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OT - kits for young kids?

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ON4WIX

OT - kits for young kids?

Hi group,

My oldest son, nearing his seventh birthday, has for the past few years
been interested in those radio things sitting on my desk, bleeping away.
>From time to time he seems to enjoy tuning around the bands in search of
all those strange noises from far away and mysterious places.
Today he asked me if I could teach him to build some stuff like he had
me seen build (or rather - put together) so many times before.
Of course, considering his age soldering is still out of the question.
I've googled around a bit and apparently there are quite a few kids'
electronic assembly kits around, but almost all of them require
soldering skills. As an example, here's a kit offered by Einstein's
Toolbox: http://www.einsteinstoolbox.com/learn-to-solder-kit.html
So, my question to this knowledgeable group is this: are any of you
aware of electronics teaching kits aimed at the 7-10 yo age group? I'd
think these would be some sort of breadboard assembly kind of kits,
using spring-tension terminals to build some nifty projects like sirens,
chaser lights, maybe an Xtal receiver (although medium wave has become
rather quiet over here in EU)...

Any hints will be greatly appreciated.

73
Glenn ON4WIX
K2 s/n 5146
K3 s/n 0192
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k6dgw

Re: OT - kits for young kids?

Google "no solder electronic kits" without the quotes. There are a lot.

I learned to solder at 7 using one of those woodburning pencils. Our
neighbor taught his son and me, so I wouldn't sell your son short on
this. If he's asked, he may be way ahead of you already. In those days
you could wrap the leads around terminal strips and then solder them,
often my projects would work without soldering. Not all my projects
worked, solder or no, however.

There are PCB kits available that require solder, but the pads are well
spaced and they're well marked. Getting the right parts in the holes
and the diodes in the right way is probably the most challenging aspect.
Of course, if Dad is advising, all will go well :-)

Good luck to your son, and good luck to you too, it looks like you'll be
sharing your rig in the future.

73,

Fred K6DGW
- Northern California Contest Club
- CU in the 2012 Cal QSO Party 6-7 Oct 2012
- www.cqp.org

On 11/21/2011 12:40 PM, ON4WIX wrote:

> Today he asked me if I could teach him to build some stuff like he had
> me seen build (or rather - put together) so many times before.
> Of course, considering his age soldering is still out of the question.
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wayne burdick

Re: OT - kits for young kids?

Administrator

> ON4WIX wrote:

>> Today he asked me if I could teach him to build some stuff like he
>> had
>> me seen build (or rather - put together) so many times before.
>> Of course, considering his age soldering is still out of the
>> question.

I built a Radio Shack "Science Fair" kit when I was 8 -- an eight-note
electronic organ. I remember staying up until 11 PM to finish it, and
it did involve soldering. I remember my dad checking up on me a few
times. It was late but he could see I was motivated, so he'd just
smile and let me continue working. Years later he told me he figured
the future was in electronics, and I had played right into his hands :)

In fact this little kit may have launched both my electronics and
music careers. When I finished it, I could tell that one note was out
of tune. It was clear from the schematic that the resistors set the
pitch of each note. I didn't really know about parallel/series
combinations yet, but I experimented and got the note dialed in, by ear.

This is my long way of saying that perhaps your 7-year-old *can*
solder. If he really wants to.

73,
Wayne
N6KR

P.S. This email was read and approved by my own 7-year-old son,
Griffin :)

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~BG~

Re: OT - kits for young kids?

In reply to this post by ON4WIX

I had one of those 200 in 1 type electronics kits that you could insert
wires into spring coils (that are soldered to components underneath the
board). You can probably search Amazon for Elenco Electronic Playground
for them, there's a bunch from 50 in 1 to 500 in 1 kits. I can remember
making very simple AM radio receivers with them when I was around 9 years
old...

73
./ben
W6MCM

On Mon, Nov 21, 2011 at 12:40 PM, ON4WIX <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Hi group,
>
> So, my question to this knowledgeable group is this: are any of you
> aware of electronics teaching kits aimed at the 7-10 yo age group? I'd
> think these would be some sort of breadboard assembly kind of kits,
> using spring-tension terminals to build some nifty projects like sirens,
> chaser lights, maybe an Xtal receiver (although medium wave has become
> rather quiet over here in EU)...
>
> Any hints will be greatly appreciated.
>
> 73
> Glenn ON4WIX
> K2 s/n 5146
> K3 s/n 0192
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>

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Bill K9YEQ

Re: OT - kits for young kids?

Ok you are asking for it... in 1956 or about, I got a two transistor
multi-kit, very expensive at the time for Christmas. That was after my
Elmer who built great stuff and was 2 years older took me under his wing. I
was ~ 11 at the time. Whatever you do, solder something and make it work!

73,
Bill
K9YEQ

-----Original Message-----

I had one of those 200 in 1 type electronics kits that you could insert
wires into spring coils (that are soldered to components underneath the
board). You can probably search Amazon for Elenco Electronic Playground for
them, there's a bunch from 50 in 1 to 500 in 1 kits. I can remember making
very simple AM radio receivers with them when I was around 9 years old...

73
./ben
W6MCM

On Mon, Nov 21, 2011 at 12:40 PM, ON4WIX <[hidden email]> wrote:

Tony Estep

OT - kits for young kids?

In reply to this post by k6dgw

On Mon, Nov 21, 2011 at 5:34 PM, Ron D'Eau Claire <[hidden email]> wrote:

> ... a three-tube meissner regenerative receiver with an ac power supply -
> a gift
> from my father...

===================
Hey, me too! I finally got it working but it was kinda hard for a kid. I
had a gigantic soldering iron fit for a plumber. Some of my solder joints
were as big around as marbles. I couldn't really follow the schematic but
luckily there was a pictorial diagram. I could get BC and a few short-wave
stations on it, plus a tremendous amount of AC hum.

Tony KT0NY

--
http://www.isb.edu/faculty/facultydir.aspx?ddlFaculty=352

--
http://www.isb.edu/faculty/facultydir.aspx?ddlFaculty=352
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Robert Friess

Re: OT - kits for young kids?

In reply to this post by Bill K9YEQ

Never underestimate a curious 7 year old. One of my grandsons built a
soldering kit for a FM radio at about that age. He had a fair amount of
supervision but learned really quickly.

Bob, N6CM

On Mon, Nov 21, 2011 at 3:43 PM, Bill K9YEQ <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Ok you are asking for it... in 1956 or about, I got a two transistor
> multi-kit, very expensive at the time for Christmas. That was after my
> Elmer who built great stuff and was 2 years older took me under his wing.
> I
> was ~ 11 at the time. Whatever you do, solder something and make it work!
>
> 73,
> Bill
> K9YEQ
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
> I had one of those 200 in 1 type electronics kits that you could insert
> wires into spring coils (that are soldered to components underneath the
> board). You can probably search Amazon for Elenco Electronic Playground
> for
> them, there's a bunch from 50 in 1 to 500 in 1 kits. I can remember making
> very simple AM radio receivers with them when I was around 9 years old...
>
>
> 73
> ./ben
> W6MCM
>
> On Mon, Nov 21, 2011 at 12:40 PM, ON4WIX <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> > Hi group,
> >
> > So, my question to this knowledgeable group is this: are any of you
> > aware of electronics teaching kits aimed at the 7-10 yo age group? I'd
> > think these would be some sort of breadboard assembly kind of kits,
> > using spring-tension terminals to build some nifty projects like
> > sirens, chaser lights, maybe an Xtal receiver (although medium wave
> > has become rather quiet over here in EU)...
> >
> > Any hints will be greatly appreciated.
> >
> > 73
> > Glenn ON4WIX
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>

stan levandowski

Re: OT - kits for young kids?

In reply to this post by ON4WIX

I was about 8 when I took out a library book that showed how to build a
crystal radio using a safety pin, a tarnished copper penny, wire rolled
around an oatmeal box, a very long wire antenna, and the dial stop on
our old black telephone for the ground.

The darn thing picked up WALL on 1340 kilocycles on the first try!

I lived across the street from the transmitter.

Location,location,location...

73, Stan WB2LQF

On Mon, Nov 21, 2011 at 6:43 PM, Bill K9YEQ wrote:

> Ok you are asking for it... in 1956 or about, I got a two transistor
> multi-kit, very expensive at the time for Christmas. That was after
> my
> Elmer who built great stuff and was 2 years older took me under his
> wing. I
> was ~ 11 at the time. Whatever you do, solder something and make it
> work!
>
> 73,
> Bill
> K9YEQ
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
> I had one of those 200 in 1 type electronics kits that you could
> insert
> wires into spring coils (that are soldered to components underneath
> the
> board). You can probably search Amazon for Elenco Electronic
> Playground for
> them, there's a bunch from 50 in 1 to 500 in 1 kits. I can remember
> making
> very simple AM radio receivers with them when I was around 9 years
> old...
>
>
> 73
> ./ben
> W6MCM
>
> On Mon, Nov 21, 2011 at 12:40 PM, ON4WIX <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
>> Hi group,
>>
>> So, my question to this knowledgeable group is this: are any of you
>> aware of electronics teaching kits aimed at the 7-10 yo age group?
>> I'd think these would be some sort of breadboard assembly kind of
>> kits, using spring-tension terminals to build some nifty projects
>> like sirens, chaser lights, maybe an Xtal receiver (although medium
>> wave has become rather quiet over here in EU)...
>>
>> Any hints will be greatly appreciated.
>>
>> 73
>> Glenn ON4WIX
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html

Brendan Minish

Re: OT - kits for young kids?

In reply to this post by ON4WIX

Hi Glenn

All 3 of my daughters learned to solder at about 7 Years old so I would
not consider 7 to be 'too young' by any means. They needed a little
supervision and some encouragement to get started but did just fine.
Make sure that the kid wears safety goggles and works carefully.

the first kit my kids made made was the 'Drawaudio' from here

http://www.adafruit.com/products/124

It's Fun to play with when done and the build time is about right for
the limited attention span of a 7 year old

they have each made 4 or 5 more kits in the last couple of years and my
eldest who is now 11 is probably ready to have a go at something more
complex that will take a few sessions to build.

On Mon, 2011-11-21 at 21:40 +0100, ON4WIX wrote:
> Hi group,
>
> My oldest son, nearing his seventh birthday,

..
> Of course, considering his age soldering is still out of the question.

--
73
Brendan EI6IZ

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Don Wilhelm-4

Re: OT - kits for young kids?

In reply to this post by ON4WIX

Glenn,

My two grandsons had a soldering iron in their hands at about the same
age as your son. With a little instruction about the proper technique
(heat both the lead and the solder pad, along with instruction about not
using a big blob of solder), they both were successful at it. One
showed no further interest in building anything electronic, but the
other is going at it with a passion - he is into not only building kits
but creating his own circuit boards and his own trials at "how things
work" - he is now 15 and has accompanied me to Dayton for the last 2
years. His call is KJ4NYI, and has made a lot of ham radio friends in
the process. He is also taking some of my old junk off my hands to
experiment with. He still has not figured out how to make his radio
controlled submarine re-surface, but he knows how to sink it :-)

So let your son have a try at soldering, then introduce him to some
relatively easy kits. My grandson has had a lot of fun building some of
the QRPme kits - they are easy (but he may need some help with the
instructions - sometimes sparse). At that age, they can get excited
about most anything that appeals to them, let him experiment a bit to
see where he will eventually fit in the world.

73,
Don W3FPR

On 11/21/2011 3:40 PM, ON4WIX wrote:

> Hi group,
>
> My oldest son, nearing his seventh birthday, has for the past few years
> been interested in those radio things sitting on my desk, bleeping away.
> > From time to time he seems to enjoy tuning around the bands in search of
> all those strange noises from far away and mysterious places.
> Today he asked me if I could teach him to build some stuff like he had
> me seen build (or rather - put together) so many times before.
> Of course, considering his age soldering is still out of the question.
> I've googled around a bit and apparently there are quite a few kids'
> electronic assembly kits around, but almost all of them require
> soldering skills. As an example, here's a kit offered by Einstein's
> Toolbox: http://www.einsteinstoolbox.com/learn-to-solder-kit.html
> So, my question to this knowledgeable group is this: are any of you
> aware of electronics teaching kits aimed at the 7-10 yo age group? I'd
> think these would be some sort of breadboard assembly kind of kits,
> using spring-tension terminals to build some nifty projects like sirens,
> chaser lights, maybe an Xtal receiver (although medium wave has become
> rather quiet over here in EU)...
>