left from right

[rosebunch]

Any ideas how to teach left side/hand/foot etc from right side (and at what age you should try this)?

Thanks

You write with your right (if they are not left handed) and the other one left over is left!!!!!

lol beachy - that's very true - but then they don't start writing until they're about 3 or 4 - and even then may not 'remember' which hadn they hold a pencil in when asked

Back to the question - I haven't got a clue - DS1 is 4yrs old and doesn't know his lefts from his right

actually scrap that last comment - just asked him where his left hand was and he got it right..........asked him more 'lefts and rights' and he got them all right - not sure when he learnt that

Or hold your hands out flat and the shape between your thumb and first finger on your left hand makes the shape of an L again, no use until they know what an L looks like, but not sure why they should need to know this so early...... I have a friend who is 38 and she doesn't know her L from her R (and she's a lawyer!!!!!)

but not sure why they should need to know this so early......

hmm I'm sure once they start school 'left' and 'right' are used fairly frequently and it would be quite useful...

I don't know my left from my right. In fact it is worse, I am instinctivly certain of what is my right hand, but sadly it is actually my left. Which means that I'm always shouting "turn right, right, RIGHT!" to my dh in the car when I actually mean left.
And I'm also a lawyer, fwiw! I honestly believe there is something just wired wrong into the "which way is right" part of my brain!

ahhhh Beachyhead, that "L" thing is a good one. My ds1 is left handed so I can't do the left over thing with him.

DD1 who is 22 can only tell because she has a scar on one of them. I think it must be a brain-wiring thing.

DD has been ok with this since she was about 3.5y I'm afraid it was part of her religious indoctrination though-always use right hand to make sign of the cross!

Snap PPH. Don't know left from right either Tho am not a lawyer!

Many thanks for the speedy responses!! - and most reassuring to hear that you can get through life happily without cracking this . That was really part of the reason I asked the question - when do children need to know this and do they need to know this. How useful/crucial is it (if you want your child to have non-lawyer options later in life )? And if you don't have any scars or freckles and decide you do want to know this, how do you teach it? Maybe I should get ds a tattoo .

Apparantly boys learn this easier than girls not sure why tho or if thats just one of those myths. I cant give directions as I just cant remember right from left instantly despite having good map reading skills.

I think the 'L'-shape in yr lefthand and writing with your right hand are the ways I learnt - but I still get it muddled up. If I say to DH in the car, turn left, he asks, 'your side or my side?'. Oddly, I have no problems with port / starboard on board a boat.

It is useful for giving / following directions.

When I dress DS (2.3) I say 'left boot', and 'right boot', 'left glove / right glove' etc in the hope that he might grow up instinctively knowing it, rather than having to pick up pretend pencils. You never know, it might work! OTOH, as I don't always get it right, he may end up even more muddled .

but surely it depends on which way you look at your hand - if I look at my right hand palms up then the L shape is in that hand

When dh says 'turn left' I check to see which way he is looking first, he's only correct 50% of the time BUT he never gets lost (just gets me lost a lot - wonder if he's trying to tell me something )

At 40, I'm pretty good at left and right as long as I get to think about it first. For a long time, I wore a ring on my right hand (R for Ring and Right) but fortunately I stopped some years before I got married and started wearing a ring on my left hand, which doesn't help at all. Imaginary pencils don't either, as I will answer the phone with my right hand, happily pick up a pen with my left, and not notice there's something wrong until I look down and the letters are all horrible. I am not a lawyer, and I am a successful, highly paid professional and able to read a map and find my way around strange cities.

It's a brain wiring thing, having to do with how strongly you are right- (or more rarely, left- ) handed. If you aren't very strongly handed, it's hard to tell them apart. The good (?) news is that you recover better from stroke and head injury -- otherwise it's pretty much just one of those annoying things.

But how do you teach your children left from right or is this something left up to the school?

I still have to remember this by my watch being on my left hand