BRITS have been left baffled by the brain teaser homework question that one youngster was sent home with.
Laura Rathbone was helping daughter Lilly-Mo, 6, earlier this week when the pair were left stumped by one of the tasks that the teacher had set.
The homework asked to note the “odd one out” between five items – all of which appeared to have nothing in common to begin with – leaving the 40-year-old mum-of-three and her daughter at a loss.
The Londoner took to her WhatsApp chat to ask other parents for help in sussing it out but found that others were similarly confused, leaving Laura to turn to social media in a plea for help.
An image of Lilly-Mo’s homework sheet reveals the question in full as it reads: “Week beginning 4th December. Task one. Which is the odd one out?”
A diagram can be seen underneath the question with five words spread across the page: friend, desk, toothbrush, egg and silver.
With no correlation and no immediate answer clear, Laura took to social media on Tuesday in a plea to other parents for their thoughts.
She wrote: “So, my daughter who’s in year one, only just aged six, got this homework question, task one.
“It’s confusing in my opinion, to say the least, especially considering the age it’s aimed at but I’d love to hear your answers.
“I think it’s something you’d find in a Puzzler magazine personally but let me know your thoughts. I’ll share my answer once I hear from you all and I’m still not sure if mine is correct.”
The post received over 340 likes and a whopping 4,100 comments as many Brits took their best guesses at the brain teaser.
One person wrote: “So, random but I would say ‘egg’ as that is the only one you can eat.”
Another said: “As a science teacher I would say silver as it’s the only element – all the rest are compounds or mixtures.”
A third commented: “This question is making me feel so thick. I don’t get it. How do they expect a Year One child to answer that?”
Another added: “I thought I was quite good at English. I have no idea on the answer and my grandson is five years and five months old and is in year one. How on Earth would he be expected to know this?”
A fifth wrote: “I’d say ‘friend’ because it’s a so-called ‘tricky word’. The others can be sounded out using phonics.”
Another guessed: “I’d say ‘silver’ as [the] rest are things, but silver is a colour.
“Just a guess, no clue, and trust me it’s gets worse, my daughter’s in year seven and some of the things she brings home baffles me.”
In an update the following day, Laura finally put the parents out of their misery and revealed that she had discovered the answer.
She revealed that the answer was in fact silver – due to it being the only non-noun in the list of words.
Speaking to Laura today she said: “Lilly-Mo has a book sent home weekly with some homework questions in it and my daughter gets quite excited to find out what homework she’s got.
“This is what we had in her book this week. My brain was going crazy trying to work out the answer.
“My daughter initially reasoned that the answer was ‘silver’ as in the colour, so not an object like the other items listed.
“I then initially messaged in our year one WhatsApp group.
“All the children seemed to get different homework questions and I was relieved to find out that when I asked the question, all the mums in the group were also baffled and gave different answers.
“That led me to post [on social media] to see what others might come up with.”
Laura added of the answer: “I wasn’t shocked. To be honest, after reading everyone’s differing responses, the answer could have been anything.
“It’s definitely the most intriguing homework I’ve ever come across for a 6-year-old. All ages partook in responding, which I thought was fantastic.
“Getting everyone’s different interpretations in it really was so much fun.
“The teacher did understand why I’d queried the homework answer and how it could be confusing and explained that the day they received the homework they had just started speaking about nouns, so it made a bit more sense but without context, it’s a really baffling question.”
