Help the Ladybug Find the Leaf — Level 1

A ladybug walking to a leaf is about the lowest-stakes errand in the set, and that is the appeal. Nothing is lost or hungry, so there is no urgency in the picture to work against a child who wants to take a long time over it. The red shell against black walls also makes the starting corner easy to find again after a break.

This is a level 1 maze: 8 cells across, with corridors a shade under two centimeters wide. That is roomy enough that a five year old's pencil control is never the thing holding them up, so the page is purely about finding the way.

The way through runs 25 squares and turns 16 times, with 9 dead ends branching off it. The grid is carved so that exactly one route connects the start to the finish: no loops, no second way round, and no corner walled off from the rest. Every square can be reached, and a child who follows the route carefully will always get there.