Our son likes to know how everything works and often requests to watch "Modern Marvels." We bought Snap Circuits Jr for his 5th birthday and it was a huge hit with everyone there (kids and adults).

This Green Energy kit was the next set we purchased. We have owned it for about 8 months now and this has been one of the most played with things in our house. Our son regularly combines the two sets to build his own circuits. He has more fun with this than with lego bricks and k'nex. He likes to hook up the meter and see how he is creating energy by blowing on the fan, turning the crank, or putting the solar panel in the sun. This set is an awesome add-on to the original kits. You can use it by itself as well, but DS loves the flying disc, the sensors, and the battery pack in the Jr set.

The quality seems high. We tried an elecricity kit in the past and it was not user friendly at all, even for adults. With Snap Circuits, everything works like it should, despite being handled regularly by a 5 yr old. This one doesn't fall apart with the slightest touch, like some other brand kits.

I must applaud the company for making something so kid friendly. There are so many times where my son has an interest in things, but they are not appropriate for him yet. These kits allow him to safely explore his interests and I am truely grateful for that. I also like that it appeals to adults more than some other kid toys. He and I can both have fun while spending time together. It sure beats playing Candyland. LOL

Overall, I would HIGHLY recommend this set. It is reasonably priced and of great quality. I would not hesitate to buy this again.

Let me start with prehistory. We gave our kid for 3rd Birthday Electronic Snap Circuit. He never really likes lego or puzzles, so we were searching his interests to find any type of building toys. He really likes it! He could play hours with it. However, after couple months we were stuck to explain and get his interest toward new harder projects. It was hard for him to understand and build up by himself projects beyond diodes, motors, lamps, and different switches. Ideas of capacitors and transistors were too complicated for him and he could not build it by himself. So when he played and build circuits by himself he ignored half of the box.
Then I saw this Alternative Energy Kit and bought it for Christmas. I was excited myself because I am a physicist and finally I find an easy good way to explain to my kid what is mommy's research. It was best present ever for whole family!!! My kid is 3.5 years old and he almost sleep with this toy for last two weeks! Circuits are simple and easy to build up by 3.5 years old kid. And this toy is so visual to explain alternative energy!! It is hard to explain for a kid why we care about transistors, but it is much easier to explain how solar energy creates voltage, which rotates fan. I love it! On my opinion, circuit diagrams in this kit are easier to build and comprehend than in Electronic Snap Circuit. Of course, I still need to stay around to explain how to read right positions on diagram and reproduced it on the board! But my 3.5 years old boy understands it and now starts to make many comments about alternative energies!!! It is amazing toy! Some students in university have problems to read circuit diagrams, they just needed to have this toy at childhood. ;)

Down side of this kit: If you don't have other Snap Circuits kit, you may need to buy regular battery or battery eliminator. It takes some time to charge included battery. Also, having couple more wires may help to build more complicated systems with different energy sources together.

My son (6) is a very inquisitive type and has always been into legos, and picks up books as soon as there is any "down time" (even if it's just a 5 minute trip to the store). So, on a whim I thought, what is the next step beyond legos? That is when I stumbled upon the snap circuits product. I'm now set for A WHILE in terms of what to get my son for gifts. We got this for Christmas for him and due to travel etc we didn't get to open it until this weekend. All I can say is "Wow." The circuits are very fun to create even though I am a novice myself. He automatically went to the far back of the book to do some of the more challenging ones by himself after we had done a few together.

His pride in his ability to do it alone as well as sheer joy from seeing how things "worked" was fun to see. He told me that he had a dream about Snap Circuits the night after we opened it and that in his dream he made the biggest snap circuit ever. Now that's a good toy! My soon to be 4 year old also was very interested in helping big brother. My 6 year old let the 4 year old turn the hand crank as well as blow on the fan (smart kid making his little brother do the "hard work"). I love particular set because it really does teach kids that energy has to come from somewhere. The explanations in the book such as "open" and "closed" circuits are also very intuitive and explained the concepts better than any teacher or book I'd ever seen. This product is NOT for everyone. I know that many kids would say "yeah just give me my video game." However, if your kid is the inquisitive type, likes legos/building and just wants to find out how things work, this is the best gift I can possibly think of. Thanks to all of the other reviewers for their reviews as that swayed me to buying this product and I am overwhelmingly pleased that I did.

Santa brought this for my 9 year old son, who enjoys building things (think: Legos) and figuring things out. The kit has some nice features, including a fan, a volt meter, a battery and solar charger, and a fairly annoying whistle. My son spent a full day wholly engaged in making different circuits with the various elements and found some interesting phenomena, and there are lots of different projects to build. However, there does not seem to be much explanation on how circuits work or how electricity flows in a circuit (maybe this comes later in the book, or is intuited from building the different projects). I expect that he will play with it again, but he may need some adult guidance to really learn anything about electricity. Also, I can see possibly having to get an expander set in the future, as the things you can build are somewhat limited. But overall well made and fun for a kid who likes to build and engineer things.

I bought this for my grandson and my husband. They are having great fun together building circuits. I don't understand anything they are talking about. But they are beyond happy. They are making circuits and building a great relationship. And that's a great thing.