Parents left baffled over 'easy' homework questions designed for six-year-olds

A parents' self-esteem was severely shaken by a difficult maths question in their six-year-old’s homework, which they found utterly perplexing. Turning to social media for help, the parent confessed their confusion on Reddit, saying: "This is silly, my son is six-years-old and I can't believe I am getting stuck with his homework. I have tried everything, and my self-esteem has been severely shaken. Help me save face in front of my kid's teacher."

The worksheet named 'Looking for Patterns' asked children to find missing numbers in various equations, specifying that each board is missing three unique numbers represented by a square, pentagon, and triangle. The parent attempted to solve the question combining different numbers but remained clueless. "I have tried the first board for what feels like hours. If pentagon + square = 5. That means the pentagon and square could be any of the numbers from 1 to 4. However, if 1 + pentagon = triangle. Then the pentagon and square can't be 1. Am I right? Despite trying various combinations of 2, 3, and 4, I'm still clueless. It's driving me nuts."

Social media users chimed in, one highlighting a simpler approach: "Since this problem is meant for kids, don't solve it like a regular system of equations. The third line of the first box can be rearranged like the first line. Once you figure out square = 1, the rest becomes trivial." Another user added, "Each line has one number replacing a shape. For example, in board 1, line 1, the square is replaced with 1, triangle with 5 in line 2, and pentagon with 4 in line 4. This pattern applies to all boards."

A third contributor noted: "You don’t need much math for this. Each line has the same three symbols without repetition. In the lines with a number, the missing shape equates directly to that number. In the first line, there's no square, so square is 1. In the second, there’s no rectangle, so rectangle is 5."

Grateful for the support, the parent confirmed that their child ultimately figured out the problem without intensive calculations. "The funny thing is that he figured it out in the end. He didn't do any math to start—first matched missing shapes to numbers, ensuring each shape appeared in each line. When he figured that 5 was a triangle and for a pentagon, he filled the empty shapes with numbers and finished the addition and subtraction."

Now, all that's left to await is the teacher's feedback!

Earlier, SSP wrote that woman was shocked by word choice in children's book from Temu.