Clarita Posted September 27, 2021 Share Posted September 27, 2021 Son is almost 5. Which snap circuits kit should I get? Is JR too small to really do anything? SC-300 will it take him years before he's building and understanding those? SC-750 overkill?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wendyroo Posted September 27, 2021 Share Posted September 27, 2021 We have approximately a kazillion Snap Circuits (for 4 kids), so I am certainly in favor of more. We did start with the junior set for my oldest when he was 5. However, it is worth noting that in my experience, 5 year olds and Snap Circuits can be problematic. My 5 year olds have always been "outside the box thinkers", and that can prove very hard on the Snap Circuits. If the kiddos either can't build properly from the instructions, or they choose to go off script, they can actually damage the components. Over the years my younger kids have burnt out soooo many LEDs and other parts by not using proper resistors or setting up short circuits. And as we have bought bigger Snap Circuit kits, I have to be even more careful because now we have a lot of battery units. The older kids frequently use many of them in series to perform tasks that require a lot of power, but the younger kids are just as likely to inadvertently hook up all the batteries into a short circuit and cause real problems. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HomeAgain Posted September 27, 2021 Share Posted September 27, 2021 Ds has the 750, I think. It takes up 3 drawers in a plastic paper caddy that we repurposed for holding his circuits. All the kits start with simple circuits. They slowly work up and go in different directions. The 750 has more parts than the 300, so it'll do several different things, and IIRC, the last book is all coding with the computer as well. The projects in each kit are numbered the same, so the 750 will have the same projects from the 300 and 500, but expand beyond that with more. We bought it for him when he was 6 or so, and he played with it up until age 10. At 11 we got him a proper coding kit with smaller circuit boards and LEDs and such. The whole kit fits into about a pencil case-sized tackle box. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarita Posted September 27, 2021 Author Share Posted September 27, 2021 24 minutes ago, wendyroo said: However, it is worth noting that in my experience, 5 year olds and Snap Circuits can be problematic. My 5 year olds have always been "outside the box thinkers", and that can prove very hard on the Snap Circuits. If the kiddos either can't build properly from the instructions, or they choose to go off script, they can actually damage the components. That is what would happen at my house. Are the components expensive to replace? 32 minutes ago, HomeAgain said: We bought it for him when he was 6 or so, and he played with it up until age 10. At 11 we got him a proper coding kit with smaller circuit boards and LEDs and such. The whole kit fits into about a pencil case-sized tackle box. Actually that would be an age close to being able to show him how to design his own circuit boards (if he's interested). They sell boards with a sheet of copper taped/glued on one or both sides. The copper can be cut out and peeled away (the glue isn't that strong). It's essentially a handmade printed circuit board. If he gets more curious about the circuit side of things vs. the coding side of things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ikslo Posted September 27, 2021 Share Posted September 27, 2021 I got some pieces replaced simply by contacting them. They actually sent me more than one replacement. We have the 750. I’d buy it again. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HomeAgain Posted September 28, 2021 Share Posted September 28, 2021 12 hours ago, Clarita said: Actually that would be an age close to being able to show him how to design his own circuit boards (if he's interested). They sell boards with a sheet of copper taped/glued on one or both sides. The copper can be cut out and peeled away (the glue isn't that strong). It's essentially a handmade printed circuit board. If he gets more curious about the circuit side of things vs. the coding side of things. Actually, he's done this. 🙂 He did a lot of working with various types of circuits between home and a club he was in. What he's doing now is the next step for him: setting up circuits to be able to be coded. For example, one of his projects was learning how to set up Christmas lights to flash to music. He's not quite at the point of being able to do both at the same time - making his own circuit board from scratch and then coding. I forgot - one of his favorite games was a ThinkFun one called Circuit Maze. Big, chunky pieces, but interesting puzzles to do. He got that around age 7, so it might be something yours may be interested in, too. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted September 28, 2021 Share Posted September 28, 2021 (edited) Two crazy kids here, no burned up parts (yet!). I did the first couple with to make sure they got the logic. Get the 750 and case. I agree you could wait a year or do it with him. They’re just as good later. Have you looked at kits from Lakeshore Learning? They have great stuff for K-5th. Hydraulics , Chain Reaction (get the master set), stem, architecture, etc. We get lots of mileage from our Lakeshore kits. We also did a ton of Knex around that age, highly recommend. Look for their education kits. Edited September 28, 2021 by PeterPan 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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