Electronics kits are making a big comeback

Our son is fascinated with electronics kits and we bought him a really basic electronics kit with a light bulb, motor and a couple wires and other components. He also has a couple great kits we or family have bought for him to work with.

He built a solar powered helicopter (it doesn’t actually fly but the rotors turn in direct sunlight), has a light chemistry kit and my mother recently sent over a kit which he can use to create a sort of cable car using a used can.

I came across this segment from SA radio (702?) on SoundCloud about the resurgence of interest in these kits. My mother has worked at Wits University for years and I remember playing with little kits her engineer colleagues helped put together for me. This brings some of that back and it’s pretty exciting.

His current project is building an Arc Reactor (as seen in the Iron Man movies) and we have been getting some help from one of the engineers my mother works with. He has sourced a couple resources for us which I’ll share in another post. As much fun as this stuff is, it definitely requires some planning.

As for electronics kits generally, I’d really like to get into some of the other kits available. I have a few recommendations from friends on Facebook including littleBits, Arduino and Raspberry Pi but we haven’t gone down that road yet. Some of the kits can be a little pricey. Of the three, I like littleBits the most but that is a pricey option.

It’s great to see kids interested in this stuff. I sometimes worry they will wind up spending all their time glued to a screen of some kind (we all spend too much time staring at screens as it is). Working with hardware is also a good way to learn about software and how things work, generally. Seeing my son so excited about physical components and building things is really fantastic. What do your kids play with? Any recommendations or tips?

Image credit: Electronics by Nick Ares, licensed CC BY SA 2.0