monkinetic weblog

Steve Ivy's Weblog - Since 1999 - XII Ed.

Raising a Leftie

My 8 year-old son is left-handed in a family of right-handers, and I’m looking for tips to help him make the most of it without feeling like the odd-man-out. Neither of his siblings care, so I’m not worried about him taking flak at home, but he’s picked up a variety of techniques for doing things and I want to know how to best help him. He writes and eats left-handed, but kicks right-footed. He throws a frisbee ambidextrously (though throws stronger left-handed, but prefers right-handed). He plays violin right-handed. It’s very strange.

For Christmas, we’re getting him a 36” student guitar that I could get strung left or right handed. I’ll teach him to play, but I’m not sure whether to encourage him to play leftie or rightie. Thoughts?

My name is Steve Ivy and I write about technology, the open web, social software, and general nerdity on monkinetic.com. You should follow me on Twitter or subscribe to this blog if you like what you're reading. I spend my days hacking Movable Type, python, Django, and various other efforts at Wallrazer. This is my personal site.