I have been doing "home preschool" with our 2 year old for about 6 months now and I want to start the tracing with a pencil and using scissors section, but she is left handed and I'm not sure how to go about teaching her. She knows how to hold crayons, pencils, markers, etc. but not really control and trace, she colors. I have tried to give her crayons and things in herright hand and show her that way, but she always says "no" and puts them in her left hand. also, are there special scissors for left handed children? Any one else have a left handed child?

idk what to tell you. i know neither my righty or lefty was ready to cut with scissors or trace anything at the age of 2. coloring and drawing circles was about as far as it got.

My son is left handed. There are special scissors. I think they have them at the stores designed for teachers. It would be hard to compare our kids though, since DS has Autism and most things are trying to teach him. :)

yes there are left handed scissors. right handed scissors will not work for a lefty. if you try it, it'll be extremely frustrating for her.

my lil bro was left handed. the biggest difficulty we had teaching him things, was shoe tying because it was "backwards" to him. he did catch on tho.

i really don't think you can force them to use their right hand if they are comfortable using their left, like you decribe with your daughter. i'd say, have her watch you trace & then let her try it herself...she's young, but maybe say "mommy likes to use this hand, you like to use that one, but we can both follow the dots" kinda thing.

the thing to remember with a lot of left handed children.. they often do things backwards... they write backwards... as in.. right handed rights from left to write -- across their body -- so left handed children go from right to left -- across their body.

not ALL children do this of course, but its not hard to work with if your child does.
as far as teaching them... its really the same as right handed kids

and left handed products will be very helpful.

I am lefted handed and yes there is specail scissors for lefted choldren hon... as for the trying to get her to do things with her right hand . don't force her. sit in front of her and show(it maybe backwards to you but to her it is easier to learn) I am one of two people in my family that is left handed so i know of the challenge.

sit in front of her , so that it looks like you are doing the same thing she is. I agree though that at 2 my kids weren't able to trace or cut out a pattern. maybe try getting some stencil and letting her work with those.

At 2 neither of my children had the hand dexterity to be able to do either.
But that's being said Ashlee if a left handed and I havn't bought her any special scissors and anything she uses the same ones we do.

I'm left handed, and I always use whatever scissors are laying around...I just have to turn them over sometimes. :shrug Never had a problem with it as a kid, either.

Liam is 2 and a half, he's been tracing letters and numbers and pictures for a few months now...I just do the worksheets with him, and he copies me, down to the way I hold the pencil. It did take him a week or so of trying to finally get the hang of it, though.

Good luck!!

I'm left handed, and I always use whatever scissors are laying around...I just have to turn them over sometimes. :shrug Never had a problem with it as a kid, either.

Liam is 2 and a half, he's been tracing letters and numbers and pictures for a few months now...I just do the worksheets with him, and he copies me, down to the way I hold the pencil. It did take him a week or so of trying to finally get the hang of it, though.

Good luck!!

Maybe it's b/c I never sat down with the kids to do that that young is why I am not picturing them being able to do it..kwim. I don't doubt that they could I just meant that mine didn't but I didn't try either.

My dd is left handed. I tought myself how to write left handed and started to teach her to write, trace and color left handed. I have noticed that she does write her s funny. It looks like a long z. She is in pre-k now and I have an feeling that they might be trying to get her to use her right hand. I know that there is special scissors for leftys but she uses which ever scissors are around.

My dd is left handed. I tought myself how to write left handed and started to teach her to write, trace and color left handed. I have noticed that she does write her s funny. It looks like a long z. She is in pre-k now and I have an feeling that they might be trying to get her to use her right hand. I know that there is special scissors for leftys but she uses which ever scissors are around.

Ashlee uses her right at school and her left at home. They teachers DID not encourage her one way or the other. Ash just saw everyone else using right and wanted to be like they are. She can use both hands equally as well now.

I am left handed and I definately do not write "backwards" I write just like everybody else as have all other lefties I have ever seen. I have never heard of a left writing from right to left. That is just absurd.

As far as the scissors, there are special once but I too never used them until I was older and they felt weird. She may need to start with them to let her get the hang of them but eventually she'll be able to use either or I am sure.

Also, why try changing the hand that the child uses? Again, makes no sense. The hand you use is determined by the side of the brain you use and if you force a naturally left handed person to use their right hand you can change a lot of things that don't necessarily need to be changed about them. There is nothing wrong with being a leftie. I am the only leftie in my family so I kow that it can be hard at times but it is just the hand you write with. :shrug

the thing to remember with a lot of left handed children.. they often do things backwards... they write backwards... as in.. right handed rights from left to write -- across their body -- so left handed children go from right to left -- across their body.

not ALL children do this of course, but its not hard to work with if your child does.
as far as teaching them... its really the same as right handed kids

and left handed products will be very helpful.

I can safely say that I have NEVER seen a left hander do that :shrug


Either way, my daughter is left handed and she never had a problem with writing or anything. I did get her special scissors tho.

Right or left, I believe 2 is (for the most part) too young to expect to pick up easily on tracing and cutting...I think her lack of learning in those skills has to do with age and NOTHING to do with what hand she's using. Those are usually skills that are learned around the age of 3-5.

I wouldnt be trying to make her use her right hand...its her dominant hand and she feels comfortable with it.

I am left handed and I definately do not write "backwards" I write just like everybody else as have all other lefties I have ever seen. I have never heard of a left writing from right to left. That is just absurd.

As far as the scissors, there are special once but I too never used them until I was older and they felt weird. She may need to start with them to let her get the hang of them but eventually she'll be able to use either or I am sure.

Also, why try changing the hand that the child uses? Again, makes no sense. The hand you use is determined by the side of the brain you use and if you force a naturally left handed person to use their right hand you can change a lot of things that don't necessarily need to be changed about them. There is nothing wrong with being a leftie. I am the only leftie in my family so I kow that it can be hard at times but it is just the hand you write with. :shrug

i meant they write backwards when they are FIRST LEARNING TO WRITE.
not ALWAYS.
kids copy what they see... its like how a lot of babies turn their hand around and wave at themselves when they are waving at someone ELSE... they face the hand the way they SEE it.

and as i said... not all left handed children do it... but quite a few do until they are shown the 'correct' way.

i meant they write backwards when they are FIRST LEARNING TO WRITE.
not ALWAYS.
kids copy what they see... its like how a lot of babies turn their hand around and wave at themselves when they are waving at someone ELSE... they face the hand the way they SEE it.

and as i said... not all left handed children do it... but quite a few do until they are shown the 'correct' way.

either way, I am a leftie and NEVER seen or heard of people doing... and I have helped teach children learning to write who are lefties before. :shrug

my bro the lefty occasionally wrote letters backwards when he was first getting started.

my mom also kept him supplied in mechanical pencils because regular "lead" pencils would smudge because his hand would drag across each line of writing & things would become nearly illegible. problem with that was, his classmates often were jealous & his pencils would get stolen. at least once a year my mom would get a call from a teacher over classroom drama w/ my bro's pencils.

I am left handed and so is my oldest yes they use special school equipment that might make it easier on your budding little lefty!

http://www.thelefthand.com/
http://www.lefthandedstore.com/
http://www.lefthandedportal.com/
http://www.anythingleft-handed.com/

My Mom used to bring me home left handed things every once in a while and it always made me feel special LOL. I never wrote backwards but it can happen to some lefties that are just learning.

Don't try and teach her the "right" way (heehee) just let her use the hand she is comfortable with. I always wondered if Darian had jost copied me and that was why he was a lefty but Jacob switches things to his right hand if I put them in his left. (I do it out of habit because I am left handed) Darian tried using the right hand a few times but he always ended up switching back to his left.

I know my grandmother told my Mom to tie my left hand down and force me to use the right. I also know she tried it one time and my Mom about had a gasket. The used to do that at school if you were left hand. That makes me sad that people would be so mental about what hand the kids uses.

My daughter is left handed, and we always found left handed scissors. We never had any issues.

I am left handed and my mother insisted that I learn correct hand position (not that flexed hand, curled up and over the pencil that you sometimes see from LH folks.) for writing and would NOT let teachers try and make me right handed. I learned how to adjust to spiral notebooks with the spiral on the left side, binders with the rings on the left side and, in general, every other school supply that was designed for righties. Why? Because very little in this life caters to those who are different and so I learned to adapt my abilities to suit that which my environment provided. It has helped me go farther b/c I am not hindered by my "differentness." Nor do I think myself special enough to merit special treatment because I am different. I just pick up whatever's around and make it work.

While this issue is something small like hand preference, I think this lesson can be used for many other situations. DD was cutting along straight lines at the age of 2. No, she wasn't ready to make snowflakes or anything but she started at 2.

I know from working with pre-schoolers for 4 years that they have special left-handed assistant scissors that she can learn how to cut with and you can help. The tracing part might be a little difficult for a 2 year old but cutting should be easy :) Best of luck!

Being lefthanded myself, I'm urging you not to try to "change" her or correct her if she's using her left hand. The way my mom taught me everything (including tying my shoes and such) was to sit across from me, so I was directly opposite her.. It worked wonderfully. I'm using the same procedure with DD, who is right handed..

On eof my boys is left handed and fortunately for me so is my dad and my Dh so I have had experience in learning how they do things. I can tell you though that my sons teacher suggested one of those stress balls to help strengthen their left hand. It has help my son to have better control with his crayon, pencils, all things lefty..

I can safely say that I have NEVER seen a left hander do that :shrug


Either way, my daughter is left handed and she never had a problem with writing or anything. I did get her special scissors tho.

Right or left, I believe 2 is (for the most part) too young to expect to pick up easily on tracing and cutting...I think her lack of learning in those skills has to do with age and NOTHING to do with what hand she's using. Those are usually skills that are learned around the age of 3-5.

I wouldnt be trying to make her use her right hand...its her dominant hand and she feels comfortable with it.

Not lack of learning, I hven't even started to teach her that or seen if she could do it or not bacause I am not sure how to go about teaching it to her.
also, I'm not trying to make her use her right hand either...
I was saying that's how I came to the conclusion she was left-handed, because I would hand her things in her right hand and she'd get mad at me like I should KNOW it was backwards or something... she's even started taking things out of my right hand and putting them in my left hand...

Not lack of learning, I hven't even started to teach her that or seen if she could do it or not bacause I am not sure how to go about teaching it to her.
also, I'm not trying to make her use her right hand either...
I was saying that's how I came to the conclusion she was left-handed, because I would hand her things in her right hand and she'd get mad at me like I should KNOW it was backwards or something... she's even started taking things out of my right hand and putting them in my left hand...

that makes sense. Ash does that with me as well.

I'm left handed...my son is right handed. We haven't gotten to the whole scissors things yet. Just coloring and drawing.

Growing up, lefty scissors never worked for me! I adapted to the right-handed world just fine. :) I only write with my left-hand. Everything else is done with my right!