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Creative Christmas presents for the budding Engineer.

Former Community Member
Former Community Member
Hello All,


I remember one childhood Christmas, I receive a 'X in one' electronics project kit. Think it was from Tandy. 


​It was the 'perfect' gift from my parents, so many things to do and once you had built a circuit, you could read what the components did in that circuit and how they worked. For my parents, it was days of peace and quite whilst I was joining different colour wires between different points on the board. Sure I even tried to invent my own circuits.

e5daad4bfbeaa52d17549ae1e533585b-huge-kit.jpg


​Will be getting one of these this year for our boy to see if it will bring out his creative side and to learn new things. The aspect I like the most from this is that he will be physically creating things and seeing something happen as a result of his work. Failing that, I have 'X in One' electronics project board again.


Anyone else trying to create a budding engineer?


Regards,


​Jon

  • 0
    Sitting next to me I have the John Adams "Plug and Play" electronics set I got my daughter for Christmas when she was about10, she loved it and played with it for ages. She's currently studying for a PhD in biology but still wields a mean soldering iron to mend her friends' guitars.


    When I was about 10 my dad got a local electrical shop to make a up a toolbag with switches, batten lights, a bell, a load of wire and wire strippers, one of those old 4 1/2 batteries with screw terminals, and no instructions. One of the best Christmas presents I ever had  - the house I grew up in still has the marks on my bedroom door where I covered it in burglar alarms!


    Cheers, Andy
  • 0
    I used to get into a LOT of trouble when I was younger for taking my brother's Christmas presents apart to see how they worked.... blush


    Now I have two nieces that I'm trying to subtly steer down the engineering route although they are a teensy bit young at the moment (one at almost 3 and one at 2 1/2) But i did buy one of them a remote controled lamborghini for her first Christmas and I have other Engineering related presents 'lined up' for the future too... wink

  • 0
    My niece had lego a couple of years ago for Christmas at age 4, and this year she'll be getting Lottie Dolls which have a subtle STEM theme (Fossil Hunter and Stargazer etc).  I think it's important to give them all the choices to make their own minds up, but I do get a lot of pride when she tells me how much she likes trains :)
  • 0

    Lisa Miles:

    I used to get into a LOT of trouble when I was younger for taking my brother's Christmas presents apart to see how they worked.... blush

     




    Brilliant! My dad took it remarkably well when I took the cassette recorder apart that he'd been given as a leaving present (I did get it back together but it was never quite the same). I did buy him a very nice one as compensation with my first pay packet. He also took it remarkably calmly when I plugged his multimeter into the mains socket, whilst switched to the ohms setting, to see what would happen blush Again I did give him a new one a few years later!


    Is 3 too young for Duplo? smiley

  • 0

    Andy Millar:


    Is 3 too young for Duplo? smiley



     




    No Andy Millar‍ it's not... wink


    That was a Birthday present... laugh

  • 0
    To you or to them?wink
  • 0
    LOL! laugh


    For them Andy! 


    My own presents to myself are usually IT and software related.... wink

  • 0
    With many apologies to Jonathan for going off thread...I thought Lisa and Kathryn would enjoy this picture
    f997a3fa8cb166041d19bddff99e2f1b-huge-copy-of-proud-jasmin.jpg

    This is my daughter when she was about 8 with the maze following mouse which we built from Meccano and a circuit built up on Veroboard. I designed it and she built it, the fur and googly eyes were her addition. It was built for an interschool STEM competition at Plymouth University for mice to follow a left hand wall, it was actually meant for GCSE level students - Jaz was the only entrant who wasn't 13-15. They'd had two terms to design, build and test their machines, we had two weeks (having found out about this by chance), the first of which we were away on holiday! Jasmin came 4th out of 11 teams - and was the only one who's "mouse" looked like a mouse.


    Sort of vaguely back on topic, it was while building this that I taught her to solder. My wife was out when we did this, so she missed the incident which involved holding Jaz's hand under the cold tap for a very long time, after which she said "I probably shouldn't show that hand to mummy for a few weeks, should I?" (And she didn't.) She's never touched the wrong end of the soldering iron again...


    Cheers, Andy
  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member
    No problem Andy ....


    I always (well recently) wanted a Techo Lego Crane smiley

    3d3abf682b6386f1b777346163efa0e0-huge-lego.jpg


    Think it will be a 'myself' present wink

  • 0
    Me too!


    And I nearly bought myself the Haynes "build your own FM radio" advent calendar...

    Image result for haynes radio advent calendar

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