Left handed ds2 starting reception in sept...

[Badvoc]

...and not sure what I should do wrt his letter formation if anything?
He loves "busy work" as he calls it :) and will often ask for a pad and pencil to do some. We have an alphabet grid and he copies the capital and lower case letters.
He can write his name, his brothers name, mummy, daddy etc and can write numbers up to 20 but he tends to write on the page from right to left and his letter formation is not correct.
I do try and encourage Him to use the arrows but he gets cross with me.
Should I be correcting him at all? Should I just let him get in with it and let the teachers correct his formation?
Ds1 is a right handler and was no where near as able as ds2 at the same age so I am not really sure what I should be doing!

Personally, I'd let the teachers deal with it. I would be worried about stuffing it up and stomping on his enthusiasm by mistake.

Having said that, there's a font that's made up of dots (I can't remember the name off hand) - could you find one and print him out sheets with words on so he gets used to tracing over them from left to right?

Well he sounds very able for his age!

My ds3 is left handed and struggled with letter formation, I showed him how to angle the paper.. Landscape instead of portrait as that is what I do (also left handed) and find that easier soi am writing down towards my body.

But mainly I let the school get on with it and then practised what they did.

I did have to intervene when they were getting all, the kids to use little whiteboards (hand held ones) to do writing on and ds3 was really struggling as as he wrote he was smudging/wiping off what he wrote and it was staining the sleeves of his school jumpers.

Tbhhe sounds like he enjoys writing and that's key, let him practise and play, we had some books where you follow the lines, not just letters but patterns/zigzags etc as its about developing pencil control.

I wouldn't make a big deal of correcting him as long as he sees you doing it the 'right, way as he is very young still :)

Hi SD. He uses the hairy letters app in the iPad and does it ok but he can't seem to follow the same formation with a pencil iyswim?
I guess that's what i am worried about...putting him off or taking the fun out of it.
Hello 5madthings :) I think he is quite advanced for his age but as ds1 has sen it's hard for me to know? He seems happy that's the main thing.

DD is the same- she's about to go into reception too. Have been looking at Left handed letter formation sheets and plan to discuss it with her teachers next term to see what they think.

If he wants to write remind he to start at the left or draw a small smiley face when he should start for a bit more independence. The main thing is he wants to write. Left handed formation is basically the same as right handed except for cross stroke on letters like

Thanks for starting this badvoc. DD is left handed too, she still veers towards 'mirror writing' and I've found it impossible to correct as I don't want to start WW3. Her teacher knows so she said she'll help her in September.

My DD too - she is left handed, just turned 4 and starts in reception in September. She can write her letters - upper and lower case, write her name, numbers etc but she still has a tendency to try to start writing on the right instead of the left. The same with practising reading - she sometimes tries to read a word from the right. I know nothing about left-handedness!

My DS1 (age 11) is left-handed and has just finished primary school. I have never interfered with his writing and just let the school guide him. He's coped very well and has finished school with great SATs scores. He still struggles with buttons and shoe laces and his writing is fairly indecipherable/messy but that could just be him!

I have worked in Foundation as a TA and it sounds as if your DS2 is quite well ahead for his age. I wouldn't push it too much at the moment especially as you mentioned that he's getting a bit cross when you try to get him to follow the arrows. It will all fall into place I'm sure.

Good thread! Thanks for starting! If my left handed dc was writing lower and upper case letters and a selection of words at this stage I would be in no way worried. My ds is left-handed and starts reception in sept too but is a way off being able to do that. He has only just started taking an interest in using a pencil and is doing quite well with colouring/drawing but lacks confidence in writing. I think his awkward fist grip on the pencil means he hasn't really got enough control to form letters easily. He can write his name but doesn't really want to try more (although he knows letters by sight and sound). He gets upset when I try and correct grip so I tend to just let him get on with it as really don't want to put him off. I wasn't at all worried and was thinking I'd quietly encourage pencil control activities over hols but wasn't planning on trying to get him doing any more until he's ready. Have to say, I'm a bit more concerned after reading this though - sounds like he's got more of a struggle on his hands than I thought in comparison to other left-handers?

Hello all! :)
Thanks so much for all the responses.
Nice idea about the smiley face mrz...I will try that!
He loves writing and drawing (total opposite of ds1) and so I sort of dont know what I'm doing really
Ds2 does mirror writing too and of course with my experiences with ds1 I immediately thought "dyslexia!" :(
Maisey...I got ds1 a stabilo ergonomic pencil from amazon (have seen them in tesco too). That seemed to help. They do them for lefties too. Much easier to hold..nice and chunky...maybe try one?
Meglet...been to twin to get boys their shoes etc for school...I nearly cried when I saw ds2 in his first proper school shoes :)

DS was entirely ambidextrous in year R
he would hold a pen in each hand, drawing the outline with one and colouring in with the other at the same time
result was his handwriting was dire

but as the teacher is trained (the bit Gove forgets)
I asked her to decide which hand was dominant and get him to choose
she used various tricks and he chose a hand by the start of the summer term

do not worry about left handers - there are lots of us and we tend to do OK

Hmmmm he is a bit ambidextrous.
But definately favours the left.
Notmsurprising really...lots of lefties in our family :)

Thanks for the tip off about the ergonomic pencil badvoc - that sounds worth a try! I'm off to try and find one now...

No worries. They are pretty good IMO.

Dd has just finished reception. She describes herself as 'both-handed' but is left dominant really. She writes equally well with both and now after a year of school tends to only swap when her hand is getting tired. School have not encouraged her to pick a hand as 'using both is better for cross lateral brain development' which is fine with me. At the start of the year she did lots of mirror writing but this has now stopped, she just gets muddled sometimes with b and d but that's common.
I have interfered with pencil grip as i know it can't be sorted later (i teach a ks2).... She favoured the claw, i pointed out that the pincer was neater (she doesn't like being told directly what to do so this worked).
At the start of the year op she was writing as you describe your ds and liking writing. Over the year this has increased, now she likes writing poems and has had a lot of attention for her writing as it's going well. And she also didn't translate letter formation from hairy letters to paper but school has a handwriting scheme and that sorted i out.

Thanks babies.
His pencil grip is actually pretty good (I think)
Thanks again for all the replies x