Personally, I am not in favor of making every child a pro programmer or a computer geek. Rather I believe, we should appreciate our kids to do whatever they want, whether it is related to computer or just dance. The point is, we should take an interest in that any particular thing they do, they should totally geek about it. If your kids want to be experienced users in spite of being builders, then they should have a basic knowledge of electronics components and how they work. For this, the best way to follow is to take a help of good-quality electronics kits for kids.
Today, many parents are looking for educational toys which provide their kids fun with learning. And the electronic kits offer the same thing through a learning and interactive experience to a child.
It is a fact that kids love electronic gadgets and games tossed all around your home. But a bunch of wires, resistors, and bulbs is a brilliant idea which will help your child to build amazing working gadgets and toys.
Let us see some examples of electronics kits which you can buy for your kids.
1) Kano Computer Kit
This is the most advanced and perfect educational computer kit for kids. Many manufacturers tried but failed due to some reasons, but the Kano has cracked the nut. This kit from Kano will help your child to build a computer and play his favorite sandbox game on it!
A Minecraft wild structure is great for kids, but it will be a significant learning curve if your child builds a computer on which he can even play games. Having the central part as the Raspberry Pi 2 microcomputer, your child can also develop music programs, create his Minecraft character, and do whatever he thinks to get from a computer with this Kano kit.
The included stickers, instruction book and cool online community for kids will encourage them for collaboration, conversation, and play.
2) Snap Circuits Electronics Kits
Elenco Snap Circuits Kit is from quite a few and one of the most popular learning electronics kits for kids. It makes the learning of electronics easy and funny. Your children only have to follow the pictures given in the colorful manual, and they can create projects like a light controller fan, a doorbell, an AM radio, burglar alarms, and much more.
Not only making such useful things, but your kids can even play electronics games with their friends. The components and electronic parts come as mounted on plastic modules. These modules can be snap together quickly. The kit requires no tools and provides hours of fun while learning about basic electronics. There are also other different varieties of electronics kits available from Elenco Snap Circuits which will help your child to create above 100, 300, and 750 projects while playing!
3) Arduino and Raspberry Pi Starter Kits
If you have even a small amount of interest in electronics or IoT (Internet of Things), then most probably, you may know about the Arduino and Raspberry Pi. The both will lead your child in the field of IoT beyond the electronics and programming.
An Arduino is an open-source platform which can receive input from different sensors and can control the surrounding things like lights, motors, fans, garage doors, and other actuators. Using the Arduino programming language, your kids can build either stand alone or communicating projects. While the low cost, small computer Raspberry Pi is a technology revolution. Your child can plug it into a TV or computer and can connect the standard keyboard and mouse with it.
Not only your kids, but you also can spend some time with these devices and can get fun while creating amazing electronics things.
4) LittleBits Electronic Kit
The LittleBits Electronics kit comes with circuit boards which are snapped together with magnets. Your kid will love this package as it does not require any soldering, wiring, or programming. It provides pure fun with learning through its specific functions like sensors, sounds, lights, motors, etc.
Moreover, it comes with a remote control and a step-by-step 3D instruction guide which help to create and manage multiple designing robots and other electronic gadgets. The fresh content on the website and online community will help your child to solve all the issues regarding the design ideas and implementations.
What should you look for an electronic kit for your kid?
The first thing is, the kit should have a balanced structure between providing the playing and learning experience. It should consist of all the necessary tools and equipment that can provide a broad range of creativity to your kids. The packaging and instruction should be child-friendly. The kit should contain picturized manual with all the necessary tips and step-by-step guides.
Another important thing a good electronic kit should have a quick feedback facility. As such kits are designed for kids, so they should be in a way that a child loves. For this, the feedback from children and their parents matters the most. So you and your kids should be able to share the efforts and results generated from the electronic kits. The results should be reachable to other parents and kids too. This thing will help them to get the right information about what they are purchasing.
You should also look for the instructions given on the box of the electronic kit. Whether the equipment is suitable for your kid or not, whether it comes with all the useful and necessary parts and components, and what other things you will need to get the best out of the kit. All above mean in one sentence that, “the kit should be more appealing to your kid than you.”
Conclusion
As per the report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) field will open above one million jobs by 2020. To make your child take an interest in this area, get the help of learning toys and the electronic kits for kids. Keep in mind that the most important thing is to see whether your children are capable of doing such tinkering and how they are interested in changing their surroundings.