About · Squirrel Squad

★ How it started

The story behind the game

Sofia is a mom who got tired of the same daily battle — screens vs. everything else. She tried charts, sticker books, apps. Nothing stuck. So she sat down with her kid and asked: what would make healthy habits actually fun?

"My kid didn't want a lesson. They wanted to win. So we built a game where winning is the lesson."

That conversation became Squirrel Squad. The rules, the characters, the chaos — all playtested at the kitchen table with a real kid who had zero tolerance for boring. If a round dragged, it got cut. If a mechanic confused a five-year-old, it got rewritten. The kid co-creator had final say on fun.

Three playtest groups, a dozen rule rewrites, and one permanent rule — everyone slaps and yells "NOOOO!" when a Grump shows up — later, Squirrel Squad became the game kids ask to play again at dinner.

In Squirrel Squad, squirrel heroes battle silly bad-habit Grumps using powers from four habits: mind, food, move, and learn. On the surface, wild family card-game chaos. Underneath, a simple truth: healthy choices feel like superpowers when a kid discovers them through play.

The team

Sofia

Creator & mom

Jack

Co-founder & tech

🐿️

The Kid

Co-creator & chief fun officer

Why a card game?

Apps reward staring at screens. Books reward sitting still. Card games reward looking each other in the eye and laughing. That's the whole brief — fits in a backpack, costs a coffee, travels anywhere, and kids learn by playing, not by being told.

What we believe

Play first. Lessons sneak in.

If a kid feels lectured, they've already tuned out. Every Squad card teaches something. The game never stops to explain it. The learning is in the laughter.

Calm is a superpower.

Emotional regulation isn't soft — it's the hardest skill any kid learns. Pip's Mind cards give it the same status as every other habit in the deck.

Chaos is the point.

Good games are a little chaotic. Kids love chaos. Grumps, NOOOOs, slaps, Tag-You're-Its — the mess is the mechanic.

Short games win dinners.

Fifteen minutes. That's how long you have before someone needs water, a tissue, or the bathroom. We built around that reality.

Made by a mom. Co-created by her kid.