29 March, 2010

Left-handed pencil pretty cool

I got my Yoropen pencil in the mail last week. I mentioned previously that it was coming courtesy of Simply Lefty in exchange for writing a review of the pencil.

My first reaction after the excitement of it arriving in the mail was disappointment. But only because it was not a mechanical pencil (like a Pacer), but instead has leads in little plastic holders that you switch around. I hate blunt pencils and these kind go blunt fairly quickly. The refills can only be bought from the company itself. At $3.00 a per package of refills plus postage, it is a little expensive.

But putting that emotion aside, I tried it out and it was pretty cool. With a straight wrist I could see a word or two previous to the one I was currently writing. As a left-hander I've never experienced that before! I can only imagine what it might be like to learn as a child to write this way - many stereotypical left handed hooks might be prevented.

The rubber grip is comfortable and not too restrictive. Some grips force you into a specific grip that some person has decided is the best, but it rarely is. This one is a basic triangle in shape and very nice. The only difficulty is that instead of grabbing a pencil up and writing straight away like I usually do,  I have to check out that the tip is pointed the right way.

I let two of my right-handed sons (10 and 4) road test the pencil and they both thought it was pretty cool. They had no problems using it.

I might be interested in trying out their pens. Certainly I'd consider recommending it to a left-handed child who was struggling to see their work and developing bad posture as a result.

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