Snap Circuits

Snap Circuits Jr. SC-100, ages 8 and up The best first electronics kit for the money, because it teaches real schematics rather than a simplified cartoon of them. The parts are actual components, switches, an LED, a motor, a speaker, mounted on color-coded snaps, and the manual's diagrams look like the circuit on the board. A child who works through a few dozen of its 101 projects starts reading a circuit diagram the way an adult reads a map, and soon begins inventing their own. There are no tools or soldering, it runs on two AA batteries, and it sells for around $53. When the projects run out, the bigger Snap Circuits sets use the same snap parts, so a child can step up without starting over.