Squirrel Runs Home
- Explorers
- Levels 1 and 2
- Maze
Squirrel wants to get home. Trace a path from the start to the nest, step up/down/left/right, never through a wall.
Trace a route from the start ring to the flag at the nest, one square at a time: up, down, left or right, never through a wall.
This one comes back on . You can solve it then, signed in.
Last set on . The answer stays inside Kiwimath, and here is why.
What the board shows
- The maze is 4 squares by 4, with 4 dark squares and 12 open ones.
- The ring starts in the top-left corner and the flag is in the bottom-right corner.
How are Kiwimath mazes played?
The ring marks the start and the flag marks the nest. A route goes one square at a time, up, down, left or right, never diagonally and never through a dark square.
Any route that reaches the flag counts, but the shorter routes are the satisfying ones, and comparing two routes is good counting practice.
Children who look ahead before moving, or who trace back from the flag, find the dead ends before they walk into them. Both habits are the start of planning, the skill behind a lot of later problem solving.
What it trains: Planning, spatial reasoning and patience.
Puzzles like this are part of olympiad preparation from the first classes. See the plan for Class 1 or Class 3.
What to ask while your child works
Questions like these keep a child thinking without giving anything away. They work for every puzzle of this kind.
- Can you trace a route with your finger before you draw it?
- How many moves is your route? Is there a shorter one?
- Which squares can the ring move to first?
Warm up with one like Squirrel Runs Home
This warm-up is not the puzzle above, and its answer is below. It is a different puzzle of the same kind, made for this page, so your child can practise before Squirrel Runs Home comes back.
Find the shortest route from the ring to the flag, moving up, down, left or right, never through a dark square.
See the warm-up answer
The route: right 1, up 3, right 2.
- The square above the ring is dark, so the first step has to be to the right.
- From there the way up is open: go up three squares to the top row.
- Walk right two squares along the top to the flag: 6 moves.
Questions parents ask about Squirrel Runs Home
When can my child solve Squirrel Runs Home?
Squirrel Runs Home is due back as the Explorers puzzle of the week on Saturday 28 November 2026, opening at 6 PM India time. Your child can solve it then, signed in, with hints that open one at a time.
Who is Squirrel Runs Home for?
It is an Explorers puzzle, for Levels 1 and 2, roughly Class 1 to 4. A younger child can try it with a grown-up reading the story aloud; the thinking matters more than the reading.