Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by cmn32480 on Thursday October 13 2016, @04:57PM   Printer-friendly
from the keeping-off-video-games dept.

Hi folks,

As much as I loath the winters in New England here is where I'll be. Outdoor activities, while doable, can only be for short periods of time. Therefore I'm looking for projects that can be completed indoors that are interesting and take 6 months to complete. :) (Long winters up here...)

My son has shown an interest in both electronic and mechanical type projects. He'd like a hammer for his birthday so he can break rocks. Cool, geologist. Can't find rocks too well under the snow and ice, sand and salt, in the wintertime.

He'd also like an electronics kit but I'm not sure what to to get him that will last a long while. I think at this point he's more interested in building something, electronic or not, rather than learning theory. He often mentions robots but to get something that would last for months would cost me more than the budget allows.

I'd certainly appreciate suggestions and I'm sure there are other parents who might benefit from your experiences!


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 13 2016, @06:59PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 13 2016, @06:59PM (#414040)

    It was around that age (around 6 actually in my case) that I made an electric brush motor with my dad. They are great since they do something obvious, you can tweak them for interesting effect (set up a reverse mode switch, try and make it go faster etc) and make sparks, which I loved. Its the only thing from show and tell that I remember, so it had to be awesome.

    It's not related, but another thing I enjoyed making were catapults. I made dozens of them though the years, from about an inch long onagers and palm sized trebuchets to competition scale 8 pound pumpkin launchers. They are a great way to learn about building structural things, and general mechanical efficiency: if I hadn't broken a dozen catapults I'd have no idea bout the relative strengths of different materials and designs (Ex: breaking them is a great way to learn the difference between soft woods and hard woods, and soft steel and tool steel). On the small end they can be used inside, and there are also simulators. My old and not really maintained website has a ton of info on the subject (and a lot of dead links sadly as one of the best other sources is no longer online): http://thehurl.wikidot.com/ [wikidot.com]