Right & Left & Puns

My husband sold shoes in HS so his left was the customer's right. My husband still gets mixed up and I joke with him when navigating that he needs to make a shoe sales man right which means left. Hehe!!!

i did just what you did. marker on the correct hands, and just let 'em get used to it. i think their teachers also had the blackboard marked.
i think most little fellows struggle with puns. i can remember the hesitant laughter and confused expressions around that age. it's just one of those things they figure out eventually. don't over-think it.
ETA now i'm beyond annoyed that i never figured out the 'left hand makes an L' trick!
khairete
S.

He is 9 and is correct most of the time. I think he started getting left/right when he was in kindergarten (maybe). When he is unsure he looks at his hands - when he sticks out his thumbs the left hand makes an L. The other hand is the right one. My son made his first pun when he was probably 2-1/2.

Another quick cheat (for adults) - make circles with your thumb and index finger - the left hand makes a small b - the bread plate goes on this side when setting a formal table. The right hand makes a small d - the drink goes on this side. Keep your hands below table level when checking this so no one else sees you.

Here's how I teach my kids-
Extend both arms in front of you (palms facing out). The left hand will make an "L" with the index finger and the thumb. The other hand, naturally, is right.
My 8 yo son learned at a young age. He loved traffic signs (which are always on the right of the road). So, that's how he learned. My 4 yo gets it right about half of the time.

I've always loved that the left hand can make the letter "L." That has helped" us a lot.

My oldest is right-handed, so we used the letter "L" for his left hand and reminded him that he writes with his right hand.

My youngest is left-handed, so we've mostly been used the fact that his left hand can make the letter "L." He's in kindergarten now, so we'll have to wait and see if we need more tricks.

We told DD to hold her hands up, palms out, and stick out her thumb. The side that makes and L is left. I think she got it around 5. I forget when she made her first pun. 3 or 4?

Preschool or kindergarten I think .. I just went by what hand they used to do things (I have right and left handers). That made it easy for them.

My sister always wrote L and R on the insides of their shoes so they knew which shoe/boot went on which foot.

I used to just say as we did stuff, "Now we're going right" .. etc. and it just sort of sunk in.

Puns .. a lot later. Around the same time as riddles ... school age somewhere in there. One of my kids is much sharper - get them every time, whereas they still go over most of their heads :)

Tell him to hold his hands up with his thumbs pointing towards each other. The hand that makes an "L" is the Left.

If he is right handed then right is the hand he writes with.

To teach my kids right from left I would put red nail polish on the big toe of their right foot. Even with shoes on they knew where the red toe was and could remember right from left. It only took about a week. There were about 3 at the time.

I think right and left are really hard for some kids. Marking with R and L is one thing, but they have to know that R stands for right and L for left - which is hard when they don't spell yet.

Double meanings (right the direction, right meaning correct) are harder. You can try making a game of it by listing words that sound the same but mean separate things (don't get into the spelling yet) like "pair of shoes" and "eat a pear", "bye" the farewell vs. "buy" at the store, etc. Until they get that, puns don't work. It's a good game to play in the car or while waiting for food in a restaurant - "road" vs. "rode", "bat" for baseball vs. the flying mammal, "shoe" vs. "shoo", "brake" vs. "break", that sort of thing. Just make it light - like "isn't language a funny thing?"

I think the first time they get into jokes is when the other kids start telling Knock Knock jokes - which they repeat endlessly until they drive you nuts! I'm not sure they always get them - they just know that people laugh, and they like the attention and giving people joy! Knock Knock jokes are basically puns.

Sometimes children's magazines (Highlights, for example) have age-appropriate jokes and that helps guide you for what they are able to understand and what's over their head at this time.

I think you could benefit from a code with your brother if too much is over your kid's head and he's getting agitated or feeling like he's not smart. We used to just hold a hand over our own head if the joke was "over the kid's head". That was a signal to back off.

I always had the kids do left and right, even from infancy. I'd say let's put on your left shoe, let's put your right shoe on, hold my hand with your right hand, use your left hand to wash your hair too.

All my grand kinds knew left from right very early.

Our son learned left vs right in preschool.
He was in 1st and 2nd grade when he was understanding puns when most of them went right over his classmates heads.
He had a lot of fun with his 2nd grade teacher - she was great!

My son learned a little before he turned 5. I really think it takes practice. I would ask him at the store - we need to turn right, which way is right? He's also worked on it in preschool. Sometimes, if he asks me which way is right, I'll tell him it's the hand he writes with just to try to form an association between the two.

I had to laugh. Reading about you writing L and R on his hands reminded me that my other son took a pen last weekend and wrote Butts on his hand with an arrow. Can you tell he's 8?