We rebalanced the level order in the latest version[notably, level 2 in 1.0 got moved to 8], and also took some of the guesswork out of assigning words in the early levels.
I'll look into adding a bit more in-game teaching after the jam, maybe one or two 'solve in three moves' levels in order to properly convey the mechanics at play. My level designs definitely could use a bit more care put into them.