Electronics Kits for Kids (and Adults)?

blkros asks: "Christmas is coming up, and , I've been thinking about stuff for the kids. I want to get them intersted in technology (other than gameboy and pokemon), and was thinking about the old Heathkit company, and how I used to drool over their catalog as a kid. (Yes, I'm that old <grin!>)Of course they don't sell kits anymore, so I did a web search,and found a bunch of companys that sell kits, eg Ramsey Electronics. My questions are does anyone have experience with any of the companies? Who sells the best? Who's the least expensive?"

Comments

Good documentation

[A Tin of Fish Steaks]

As a child I built many different electronic gadgets with kits. While I enjoyed doing so, I can't say I learned a lot from the experience. The instructions were usually very basic. They told you how to assemble the device, but contained little or no explantion of how it worked. While I don't expect a kit suitable for a child to contain an in depth primer on electro-magnetic theory, it would be nice if it at least provided an intuitive description of how the circuits and components functioned.

That said, does anyone know of a company that makes kits with documentation that could actually be considered educational (beyond a trivial level)?