Peg Solitaire — the Firefly Meadow Puzzle 6+

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Peg solitaire is one of the oldest one-player puzzles in the world — more than three hundred years of jumping pegs on wooden boards, from the famous triangle with fifteen holes to the English cross with thirty-three. The rule fits in one breath: a peg jumps over its neighbour into the empty hole beyond, and the one it jumped over leaves the board.

Here the old board wakes up at night. Every peg is a little lantern with a firefly inside, standing on a moonlit meadow. When you jump, the firefly sails over in a warm arc — and the lantern it crossed goes out and melts into golden dust. Leave one single light, and it flares up and lights the whole meadow.

The campaign has thirty levels that grow with the child: first small friendly layouts where leaving three lights is a win, then real challenges — leave one, and finally leave one right in the centre. Every level was checked by a solving engine, so every puzzle is honestly beatable.

How to play

Tap a glowing lantern — the hollows it can jump to light up. Tap one of them and the firefly leaps; the lantern in between goes out. That is the whole rule, and a three-step voiced tutorial shows it live on the board.

This is a thinking puzzle, so the tools are honest: an undo arrow takes back any number of moves, restart begins the level afresh, and three hints per level show a good jump straight from the solving engine. If no jumps are left, the game gently suggests undoing a move instead of calling it a defeat.

What your child learns

Peg solitaire is planning in its purest form: every jump removes a piece, so the child learns to look two and three moves ahead, to notice which jumps lock the board and which keep it open, and to use undo as a real thinking tool — try, see the dead end, step back, try better. Teachers have used this board for centuries to train patience and step-by-step reasoning.

The science behind the games

Every Dad4Kids game is built on one simple truth: children want to play, not study — so we turn learning into a game worth replaying. The method draws on peer-reviewed research in game-based learning, motivation, and how memory works.

FAQ

How do you play peg solitaire?

One peg jumps over a neighbouring peg into the empty hole directly beyond it, and the jumped peg is removed. Jumps go along the board lines. The goal is to keep removing pegs until a single one remains — in the hardest levels, right in the centre.

Is every level actually solvable?

Yes. Every one of the thirty levels was verified by a solving engine before it went into the game, and the same engine powers the hints — so a hint always shows a move that truly leads to the goal.

What are the two boards?

The triangle board has fifteen holes — the classic version children meet first. The English cross has thirty-three holes and is the famous three-hundred-year-old challenge. The campaign starts on the triangle and grows to the cross.

What if I get stuck?

Nothing is lost: the undo arrow takes back moves one by one, restart begins the level again, and three hints per level show a good jump. Getting stuck and stepping back is part of the puzzle — that is how planning is learned.

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By Evgeny Arsentiev, PhD · Last updated: September 2026