Celebrating Left Handers Day

Left Handers Day is celebrated annually on August 13, though my left-handed kiddo will tell you we celebrate it all the time. Did you know about 10 percent of the population is left handed?

According to data gathered by leftyfretz.com, the nation with the highest population of lefties is the Netherlands, followed closely by the United States. Other top countries for southpaws include Canada, the United Kingdom and France, all of which had more than 10 percent of their population among the left handed. Apparently just 3.5 percent of the population of China is left handed.

The Left Handers Day website says that it’s thought there are more left handed women than men.

Scientists don’t actually know why people are born left handed, as both genetics and environment seem to play a role. Among those who completed a survey at the Left Handers Day website, 14 percent said their mother was left handed, and 13 percent said their father was. Eleven percent of all left handed people’s direct relatives were also left handed.

Check the website linked above for more interesting left handed facts. I find it interesting that in their survey, 98 percent of respondents said they write or draw with their left hand, but only 68 percent use scissors with their left hand. This is my daughter’s experience, too, as I’m not sure her preschool had left-handed scissors and her teacher just taught her the same way she was teaching everyone else.

If you have a leftie in your life, make them feel special this day! You can celebrate by having all the right-handed students/people in your family attempt to do things with their left hand, or do a little report on a famous left-handed person (a few to choose from: Barak Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Lady Gaga, Bill Gates, Leonardo DaVinci).

Do you celebrate Left Handers Day? I’d love to hear what you do!

[Image by Anna Prosekova from Pixabay]

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Learn about Canada for Kids

Human brains are pretty amazing, allowing us to think, feel, create, communicate, move and more. But humans aren’t the only animals with cool brains, as Crab Museum explains in the book The No-Brainer Brain Explainer (illustrated by Bruno Valasse).

This book, aimed at kids in grades 1-4, is colorful and silly but also educational about how brains actually work, with billions of neurons sending electrical and chemical signals around the body.

“Everything we think, feel and experience comes from an electrical relay race, with neurons passing chemical batons to each other,” the book says. “The constant chatter of billions of brain cells creates your entire world.”

The book compares the brains of mammals to those of crabs (the book is “written” by a crab after all) and notes that crabs have fewer neurons and of course are much smaller, but they have separate parts of their brains that control their eyes and their legs. Crabs are also capable of remembering things, using tools and solving puzzles.

Some animals’ brains allow them to know more about their world in different ways from humans, such as spiders being sensitive to vibrations in their webs and catfish having an amazing sense of taste, with taste sensors all over their bodies.

It notes that 95 percent of brain activity goes toward things we do unconsciously, like breathing, walking and catching a ball flying toward us. It also talks about dreams, memory, how our emotions try to predict the future, where brains came from and fun facts about brains. For example, did you know a sperm whale is believed to have the biggest brain of any creature that’s even lived? Their brains weigh 18 pounds, compared to just 2.5 pounds for humans.

Information on what creatures have the smallest brains, the toughest brains, the most brains and those who actually eat their own brains will delight kids (and maybe gross them out a little bit). They’ll also enjoy learning about the mycelium network of fungi, which is like a brain without a body, and slime molds, which are like a brain without a brain.

It ends talking about why human brains are so special because we’ve found ways to work together, communicate and build communities on a scale bigger than any other animal.

Kids and adults alike will enjoy this colorful, silly and informational book about brains!

About the book: 64 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by Wide Eyed Editions. Suggested retail price $19.99.

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