I was first fascinated by electronics because my dad's shop had an electron=
ics =

technician to repair customers' radios.  ...yep back in those days when =

electronics was actually repaired, and not disposed of and replaced.  I was =

curious and enjoyed playing with bulbs and motors etc.

Then I picked up a book on building a transistor radio (it was aimed at kid=
s =

with full color drawings etc).  It showed how to build a radio circuit usin=
g =

a block of wood as the base with screws and washers holding down the =

component leads.  Got frustrated as hell when I couldn't find a lot of thos=
e =

parts in Trinidad.

Later (like when I was 9 IIRC), I got one of those Radio Shack 50-in-1 type =

kits and I also remember picking up an issue of Radio Electronics.  Didn't =

understand most of it, but I read and re-read it until I started figuring =

things out.

I think the key here is that *I* was interested and it seems that your son =
has =

that major piece already.  The breadboard with switches, bulbs, etc is grea=
t =

because he'll see immediate results.  Start with lighting up a simple bulb =

and expand from there.  But it would probably keep him better interested if =

there was a purpose to these circuits. Something he can play with or create=
 a =

doorbell etc.  At some point, you should start explaining the circuit theor=
y.  =

And for that reason, I think you should use bulbs rather than LED's.

Cheers,
-Neil.



On Monday 11 June 2007 10:42, Alexandre Guimar=E3es wrote:
> Hi,
>
>     My 5 years old son is starting to be VERY interested in what I do and
> is asking me more and more to teach him "how to make boards" :-) I am lost
> here and I would like to check if anyone on the list has started to teach
> the kid's so early and how I should do this...
>
>     I thought about a breadboard, some LED's, some resistors, a buzzer,
> some switches, potentiometers and if I can grab one a analog miliamp
> meter..
>
>     Is it too soon ? Is there any way to make it fun for him ? I would ha=
te
> to let him loose interest and he is very interested now... Almost everyday
> he looks at my garbage can looking for "boards", wires and anything that I
> throw away..
>
> Best regards,
> Alexandre Guimaraes

-- =

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