DIY Homeschooler

Do you have a child with an interest in electronics? Do you find small bits of wire hiding in your fuzzy house slippers on a regular basis? Are you intimately familiar with the smell of smoking ICs? Here are ways to explore electronics.

If you are following a learning lifestyle, then you are allowing time for your children to pursue their individual interests. And one of those interests may be electronics.

It typically starts with a simple electronic kit. Your child can experiment to see what happens when…. These kits provide lights, buzzers, switches, and other things that move, make noise, rotate, or otherwise DO something.

After some time, your student will realize he or she can really build real things for real use. In our case, I happen to own an incredible vacuum tube amplifier with perfect sound stage: you can hear the movement of a hand on a guitar string, or a singer’s slight breath, or a million other sounds you didn’t know a song contained.

Well, whether or not that is the direction your child ends up going, there are valuable skills and concepts to be learned when exploring electronics:

• Electromagnetics.
• Robotics.
• Programming.
• Computer engineering.
• Motors.
• Radar.
• Power generation.
• And many others.

A few cautions are in order. First, don’t set your expectations too high. Let the process work its way through. There will be failure. But then, that is how we learn. Second, try not to school-it-up too much. Let the natural learning process take place. Believe me, they are learning!

The following are our family-tested, favorite resources for your electronically inclined explorer. We are big fans of the Elenco kits. They always work. We have gone through at least a half dozen of them. The directions are relatively clear. And they are safe.

Snap Circuits

Perfect for an introductory set. No wire, no soldering; just nice chunky blocks. In this kit you can build over 100 projects including door bell, buzzer, moving lights, and fan. If your child is already familiar with electronics you can just start with the Classic 300 set.

Snap Circuits Classic 500

Next up is this classic set. This kit includes a digital voice recorder, AM radio, digitally tuned FM radio, AC generator, and more advanced concepts.

130-in-1 Electronics Kit

Next step up. No soldering; wire ends are hooked into a spring. This kit provides room for growth (we went through two) and a basic understanding of each component’s role in the circuit. Projects include an AM broadcast circuit, and logic circuits. Getting through this one will take a while.

Getting Started in Electronics by Forest M. Mims III

Next it’s time to assemble your own components, hook up a breadboard, and try your own circuits. An easy to follow, introductory book that can help you get started.

Elenco Digital/Analog Trainer

If you are willing to invest in an electronics lab that will fit a high school student from DC to AC to programmable devices, you may be interested in this kit from Elenco. No soldering; all of the components are included. Still need to purchase a meter.

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Additional Resources

If you still want to DIY-it, try these free projects aimed at students (with lesson plans) from TryEngineering.org by the IEEE:

• LEDs and Resistors
• Electric Switches
• Series and Parallel Circuits
• Make a Light Bulb with Batteries
• Get Connected with Ohm’s Law
• Two Button Buzzer