School supplies for left-handed kids

by Suzi Milovanovic for SheKnows.com

All the lefties in the house, raise your hands! Left-handed students can find school a little trickier because they cannot easily use some of the school supplies they are given. Specially designed left-handed supplies can solve these problems.

LEFT-HANDED STUDENT IN A RIGHT-HANDED WORLD

Here are a few problems left-handed students encounter with school supplies designed for righties:

  • Spiral notebooks and three-ring binders: Instead of writing away from the spirals and rings, lefties begin each line by bumping into the spirals with their writing hand.

  • Paper cutter: These are often created for the right hand to control the blade.

  • Chairs attached to the desk: These are also created to support the right arm while writing and working.

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Left handed school supplies
Left handed school supplies

SCISSORS

The blades on left-handed scissors are set so that, whichever way you hold them, the left blade is always on top. This means that the cutting action of the left hand pushes the blades together to give a smooth cut the whole length of the blades and that a left-handed student has a clear view of the cutting line. Mundial Dot Kids' scissors are cute and are only $5.75 at Amazon.com.

WRITING

Left handed school supplies
Left handed school supplies

Left-handed students can have real trouble when they first start writing because they have to push their pens or pencils across the page from left to right rather than pulling it like a right-hander. A good solution is to use a specially designed left-handed pen that has the nib cut off in the other direction or has a rounded ball at the end of the nib that allows it to write smoothly when being pushed. The nib design is also reversed so that the ink flows smoothly with the left side of the nib pressed to the paper rather than the right. Add a splash of color with this orange fountain pen from JetPens.com made specifically for lefties.


When writing in a spiral-bound notebook, rotate it 180 degrees so the spiral is on the right-hand side. You'll be writing on the backs of the sheets of paper or beginning from the bottom of the page, but your hand won't continually knock into the spiral, and you'll have neater penmanship.


PENCIL GRIPS

Left handed school supplies
Left handed school supplies

For young children just starting to draw and write, correct grip and writing position are very important. Molded pencil grips, triangular-bodied pencils and pens, and oversized pencils and pens encourage the critical "tri-point grip." Check out the design and squishy feel of these pencil grips, available at Geddes.com -- only $.10 apiece.

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Be kind to your left-handed child and find school supplies that work for her!

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