This concept is just plain hard. I struggled with this as a young child, and even today when giving someone directions, I have to stop and think before I decide whether it’s a left or right turn. Maybe this is due to the fact that I am left-handed; us lefties have it rough ;) It’s hard to explain left and right to a child, so in this song I describe the same method I used so long ago:

The sky is up,
The ground is down,
But if you take a look around
There are other ways to go,
Left and right are what you need to know.

Hold up your hands
And reach your fingers to the sky,
Point your thumbs in,
Do you wanna know why?
Well the hand that makes an L
Is the left one.
The other is the right,
And now you’re halfway done.

Stretch your arms to your sides
As far as they can go.
Look at your left hand
And you will know,
That this way is left,
And the other way is right,
You are learning your directions,
And that is outta sight!

Do you have a better way for teaching left or right? If so, please share! You can never have enough tools in the box when it comes to teaching skills like this one.