L is for Leftie


Happy Left-Handers Day!

Just another silly day, you say? Well, nay, nay.

(okay, that is ridiculous).

Left-Handers Day, held annually on August 13 for the past 23 years, celebrates your right to be left-handed.

Do you think the days of "forcing" children to be right-handed are gone?

They aren't, exactly.

Lily is a leftie.  And while no one has ever forced her to be right-handed, there has been many, many times when teachers have assumed she is right-handed. They've corrected her hand. They've assumed incorrectly. And before my Lily began asserting herself; she would grow frustrated and just refuse to write.

But, now, my little leftie speaks up (it is all very much like the American Revolution) for her right to be left-handed. And we've had to relearn how to do things to support her development. Like switching the mouse on the computer from right to left; and handing Lily pencils or scissors on her left side. We also turn the paper for her, so writing from right to left, is a little less arduous.

And we've adapted to her strange and completely amazing ability to mirror write.

Lily can write anything in a mirror: i.e. totally reversed. She gave me a Mother's Day Card this year and told me to hold it up to the mirror.

It is sort of amazing. (She also writes forward quite nicely as well.)

We live in a right-handed world and until Lily, I had no idea. Being the mother to a leftie has taught me: you have two hands and therefore there are always two sides to every argument; two ways of doing just about anything; and two perspectives that can be equally correct.

So for today, the 23rd annual Left-Handers Day, I leave you will some fun leftie facts:


  • Only 10-percent of the population is left-handed. 
  • Left-handedness is supposed to run in families--neither Mike nor I are lefties. But we have some distant relatives who are. 
  • Most left-handers draw figures facing to the right. 
  • There is a high tendency in twins for one to be left-handed
  • Left-handers adjust more readily to seeing underwater.
  • Left-handers excel particularly in tennis, baseball, swimming and fencing
  • Left-handers usually reach puberty 4 to 5 months after right-handers
  • 4 of the 5 original designers of the Macintosh computer were left-handed
  • 1 in 4 Apollo astronauts were left-handed - 250% more than the normal level.


And if are a leftie or know a leftie, join the Left-Handers Club. 

Comments

  1. It's weird how genetics works. My father's parents were both righties and had two lefty sons. My mother's parents were both righties and had one righty, one lefty, and one ambidextrous. Both of my parents are lefties and my brother and I are righties.

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  2. The mirror image writing is interesting because I have noticed on some of Derek's things that come home he has written just like that. He is a rightie though. Lilly is a gorgeous little leftie!!

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  3. I'm the only righty in my family. My husband and both kids are lefties. The mirrored writing is interesting. I'll have to watch my son's handwriting a little more closely to see if he ever shows signs of that skill! Love my lefties!

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  4. Thanks for sharing the lefty facts. I've taught children in Grades k-8. Some kids are still trying to figure out what is the more dominant hand during Kindergarten. I've seen children being forced to use the right hand when they naturally went with the left. As a righty you don't realize how things are made for righty. I wonder if there are finding for using both hands? I bet it occurs more with people that are lefty because they have to function in a righty world. FYI Make a Wish posted on Sunday that it was middle child day. hmmm another special day to celebrate!!!

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