Alex is a lefty, a Molly, kack-handed. However you want to say it… he is left-handed. So far it hasn’t been a problem. But he is starting to want to write, especially his name, and I’m a little unsure of a few things.
He had a weird pencil grip (he’s 3.5 so that’s not unusual) but it’s been easy to show him a better way to hold it. But when it comes to actually writing letters and drawing shapes, I’m a bit out of my depth.
I know left-handed people angle the paper differently as they write, and have to write in a certain way so that they don’t smudge their hand across their work. But do they shape their letters differnely? Form letters in the opposite direction? I don’t want to corect his formation if his way is more comfortable for a left-hander.
I suppose, as a teacher, I should know this. But my school kids have usually got their technique sorted by the time I teach them, and I don’t actually notice what they do, unless their writing looks out of the ordinary.
So I am genuinely asking left-handed people out there (or parents/partners of left-handed people)…
What should Alex be doing when he writes? What direction should his letters go; clockwise or anti-clockwise? Any tips to make writing/drawing easier?
M & A's World 
I’ll ask my kacky…um left handed SO. See what he reckons. Both mine look set to be righties.
Thanks 🙂
Joshua is left-handed and so is my younger sister. My husband’s father and brother both were too! It was pretty likely that we’d have at least one leftie in our family. 😉
From talking to my sister, she says she learned to do things on her own; teachers didn’t aid her in learning to hold the pencil a different way than what felt natural to her, nor did they show her anything about the paper, etc. I did the same with Joshua…let him “wing it”, so to speak. Idk, I think there is a reason we hold pencils the way we do. I mean, I showed him the correct way of holding it, but what he did with that knowledge was left to him. I hope that doesn’t come across as stupid or lazy! It’s just that I wanted him to feel comfortable. And btw, he writes neatly (when he wants to). 😉 He loves writing in cursive and he even asked to learn!
One other thing, my sister AND Joshua have both learned to do many other things right-handed because it makes life easier in the “real world”. Things like using a computer mouse and using scissors – both right-handed.
Btw, my kids are weird…Maggie is right-handed but does ALL sports with her left. Joshua is left-handed and does ALL sports with his right. haha
Haha, they are multi talented!
My only concern with letter formation is that I know breaking a habit of awkward formation is difficult. Handwriting is a big focus here in Victoria so I don’t want to makes things more difficult for him.