Left hander

[PrettyCandles]

3yo ds2 appears to be firmly left-handed. The only left hander in either family, AFAIK. He seems to be managing well with regular scissors, as well as you'd expect any 3yo to do. Do I need to buy him LH scissors, or any other LH equipment, or would it be better to encourage him to get used to a RHded world?

I'm left handed and although I prefer left handed scissors it is perfectly possible to manage with right handed ones. I wouldn't bother at the moment.

I think scissors were about the only thing that annoyed me about being left-handed. They hurt your fingers if you are doing a lot of cutting. So, if you feel the need to accommodate his "gift" then scissors would be about the only purchase I would suggest.

ds1 (5.11) is only left hander in our family, and we bought him scissors. he isnt that keen on them though (not sure why, as Im sure it must hurt like you said nigglewiggle ). depending on his mood, he will use them but is just as happy to use right handed scissors in his left hand. Get a cheapish pair if you want to just now, to see how he goes.
My only confession as far as pushing into the rh world, is getting him to play golf rh! (he'll thank me one day! )
Probably not a consideration if you dont play yourself however...

DS2 is the only left hander in our family too, he dislikes LH scissors and actually cuts better with RH ones. Infact his teacher only noticed half way through the school year that he is LH

I have a LH DD (age 6) and have not yet encountered any problems with motor skills; the only thing that I have found slightly different to "the norm" is when they start school and some of the letters are written in a different way to how a RH child would write them - ask the teacher for advice when the time comes.

have to say, i prefer right-handed scissors.

i think that's just what i was brought up with.

i have tried left-handed scissors and they are just as easy to use (although not as natural as i'm so used to right-handed ones)

you'll find it's mainly things that are more difficult to control that he'll want left-handed ones.

personally, i like to think i can control the paper better if i'm holding it in my left hand.

My DH is left-handed and the only problem he seems to have is an inability to lay the table the correct way round

ooh, that thing with letters!
someone was trying to explain it the other day: apparently they teach lefties to write letters in weird non-sensical ways and that they're not allowed to hold their pen under the line, so they end up smudging what they've already written.

i think that teaching them the correct way to write and join letters is soooo much better than trying to teach them something completely different in the hope that it's easier! it's really not!

I'm left handed and so is DS and we just use normal scissors, in our right hand usually but sometimes switching to left. DS has a pair of left handed scissors though for choice.

Nothing else is necessary. It's not a big deal.

nickelbabe they do not teach left handers to write their letters differently afaik, where did you get that from?

there are no 'rules' for teaching left handers to write any more than there are rules for teaching right handers...

that's what i thought: this lady came into my shop and asked for books on teachign the left-handed method of forming letters and informed me of all this.

although, she insinuated that i was right-handed, so i had to write proper letters with my left-hand to show her that a) i am left-handed and b) it's madness to try to teach letters in a weird way.

she was explaining that they are now taught to start their letters in different places, like with a d, they have to do the stalk first instead of the circle. etc. it made no sensse to me, but she assures me that it's fact.
it's in kent.

don't know how wide-spread.

(and i was very tempted to tell her she was talking out of her arse, but was in polite mode cos i was at work...)

There's degrees of right and left handedness. Some left-handers are have more difficulty using right-handed stuff than others do - best wait and see if your son encounters any particular problems before buying left-specific things.

overmydeadbody - only some letters are written differently, for instance,as nickelbabe says, doing the up and down before going round

overmydeadbody - only some letters are written differently, for instance,as nickelbabe says, doing the up and down before going round

As lazyemma says, I think you should wait and find out how left-handed he is: I am what I think is termed 'mixed-handed', not ambidextrous at all, but I write with my left hand but do many other things with my right hand, including sewing, and scissors.

Interesting thread though. DS1 is 4.2 and the nursery seem very vexed by his inability to decide which hand to use. I suspect he may be like me (he's very like me in other genetic ways, so it wouldn't surprise me) but they seem very keen to get him to decide, for some reason.

For DS1 who is now 10 I have got him:
LH pen which he finds much better
ruler
sissors
potato peeler he struggled like mad with regular ones.

These items have made a huge differenc. Obviously your DS is a big young for most of these but they are something that have made a difference

left handed pencil sharpeners are brilliant
they are soooo much easier to use!

have a look at anything left-handed they're breally good and there's lots of advice on the website too.

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Im left handed but use my right hand with scissors. When I was at school there was only a couple of pairs of left handed scissors and they were really blunt and bad quality so I jsut used the right handed ones and now I cant even use left handed ones!
I am rather strange when it comes to using my left and right hands though, during drunken table tennis games at my sisters house ive been known to swap hands rather than going for a backhand hit.

Also try to teach him to angle his paper when writing so that he doesnt smudge it.

It is the practice to write an 'O' anti clockwise....this does not make sense to left handers...it just doesn't.

playing pool is great when you're left-handed: your opponent always tries to play a shot that's hard for the right-hander to follow: so you sneak in left-handed!

the only times i've seen left-handed being a problem is with power tools: the safety switch is always aimed at rigthies, so i have (more than once) wielded a chainsaw in one hand (which you shouldn't be able to do, with the safety switch being placed so that you have to use your left hand to hold the switch and right hand to hold the saw: if you're leftie, you can press the switch and hold the handle with one hand... )

Portblacks, I'm left-handed and have an O in my name, which I write anti-clockwise (just checked).

oh...

Both me and DS2 find it really hard to do.

Yes to pencil sharpeners (end up turning the sharpener) and tin openers too - end up turning the can...