A mother was left so stumped by her first-grader’s homework that she had to reach out to social media to see if anyone else could make sense of it.
Homework is often hated by kids, but parents can find some of the questions just as frustrating as their little ones.
From not having practiced their own algebra in decades to just confusingly-worded equations, getting the correct answers can be something of a minefield.
One mother from the UK shared a question in her six-year-old daughter Lilly-Mo’s homework sheet that had left them well and truly stumped – and it’s safe to say they weren’t the only ones who couldn’t work it out.
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Homework can be just as tough for the parent as it is the child. Credit: Maskot/Getty Images
Laura Rathbone, 40, took to Facebook to share the question that had baffled them, which asked the child to pick the “odd one out” between the following words: friend, desk, toothbrush, egg, and silver.
The mom, who lives in Buckinghamshire in England, told Today.com: “At first I thought I was losing my mind. I was like, ‘What am I missing here?’ So I posted in a group with loads of moms hoping they would have the answer.”
Unfortunately, it seems nobody else was any the wiser, as she got a whole lot of conflicting answers in the comments.
One person wrote: “I would say toothbrush as it’s the only one with 2 syllables?”, clearly forgetting that ‘silver’ also has two syllables in it, too…
Another commented: “You can only eat an egg…”, someone else added: “Toothbrush is the only word without an E.”
One pointed out: “Friend because it’s the only word that can not be phonetically sounded out. All others you can. Given its phonic homework that is what I would say it is checking.”
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Laura had shared the photo of the homework online. Credit: Laura Rathbone/Facebook
Someone else added: “Silver. The others are nouns,” while one wrote: “Friend because it’s a person and not an object,” which is personally the one I would have gone for, too.
One follower commented: “As a teacher myself I actually think this is an interesting piece of homework. I would imagine designed to encourage thought, reasoning and probably discussion at home.”
Despite everyone failing to come to an agreement on what the answer actually was, Laura admitted: “Everybody had different theories, and it was quite interesting! I really enjoyed reading all of the comments.”
However, it turns out there is one right answer, as Laura reached out to Lilly-Mo’s teacher to finally put herself out of her misery and find out.
It turns out that the correct answer was indeed ‘silver’ as the children had been learning about nouns at the time.
Laura did point out that it was still pretty confusing, as silver can be both an adjective and a noun – so it’s no wonder everyone was left scratching their heads.
The mother added: “I also asked about this in my parents’ WhatsApp chat and no one had the same answer. It’s a real brain teaser!”