PRAISE FOR THE SNAP CIRCUITS KIT: Reader Molly Heiss writes:

Thank you for the recommendation for Snap Circuits — we bought them for my son, age 8, for Christmas, and they are an excellent toy. Even the box is high quality. We got him Snap Circuits 500 — and he made his way through about 60 of the beginning projects before he started branching out on his own (the entire goal, in my opinion, is to get kids to branch out on their own).

HOURS of entertainment — thank you for finding it for us.

I gave a nephew the SC-750 after he devoured the SC-300 last year, and the experience was the same. I think those are great hands-on toys for kids.

UPDATE: Reader Alec Rawls emails:

I got my boy Snap-Circuits last Christmas. He liked it. This year he’s 11 and I got him Penny Norman’s “Inventions” kit (from ScienceWiz). It comes with semi-raw materials for a handful of key electrical inventions and wow, after a couple of hours in the corner he’s playing with motors and a telegraph that he made all by himself. Add’s a real excitement factor I think, and a good lesson: he doesn’t need pre-made stuff.

Good point. I like this from the description: “So much fun kids will think it’s dangerous even though it’s totally safe.” Under 20 bucks, too. Wish I’d known about this sooner.