Originally Posted by somewhereonearth
In my mind, what would be optimal would be DS visiting my father's garage with his amazing collection of hand tools, robots and various devices. But my father is no longer around and the tools are long gone (and not like I could even work with them if I had them).

Here is a great book to start with electronic circuits: 'Electronic Circuits for the Evil Genius 2/E' by Dave Cutcher.

It starts from the basics. No soldering required. The parts are cheap.

A physics textbook would be a helpful companion, to use as needed. E. g., Halliday physics was recommended by Bostonian earlier. Try to get the 5 volume edition - much easier to use (so that electricity would be in 1 volume).