My daughter Jane told me she wanted to build something “electronic,” and luckily, I had a sample of the Solder: Time kit. It looked like a fun thing to make, and it turned to be so.
It’s a large digital wristwatch and the $35 kit (available in Maker Shed) contains everything you need except the tools (a soldering iron and wire cutters).
Jane is eight years old so I decided to do all of the soldering, but she enjoyed loading the printed circuit board with components.
She loved the way the components looked and asked a lot of good questions: What is a resistor? Why do resistors have different colored bands on them? What is a capacitor? What is an integrated circuit? I answered the questions as well as I could.
It took about 45 minutes to put the watch together. I feel like Jane got a lot out of doing this. Maybe she is ready to try a little soldering on our next project. Do any of you have kids aged eight or younger who can solder?
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