electronics for kids

This is a plug for what I think is a great product:

Snap Circuits

(Ignore the horrific, cheesy, dated website. The products and their service are great.)

Hugo received the basic kit a couple years ago, and this year we got him some expansion packs. The snap circuits make building circuits a breeze. The set consists of plastic pieces which snap together with the kind of snaps you'd find on a raincoat. They say 8 & up and I'd say that's reasonable, with a couple of provisos:

- it is possible to make a short circuit & fry some of the components. You'll want to supervise &/or make sure your child really understands what a short is and how to avoid it

- the parts are generally quite sturdy but the weakest link are what's called 'jumper cables'. These are pieces of thin coated wire with snaps at the ends. If you're not very, very careful, the wire will eventually rip off the snap. These are inexpensive to replace and after you lose a few, you do get considerably more careful about taking these parts off the circuits. Nevertheless, if you're purchasing directly from elanco (as opposed to your local hobby or electronic gadget store - I think we got our first set from Radio Shack), I'd order a couple replacements right away

The sets come with a booklet of projects & clear instructions for building each circuit, as well as hints on troubleshooting and testing your components. The projects are things like doorbells, burglar alarms etc. There are some quieter projects too but inevitably Hugo wants to make the ones that make loud electronic star wars noise.....

It's a good fun toy & reasonably priced for what you get.