Question for teachers regarding left handed children writing with pens.

[Myliferocks]

My DS is 8, in yr 3 and left handed
He was recently given a handwriting pen by his school to use as his handwriting is now considered 'good' enough to write in pen. He came home really excited and couldn't wait to use it the next day.
When he came home the next day he said it was difficult to use and he kept smudging his writing with his left hand as he was writing.
I suggested he spoke to his teacher the next day to see if she had any suggestions to help him not smudge his work as I was sure she has taught left handed children before.
He came home after having spoken to her with the result being that she couldn't help him therefore she said he had to go back to writing in pencil.

Do any of you teachers out there have any tips for helping a left handed child write without smudging as his teacher didn't have any?

When I was writing my essays at Uni (showing my age 'cos I had to write them out ), I often had a problem with my biro "bursting" and starting to splodge. Used to get told my some of my tutors to get a "better pen" - but I've read on one of the links here that left handers tend to write more firmly, so that's probably why I had the problem. Just illustrate that biros are not always the solution!

Maybe that's why nowadays I prefer to write my notes in pencil!

I'm struggling to think of anything I find difficult as a left hander, exotic I'm stumped! Tell me!

The only thing that,springs to mind are the pens at the bank counter that are tied down, they're very annoying. But I very rarely use them so no,biggie.

I will come back after cooking the meal and tell you if no one has come up with it.

I just ignore tied down pens.

I've just asked DD if there is anything she finds difficult to do left handed and the only thing she says really stumps her is using a butterfly tin opener.

The other thing I used to hate at Uni or at conferences are those chairs with little trays that lift up so that you can write notes. They are almost without exception right-handed, so that you end up having to take notes both twisting your back and still not having any support for your left hand.

The other thing is ring binders - especially if you're sharing the filing with other users - as it is difficult to annotate things while they're in the folder

Lots of people do the tin openers e.g. Lakeland
I am impressed with the Blood Donor service because I always get a bed the right way around for getting blood from the right arm, without having to wait.

The teacher thing is very simple-just the register. It drives me batty! As a supply teacher, when I don't know the DCs, it is very difficult. I cover the names every time I give a mark. I like to look at each child to match them with the name and become a contortionist -trying to keep my right hand finger on the list while I mark with the left and look up. I get a bit paranoid that I miss someone and do a head count at least twice! As a supply teacher you have to mark the register as it is, but there must be so many teachers who would like the names on the right and the columns on the left. They were designed as easy to use -without a thought that not everyone is right handed.(Probably all teachers were supposed to be right handed in Victorian times and no one has re thought it).

Good point about the register!

I have to give blood from my left arm: my veins are so crap and difficult to draw blood from except when I was pregnant that I need to give them my "working" arm.

The register is so simple-why can't they produce them the other way around?

You might all like to fill in a survey from Anything Lefthanded
or check out the shop mail order
Loads of help and information here and you can join the left handed club and they email you the regular newsletters.

When DS was in yr 2 they used to do look,cover,write,check with their spellings. He found that an absolute nightmare until I had a word with his teacher about him writing the list of spellings on the right of the page.
Also his teacher told him to use one of his fingers to leave spaces between his words. I ended up giving him an ice lolly stick to use instead.

I can't give blood from my right arm - they can never find a vein. but that's okay, because then I can spend the rest of the day not having to lift a finger "oh, i can't do anything, it's my left arm!"
snap prettybird !

register! of course!

actually, i recall that the registers at my junior school had names on both sides - left and right.
i assume it was done so that as the term went on, you didn't have to go all the way over to the other side of the page to find the name, but it has the added bonus of being useful to a leftie too

I have never seen one like that-it would ease the problem.

I'm a teacher and although we prefer children to write with ink pen, sometimes it's just not possible with a LH-er and I'd much rather be able to read what they have written than worry about what it's written with. You can get some really good quality ballpoint pens which make handwriting look nice. I think the most important thing is that the child doesn't get frustrated and develop a dislike for writing.

Keeping them confident and happy is the key.

I spoke to DS's teacher today and it is a fineliner pen that she gave him out of her own pencil case. Apparently the Literacy Coordinator is quite happy for him to write with any pen but a biro. She hasn't come across this before which both DS's teacher and myself found surprising as DS isn't the first child ever to be left handed.
All the staff are having a staff meeting on Monday so DS's teacher is going to raise this issue there with all the other staff and the Deputy Head.

Hello all I am a left-hander and i also have children who are left-handed I have done a study on writing positions adopted Take a look at this website it has some good information
lefthandedpen.com/swan-neck-pen-benefits