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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

Homework, Silent Letters, HELP I am feeling stabby.

37 replies

DorcasLane · 09/10/2011 13:49

My 10 year old son has been given a bit of homework, it's supposed to be English. We are struggling. I am about to drown my sorrows in a bottle of gin.
The homework is all about silent letters. Can anyone shed any light on this codswhallop. Thanks in advance! x

Firstly circle the silent letter in this paragraph.
Then solve the riddle.
I asked a question but got no answer. Do You Know?

''There must be a knight wearing knickers in a tomb. Surely that must be wrong, so I asked the whale, he was honest, he answered only half my question, then knocked me over with the splash of his tail. Shall I wait until Christmas? No, I?ll ask the folk with the lambs and the wriggling swords. They were useless, they pointed me in the direction of the gnomes. The gnomes, who waited in the garden, fishing by the pond, whispered the answer in my ear.''

The answer was 'silent' but what was the question.

Enjoy x

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CecilyP · 09/10/2011 14:25

In the sense that they are sitting on the page minding their own business, I suppose they are. However, most people do understand the concept of silent letters. I think the 'what knight only comes out at Christmas' must be the best of not a particularly inspiring bunch of answers.

mrz · 09/10/2011 14:29

Yes most of us were taught about silent letters but they are no longer taught that way in schools

Original poster

DorcasLane · 09/10/2011 14:30

We sat and came up with a bunch of possibles but they all seemed a bit flabby and uninspiring. I want it to be a riddle with a HUGE amazing answer and I just know it'll be 'Oh is that it'. SooOoo thanks for all your replies, time to put this one to bed. xxx

OP posts:

hocuspontas · 09/10/2011 14:34

I think it's going to be something banal seeing as it's aimed at primary. On the other web pages it doesn't mention silent letters to start with. So maybe the question is 'What are the letters k, b, w, and g in this riddle'?

CecilyP · 09/10/2011 14:35

Yes most of us were taught about silent letters but they are no longer taught that way in schools

Dorcas's homework would suggest otherwise.

mrz · 09/10/2011 14:39

or the teacher found a very old link to the Lancashire site

soandsosmummy · 09/10/2011 15:16

What a crazy piece of homework. I wouldn't lose any sleep over it OP. I can only assume the question is "is the g at the start of gnome sounded out or silent?" or something equally ridiculous. A silly question deserves a silly answer.

Years ago at about age of 12 I had a piece of homework no one in the family could answer. My 17 year old neighbour mid way through her maths A level couldn't answer. Turned out that instead of the algebra worksheet I was meant to get, I'd accidentally been given a piece of work the A level philosophy group were working with in discussing unanswerable questions!! I shed so many tears over it too :(

vincentvangogh · 09/10/2011 18:02

Is question: "I know what sound the "k" in know makes? Do you know?"

crap riddle, crap answer.

maizieD · 09/10/2011 18:10

I'd love to know what the Learning Objective was for this time waster!

2kidsintow · 10/10/2011 18:03

Did you find out the answer?

Original poster

DorcasLane · 13/10/2011 07:18

I asked my son what the answer was and he said that she just gathered all the homework in and put them in a drawer, I guess we'll never know. Will try and remember to ask at parent's evening

OP posts:

Tortoiseinadarkspell · 13/10/2011 07:23

Oh god how frustrating.

Please report back.

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