Parents puzzled over ‘infuriating’ homework a 4-year-old brought home: ‘Why do teachers do this?’

A man was stunned by his preschooler’s “unreasonably complicated” homework after the child brought home a confusing worksheet.

The task asked the 4-year-old to identify different items from their illustrations and write down their names.

But an image of an adult rabbit with a bunch of bunnies caused a lot of controversy.

The first three questions of the exercise were simple and showed pictures of a bathtub, the number ’10’ and a spinning top.

A guideline stated that no word should be longer than four letters.

The man pleaded for help on a popular online community Reddit.

He shared a photo of the worksheet that the letter “T” seemed to focus on, along with his son’s answers to previous questions.

“This is my son’s work in kindergarten,” the man wrote. “What 3-4 letter word is this?”

Support from thousands poured in, with some offering possible solutions to the problem.

“Must be a pet,” one parent said. “These types of worksheets try to make the last one more difficult by moving the sound of the letter to the end of the word to try and scare the child off.”

Another woman agreed, citing the silhouette of the worksheet’s other page.

“It sure is pet!” On the other side of the worksheet you see the last ‘S’ picture [following ‘sad’ and ‘sun’] is clearly ‘bus’. They definitely go for ‘pet’ with the last ‘T’.’

Others had several options for the father to try instead.

“The answer could be tame — but that might be too fancy for a kid.”

“It doesn’t have a ‘T’ but is ‘hare’ a possibility?”

‘Baby rabbits are sometimes referred to as ‘kits’ – it’s a good term, but it’s not really used colloquially. I don’t know if children are expected to know that.’

“Maybe it’s ‘little’.”

Many parents are also frustrated with the homework their children have brought home

Many others were confused by the frustration and admitted they didn’t put the puzzle together right away.

“My kids had pet rabbits and I still hadn’t thought of it in that picture,” said one mother.

‘Is it a trab? [sic] Or a rabbit? [sic].’

“Why didn’t they just choose something a little clearer? Hat. Cat. Bat. Who is doing this to a child?’

“I have a degree in physics, but I couldn’t tell you what the hell is going on here.”

“PhD in neuroscience and my brain was breaking trying to understand what the hell was being asked of those kids.”

Some parents shared similar frustrating stories about the homework their kids brought home.

‘Parent of the first grade here … it’s moronic. My son went to kindergarten to read well and is now stuck with words with silent letters because he’s learned to type it out meaninglessly.’

Another added: “These teachers ask too much of children and their parents.”

“Somewhere in my phone is a photo from years ago of my son’s second grade math test with the direction: partition the rectilinear shape.”