9yr Old Son wants to learn about engineering (robots, cars, rockets). Suggestions?

[chaite]

Hi everyone!

 

My son is very interested in engineering and I'd love to foster that. He plays with legos all day long and as part of our homeschooling, (I'm starting this summer) I'd like to help him delve into this topic.

 

Do any of you have suggestions about books, kits, activites, etc. that would be helpful for him?

 

Thank you so much!

[Mama Geek]

Help him fix things, lawn mowers, cars, weed whackers, plumbing issues, electrical issues, anything that needs worked on. If you have a tv that is broke let him take it apart, he isn't likely to fix a TV, but can still learn a lot from it. Figuring out what is wrong with something and how to fix it is a big part of engineering. Dh grew up on a farm working on farm equipment with his dad. He is an extremely good engineer with great troubleshooting skills. I have an engineering degree and have worked 10 years as an engineer and I will never be the engineer that he is. I just didn't grow up with those opportunities. He saw how things worked long before going to college to get the theory of why they worked. We both spend time teaching things to dd on a regular basis now as well even though she may not grasp some of the stuff for a couple of years, she does pick up a lot.

 

I can also suggest things like getting involved in something like a ham radio club or a model railroad club.

[Um_2_4]

I'll second ham radio, I earned my technical lic at the age of 12 (the youngest in my area!). Also (depends on his reading skills and his interests), you might want to look into 4H's robotics and computer curriculum. I just ordered them and they look good, lots of hands on stuff so will require some input from you. Haven't started "using" it yet, but plan to let DS do one project a week or two depending on how involved they are.

My son is also enjoying the "cartoon guide for physics". Some is a bit upper level, but sitting and explaining it makes it clear.

I also learned by taking apart and repairing computers (so maybe ask on freecycle in your area for old broken electronics??). My Dad's gift to me was a set a special screwdrivers when I turned 16 LOL!

There used to be a bunch of videos about electricity/motors for kids I watched when I was in school (so late 80s, early 90s) that I can't remember the name of, but maybe check youtube? Or maybe another member will recall the name???

[MomatHWTK]

http://blog.makezine.com/category/kids-family/

[briansmama]

Great thread, thanks- am subbing for my ds who loves building/engineering as well and doesn't get many opportunities around here besides Legos.

[Arcadia]

Figuring out what is wrong with something and how to fix it is a big part of engineering. ...He is an extremely good engineer with great troubleshooting skills. ...He saw how things worked long before going to college to get the theory of why they worked.

 

 

:iagree:

Especially at this age, cultivating the interest and learning through errors/failures is more important than understanding all the theory.

[thebacabunch]

There are some cool lego kits for engineering. My husband is an engineer and he also loved building Estes rockets as a kid.

[Momof3littles]

My 9 yo is the same way. We like:

Lego Mindstorm

learning some basic programming in Scratch and Python

we started years ago with snap circuits. If he doesn't have those, they will be valuable. DS1 has now moved onto soldering on a regular breadboard and doing small projects like this: http://www.vellemanu...&id=351406��

and this http://www.mcmelectr...4Aod93sA4w��

 

and this (not our video, but DS1 completed the same kit)

 

We are picking up the 4-H robotics curriculum.

 

He likes books like this: http://www.amazon.co...556529538��

with supervision of course. Ditto Backyard Ballistics (there are some projects in there that can be very dangerous, IMO, so I'd set some ground rules in advance).

 

He's been ripping things apart and working on fixing them forever. If the vacuum gets a clog, DH encourages him to figure it out. His confidence in taking things apart and analyzing them is huge, I think. Even if he can't fix them, he's not afraid to take something apart and see what's going on inside. Over the years DH has also disassembled a lot of electronics, etc. with him and they've looked at the components.

 

We've done the Estes rocket kits and we're doing 4-H partially for the rocketry program (hasn't started in our club yet but apparently coming up).

[wapiti]

There are lego sets such as this old one: http://www.ebay.com/...=item1c32163ef2 or http://www.ebay.com/...=item2ec7bd29d4 ("dacta" = the old technic). I can't remember what the newer version if this set is (they can get quite expensive - Lego WeDo? Lego simple machines and activity pack or motorized mechanisms?). We have 1030, 1032, and one other one in the 9-thousand numbers... It takes some poking around with different search terms and checking back on the lego site, but there are often decent deals on ebay - it seems like there were more on ebay during the holiday season and over the winter than I see right now.

[weederberries]

 

K'nex also has good engineering kits.