When looking for the perfect gift for your children, you can’t always go for the instant reaction. Truth be told, you can’t always even get the kid exactly what he asked for. Instead, your goal is to find something that will hold their attention for hours at a time. Far too many gifts have been opened with delight on Christmas morning, played with for twenty minutes, and then never touched again. You want a toy that has so much “replay value”, that it will be treasured for YEARS to come. That is exactly what makes Elenco’s Snap Circuit Kit the perfect gift for young boys and girls, age 7 and up.
Elenco’s Electronic Snap Circuits Kits don’t fit into any of these categories, which is why they have become so popular in the last few years. All of the electronic components inside the kits are encased in plastic and totally safe to play with. That isn’t to say that this product is too simple for older kids to enjoy, quite the contrary. In fact, their flagship product, the Electronic Snap Circuit Kit, has over 300 different “projects” that can be completed out of the box. I decided to pick this product up for Christmas this year and have my boys, now ages 9 & 13 spend some time with it.
When you first open up the box, you will find sixty different electronic pieces, organized by type. There are capacitors, ICs, resistors, and a variety of special function pieces (speakers, spinners, light bulbs, etc). The box also comes with the circuit board, which is just a large plastic rectangle with little plastic balls that the components can snap onto. You *will* have to urge your kids to clean up this product and put everything away properly when they are finished playing with it for the day. Losing a key component could make a number of the experiments impossible down the road.
The “snapping” mechanism is the key, and is the magic that makes this option so much better than any circuit board to come before it. Since the snaps are all metal, they conduct electricity and allow the components to connect together. The snapping itself is not difficult to do, similar to snapping a pair of pants together. Young children (7 and under) may need a little bit of assistance in using enough force to get a clean connection. All of the pieces are well made, and will hold up to being connected and disconnected to circuits over and over again. If any of the pieces are broken or lost, Elenco has options to send out replacements (often for free).
The very best thing about this product is the amazing about of detail that Elenco has included in their instruction manual. The book is large, colorful, and detailed. The book tells you exactly what pieces are needed (they are all clearly labeled), and is simple enough for younger kids to follow. You may need to sit down with your child for the first couple of experiments, but it won’t be long before they are calling you into the room to check out the new UFO launcher that they built. Below is an example of what the manual instructions look like:
As mentioned earlier, I have my boys (ages 9 and 13) some hands on time with the kit to get Snap Circuits Review. To put it simply, their first thought was, “This is Awesome!”. My thirteen year old loved that there were 300 different projects included, which made it like 300 toys in one. My nine year old loved that he got to build it himself, and could even be creative and come up with his own projects. Overall, they rate it is a top-notch toy, that would make a fine gift for any kid.
The original Electronic Snap Circuits kit came out a few years ago and has been a very successful product (it’s easy to see why). Elenco has since added a number of other kits to their lineup. My nine year old has already added the “Green-Alternative Energy” version to his list for Santa:
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