How times have changed.
When I were a lad living in a cardboard box by side of t'moterway.....
You used be able to get a whole host of electronics kits for kids, i.e. build your own radio, etc, etc.
I remember even having a ladybird book of electronics for kids.
So I do a search to find something my 9 year would enjoy.
There is bugger all out there these days. Just a really shitty toy'r'us style thing that my son will soon forget.
No wonder everything breaks these days as kids don't grow up being geeks any more and learning the real basics
Comments
Raspberry Pi?
Agreed Maplins, even john lewis sell something, but I haven't found anything as professional as the 'Radionic X30
http://searle.hostei.com/grant/ElectronicKits/index.html#RadionicX30
that I had as a kid, indeed, our school had them and I know that Philips who branded the later stuff also produced very sophisticated kits used for teaching purposes at higher 'college' level. Its passing is a sad loss IMO.
I've been making my dear old mum a house sign that lights up as it gets dark outside; the original approach was all simple electronics, a square wave generator and a comparator so it was a sort of PWM based dimmer system, all low tech. But that proved tricky to get the threshold right, so as far as I can tell the simplest approach now is to do it with an Arduino. Simplest in the sense of how much effort is required to end up with a working thingy!
http://www.brightminds.co.uk/cambridge-brainbox-100/p66
and I taught him to solder on these:
http://www.maplin.co.uk/mk127-running-microbug-kit-30369
http://www.maplin.co.uk/stroboscope-kit-219954
http://www.maplin.co.uk/voice-changer-kit-220042
and
http://www.worldwideshoppingmall.co.uk/toys/robo-explorer-science-museum-kit.asp
He might have soldered his Strat bitsa too. about age 10.
I'd love some of it but I could build a tweed 5e3 for that sort of money
Seriously: If you value it, take/fetch it yourself
Rapid Electronics is a handy place for all sorts of electronic components.
Also check out their education section, as they have a few kits http://www.rapidonline.com/Education/Electronics