My oldest son is left handed (naturally, every single thing has to be hard for this poor kid).

Anyway, his handwritting is awful. He gets marked off on it everyday, his grades are otherwise pretty good. Does anyone have some tips on how to help him with his handwriting?

Sorry I don't, I'm left handed but never had a problem with handwriting. He must be holding the penil wrong, other than working with him and constantly monitoring how he is holding his pencil, I don't know. How old is he? There are handwriting programs out there like Handwriting without tears, is popular.

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He's seven, first grade. I don't know if he's just hurrying through his work or if it's just really hard for him. They are using the dotted line in the middle type paper and none of the letters or numbers are the right size and they are all over the place.

His little brother (5) writes beautifully, but he practices all the time.

It might be that it's just difficult for him to grasp the concept of writting from his left hand, after all when a teacher is showing you how to do it on the blackboard or on paper she is most likely a right handed person. You also need to take into consideration the binding on the notebook, spiral notebooks would be very difficult to write in because the metal spiral gets in the way. My oldest ds is a Lefty too and his teachers would get on him about his writting until i pointed out to them that lefties have to adapt to a right handed world, so cut him some slack ,his writting style is probably not going to be perfect or look exactly like a right handed persons. Wait until you have to find him a left handed glove for little league!! lol

Hmmm...I don't have any tips for you - I don't really remember how I learned to write. I remember having some difficulties growing up left-handed in a right-handed world. It takes time, but he will learn to adapt. I can use spiral notebooks now without difficulty and I don't use any special "leftie" stuff (and I am told that I have fairly nice handwriting).

I can tell you that I am having an awful time trying to show my three year old (who shows every indication of being right handed) how to even hold a pencil. For some reason I can't figure out how a right handed person would hold it. Country Mouse has a good point about him maybe not being able to make the transition from watching something done with the right hand to doing it with the left. Do you know someone who writes left handed that might be able to work with him?

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Stephanie
Mom to: C (8/03), I (9/05), & L (11/08)

Hmmm...I know I need to tip the paper (so the top is towrds the right and bottom is left, not perfectly straqight up and down), My handwriting is quite nice, but now as an adult I practically have the paper sideways to feel more comfortable.

Is he practicing at home with you? You said it could be b/c he is in a rush.....have him practice at home and stress there is NO rush to get it done and see how his writing is. At leastthen you can distinguish if it is his handwriting or he's in a rush at school.

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"When it comes down to it, I let them think what they want. If they care enough to bother with what I do, then I'm already better than them."~ Marilyn Monroe

They make these Pencil Grips that have grooves in them to show them how to hold a pencil ( tyler had to use them) That may help him . You can get a big pack of them at wal mart for a buck or two. Maybe worth looking into. HTH

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I second the pencil grips. Lakeshore Learning has a good variety, too.

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Can dark get darker?

Well I knew a girl in school who was a leftie and she wrote from the back of the spiral notebook or composition book. Yes it was odd but this way she didnt have the binding in her way or blurr marks all over her paper. My hubby is a leftie also and his hand writing sucks! It is funny cause when my kids were little babies and we had to spoon feed them and he would do it they would get confused cause the spoon is coming in from the wrong direction. Also my middle and last child eat and write with their right hand but do everything else with their left?! Weird huh but I tell ya they can surely throw a good left hook lol. My cousin is a leftie too and he tilts the paper some lefties have to turn their hand in akward postions to be able to write so see about working with him on the angle of his paper and the way he holds his hand

I was going to suggest looking for a left-handed tutor to work with him - even a jr high or high school student would be fine to teach handwriting, and he might just think they are really cool enough to "copy." However, from watching my sister (leftie) and others write over the years, there are many ways for a leftie to write. A young-ish boy tutor might also be helpful in the years to come to be able to show him how to do other things left-handed, like batting and other sports.

My other suggestion was my son's preschool teacher suggested having him hold a little-bitty pom-pom (like for crafts...) when he was holding a pencil to teach him the correct way. I don't know if that would work for a leftie....

Good luck!