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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
World
Paige Freshwater

Dad in hysterics over son's 'very literal' response to homework question

While no child wants to be set homework, it's important for them to further their learning outside the classroom. But one dad got more than he bargained for when checking over his eight-year-old's maths homework to see whether he was able to answer every question.

The dad couldn't help but laugh when reading his son's "very literal" answer to the question "Find the difference between 8 and 6". In response, the child wrote: "Eight is all curly. Six is not", clearly not understanding he was meant to subtract the numbers from one another to come up with the actual answer.

He wrote on Reddit: "My eight-year-old son takes his homework directions literally. It's the second week of second grade - but obviously my kid is geared more towards language - but I can dig it."

He didn't quite understand the question (u/EddieLomax/Reddit)

Not wanting to discourage his child's 'outside the box' way of thinking, he went on to explain the type of answer his teacher would have been expecting in context to the work sheet.

He added: "Although I am obviously biased as his dad, he's one of the smartest and most creative kids I've ever known.

"I explained to him the 'proper' way to answer it. I also told him that he wasn't wrong - just that they expected a different answer."

Commenting on the child's answer, one user said: "That boy is a genius. Future art developer right there."

Another user joked: "Common mistake, everyone knows the correct answer is '8 has two loops while 6 has one'."

A third user said: "Your kids brain is wired for creativity. I hope that you'll encourage and reinforce the fact that he's not wrong, he just sees things from a different angle."

One more user added: "I like how you can see an erased 'A'. This kid clearly wrote meth wrong the first time."

It comes after a cheeky girl tried to trick her mum into allowing her to stay home from school by impersonating "the school company" in a handwritten letter.

Her letter reads: "The school company is taking a brake [break] so the kids will get one more week off school. We will need your child to sign their name here."

The little girl, named Cara, saved her mum the trouble of signing her name by doing it for her and even went to the effort of stamping on a picture of Rapunzel to really seal the deal.

Sharing the letter on Reddit, her mum wrote: "My daughter got the mail today (it's Sunday). Apparently, they have another week off school."

While most users praised the child for their efforts, others shared stories of their own attempts to get time off school as a child.

One user said: "This kid is going places.... specifically school tomorrow."

Another user added: "I did something similar as a young kid, and thought I was so clever. I signed my teachers name at the bottom and everything.

Do you have a story to share? Email paige.freshwater@reachplc.com.

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