other things she's had to learn to do RH as well.

I don't crochet or knit well i did a tiny bit of knitting and assume that that could be taught just opposite to the way you do it? Well the basics at least. I still don't know how to cast on and off if thats what its called ..

[Sugarbeach]

Thank you MNers for the quick responses.

Dd also holds a tennis racket with her right hand, but I'm not sure if that's purely because she is taught that way and whether she might play better if she is taught left handed....

[imnotmymum]

No the pen thing crucial to know I wish someone had told me and LH scissors I felt like such a bad Mum when one day watching her cut something and realised she been struggling all those years.

[lunchbox]

I'm left handed, and do pretty much everything except writing right handed. But I've never played guitar so don't know which way I'd do that, my mum taught me to knit years ago but she's left handed too so not sure which way I would do that.

So I'm not really sure how you would teach your dcs.

[Sugarbeach]

Yes, we have bought her special left handed scissors and pencils....not sure the pencils make much difference, but she struggles to cut with any other scissors.

[nipersvest]

ds, also 7 has just started learning the guitar and dh has re-strung it so it's left handed. his teacher is teaching him to play left handed. ds is totally left handed, does everything with that hand, we've also got him left handed scissors and swan necked pens and pencils so he can see what he's writing.

as far as a guitar goes, get her to pick one up and see which way round she naturally holds it, is it the same way round you do, or the opposite. then you'll know which way round she needs to learn. there are no right had or left hand guitars, it's all to do with which way up the guitar is strung.

[imnotmymum]

left handed pencils

[Sugarbeach]

Thanks vest.....and how do I go about finding a left handed guitar teacher? Or they fairly common and easy to find?

[LemonBreeland]

It really does depend on how for want of a better word her left handedness is.

With things that you do as others have said sitting opposite should be fine. I've always had people stress about trying to teach me thing left handed and told them just to show me their way nad I can turn it around in my head to suit my left handedness.

[imnotmymum]

Oh swan neck. My DD is 12 and I am a totally rubbish parent I have realised. I will interrogate her of her needs this evening and raid the left handed shops.

[nipersvest]

ds is being taught by the same teacher all the others at school have, in fact he has a joint lesson with a right hander, teacher says it works well because they sit opposite each other and mirror each other.

left handed pencil is kind of like this

[MagicalWonderMutt]

Oh - I am a left hander who was a slow knitter because I used to knit and then unknit a row. My mum, a natural left hander who had become a right hander, took me in hand (no pun intended) and managed to understand my left handed mess! Sadly she was the only person who really understood my knitting and now that she is dead I have stopped knitting as I can't sort out my own mistakes. I would encourage your daughter to knit right handed if possible as it is probably going to be easier in the long run. I can't hold a knife in my right hand but I do play hockey and golf (ooh - get me!) right handed. Hockey because you have to and golf because I was a hockey player of many years :). Hope this helps.

[nipersvest]

we were very lucky, dh is a uni lecturer and took the students to san francisco and ended up stood outside the left handed shop, came home with loads to stuff for ds!

[ajandjjmum]

DS has a left-handed cheque book!

[angelinterceptor]

My DD age 8 is left handed, only one in the family.
She has just started guitar lessons this month - she is using right handed guitar, her choice and she says it will be fine.

Kniting she learnt last year - right handed again, and then when I tried to change her to left handed knitting she said not to.

Tennis, when she was learning sometimes the coaches made her play right handed, when she was too little to point out to them she was a leftie. In those days she was kind of playing double handed each side.

Tennis, now she is definitely left handed - this is a major advantage in tennis.

She struggles with writing, I dont know how to help her, it looks so difficult writing L to R, when you can't really see what you have just written. And all the books, tables, maths questions etc all laid out for a right hander.

[nipersvest]

"If she learns left handed, her guitar will be pointing the opposite way to everyone elses if she ever plays in any kind of group and that might be annoying if space is limited"

it's a good job the beatles didn't find it a problem!

we gave ds the option, but every time he picked up the guitar, it was that way round, so it got re-strung.

[NulliusInBlurba]

Any guitar teacher worth their salt will be happy to teach a left-handed student, if necessary in a group with right-handers. DD2's guitar teacher doesn't find it a problem at all (DD2 is a rightie, but has played in groups with lefties). The only thing he struggles with a bit is tuning the left-handed restrung guitars, because it's not become an automatic process for him.

As a leftie, I think it can be quite bad psychologically for kids if you ASSUME they are better doing something right handed. Just because they muddle on through using the right hand, it's still counter-intuitive for their brains. The exception is if your child really is more or less ambidextrous, but I suspect that is true of a real minority. Lefties just get used to doing something badly 'the wrong way round' because it's easier for others - for that reason they may seem more ambidextrous than the average RH. I learned how to use scissors with my right hand, because back then there was no alternative, but it always felt wrong and I was always very clumsy at it. It's actually quite hurtful when parents and grandparents are dismissive of the problem, and makes you feel like being left handed is somehow being naughty. I somehow learned to knit (the left-handed way) despite my mum telling me how difficult it was to teach me. Now I'm in the position of not being able to teach my RH DC because they do it 'the wrong way round'.

"She struggles with writing, I dont know how to help her, it looks so difficult writing L to R, when you can't really see what you have just written. And all the books, tables, maths questions etc all laid out for a right hander."
Please don't send her the message that the way she writes is somehow 'difficult'. What she needs more than anything from you is psychological support and the message that using your left hand is intrinsically positive. Not because it will give her an advantage in tennis, but because her brain will be much happier when she tries to do it her way. I've never noticed maths questions being laid out for a right hander. And if your hand covers what you've just written - so what? get quick drying ink or use a pencil or biro.

I developed a bizarre ambidextrous style for tennis as a kid. I swapped hands between shots, playing shots in either my left or right hand on the forehand instead of using backhands. Whereas with badminton I am purely left handed and play with a backhand.

[angelinterceptor]

nulliusinblurba
I hope I don't display any negativity towards her writing, but at her new school they seem to concentrate more on proper writing than at her old school where she learnt all the letter formation etc.

The kind of thing she is doing at the moment in maths - is maybe a list of questions (its all adding and subtraction to 1000 at the moment), and they are designed to be done quickly, mentally rather than copying them out.
I find that her hand is covering the question, and so it is slower for her than if hte questions were listed on the RHS of the page, and she could write the answer on the LHS.

It was the same with spelling lists last year, alwasy listed on the LHS, with the space to copy it on the RHS.