My son and I did two projects in about 2 hours (two of the smaller ones) and I was able to use the kit to make some customizations (leverage the variable resistor add a light to the electronic buzzer etc.) and show him how circuits/components can be expanded and improved.

But beyond the ease of use the instruction booklet is really quite an excellent resource on basic electronics. For an older child the kit could/should provide a pretty good grounding (pardon the pun). The combination of straight forward instructions (so you get get things to work) and well written explanations (so you know why they work) is great.

I really can't wait to do more projects with my son or ....
maybe I'll just borrow it at night and do them myself.

44 of 44 found the following review helpful:

The perfect way to start learning electronics!  Aug 01, 2003

This IS the best educational toy I have ever seen! With all the bells and whistles you could possibly want, it's the perfect way to start your kid learning electronics. I would suggest being at least 11 years old though because the going can get a little tough for younger kids after the 10th of 50 experiments! The only problem is you might not want to put it on something unstable because it is a little delicate. Otherwise enjoy a nice gift for someone just starting electronics!

7 of 7 found the following review helpful:

Excellent learning device  Mar 28, 2009
By J. B. Kramer "photoburner"
I got this for my ten year old son who was interested in electricity and electronics. We have been going thru the lessons one at a time and he has been learning a lot. The book that comes with the toy is written so that he can understand the concepts of resistance and capacitance which is as far as we have gotten so far.

The toy is lightly built and would probably be reduced to junk outside of adult supervision but it is sturdy enough for him to use when supervised.

5 of 5 found the following review helpful:

Very Good Instructional Manual  Oct 04, 2010
By K. Iverson
I purchased this for my 8 yo son who had an interest in learning more about electronics. My elder 11 yo daughter was not interested in sharing her snap circuits set (she has the SC-500). We were not interested in making a large initial investment. While I really like the snap circuits and the easy directions and ease of assembling different projects / experiements; but I prefer the electronic playground for the instructional manual. The manual does a very good job of explaining what is going on, for examples, how do resisters work, what are their puposes. It questions the student to come up with real life uses of a resister such as in a light dimmer.

The playground is made of relatively inexpensive cardboard (really wish that they would have used something that felt more sturdy). However, it was very easy for my son to wire between the different pieces. He did not have any problem following the provided instructions. With the additional background that was provided, he was able to take the intended lesson and further explore on his own .... and understand what he was doing. With the Snap Circuits Pro, I did not feel like my daughter was given enough information to freely and easily experiment. Interesting that they seem to be made by the same manufacturer. My daughter has had her set for 3 years so maybe things have changed.

This was a very inexpensive way to provide a great introduction to electronics. My middle child was following along with my son and agreeing with all of the written explanations she learned at school for why the experirments worked. As an intro kit, there is certainly quite a lot that they teach the kid thru the many "experiements" and it is a good guide to test a child's interest in electronics before committing to a much more expensive set.

3 of 3 found the following review helpful:

enjoyable and easy to use  Jul 18, 2010
By Franco
I'm in my fifties and asked my wife to buy this as a birthday gift for myself, because I wanted to learn about basic electronics. Both the kit itself and the instructions are well designed for first time newbies. The instruction manual mentions (but doesn't require) measurable quantities in volts, ohms and milliamps, which I was interested in verifying, so I bought a multimeter to test their predictions and they were all spot on. I'd recommend this kit for any adult who wants to learn about this stuff. You'll get hours of education for the price you pay.

See all 11 customer reviews on Amazon.com