Mom stumped by 1st grader's homework asks internet for help. Do you know the answer?

After a woman in the United Kingdom was left stumped by her first grader’s homework assignment, she turned to Facebook for help.

“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,” Laura Rathbone, 40, who lives in Buckinghamshire, England, tells TODAY.com.

It turns out Rathbone wasn't the only one scratching her head.

This was the task Rathbone’s 6-year-old daughter, Lilly-Mo, was asked to complete: “Which word is the odd one out?” The choices were: friend, toothbrush, silver, desk, and egg. 

“I would say toothbrush as it’s the only one with 2 syllables?” one person replied. 

Added another, “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.”

Other responses included:

• “You can only eat an egg…”
• “Toothbrush is the only word without an E."
• “Friend because it’s a person and not an object."
• "“??!!????!????!?!???!!"
• "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.
• "Silver. The others are nouns."
• Just say the dog ate it 

“Everybody had different theories, and it was quite interesting!” Rathbone says. “I really enjoyed reading all of the comments.”

The next day, Rathbone reached out to Lilly-Mo’s teacher, who explained that the children had just started learning about nouns — and that the correct answer was ... silver!

Rathbone notes that silver is both an adjective and noun, which makes it confusing. 

Try this exercise with your Facebook friends and see what they say!

“I also asked about this in my parents WhatsApp chat and no one had the same answer,” Rathbone says. "It's a real brain teaser!"

This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:

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