Haven't been on here in forever (long, long, long story), but I can't imagine anyplace else I'd get much to work with on this one:
My 5 yr old gifted/ASD crazy child who wants to be an inventor is in need of projects that I can walk (the f#$%) away from, for, you know, at least 30 seconds at a time.
Mechano, not so much, because it takes him 3 seconds to loose all his screws and that makes him tantrum. Lego, similar.
The crystal radio kit, on the other hand, he pretty much put together while I was trying to find the English section in the instructions, and then played with happily and safely for well over half an hour while I made a portrait of the cuteness.
I think the ASD makes him better with more closed projects (make a radio vs make something with meccano), at least when I'm not there to scaffold, but there needs to be a fair bit of real content to hold his interest. Water filtration failed because he understood it almost immediately. Trying to understand the finer points of embedding data in radio-waves... that kept him going enough he could think it over after I went to get the camera. He's not awesome on the dexterity thing, but he can pull of feats-well-ahead-of-age if he only has to do it a few times and he cares enough. He follows Ikea instructions well (and with aspie-accuracy), but does not read yet.
And GO!
-Mike (the one with a thousand impossible questions)
