Electronics fun for the Whole Family

I’ve been struggling with how to help our 11-year old develop her attention to detail and critical thinking skills. I spent some time trying to interest her in programming, but it didn’t take. Anyway, I think I’m too close to that topic, and I don’t know that I’m the best person to teach programming to a kid. On the other hand, I have wanted to get back into electronics for a while, and I think it could make for a good geek/geekling activity.

Like any good pack-rat I still have my old Radio Shack electronics kit, which I dutifully handed down to my daughter:


Science Fair Exploring Electronics Lab - 200 Projects
Science Fair Exploring Electronics Lab - 200 Projects

A quick trip to Radio Shack, netted me a newer version to mess with for myself:


Radio Shack Electronics Learning Lab
Radio Shack Electronics Learning Lab

I should point out that the older set is still available, even though Radio Shack no longer carries them. I prefer that set for kids, since it includes lots of fun projects, but only limited explanations of how the projects work. The newer kit comes with manuals by the famous Forest M. Mims III, but the experiments are a bit more limited in scope, but are somewhat better explained. The newer kit is absolutely a great buy for geeks 16 and older, but might have more limited appeal to those younger.

So far she’s built a couple different projects/games from the old kit, including the Quick Draw II game that provided quite a bit of entertainment for the entire household. Hopefully, this is the start of a beautiful friendship…