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Despite reading all the lego posts over the last few years, I am still a lego newbie. I've been asked to provide lego for Christmas and I don't know where to start for an HG 7 yo boy. Any ideas?

My kids' school has a lego league they can join next year. They've had minimal exposure in seeing other kids do this kind of thing. None of my kids are hands-on types, but one is quite curious about programming after some exposure to that this summer.

I'm looking at something they can play with after minimal input and instruction from me. What's the difference between the big (and expensive) kits and the lower level ones?

Thanks.

I'm not sure what you mean by big expensive kits and lower level ones. LEGO Education just came out w/ a WeDo kit which is a scaled down version of the LEGO Mindstorms NXT. You build things, and program them using the computer but it stays tethered to the computer so there is no NXT brick for it to go out on its own. The WeDo runs about $120 compared to $250 for a LEGO NXT kit.

If want some science LEGO kits, check out LEGO educations Mechanisms kit and MOtorized Simple Machines kit.

The NXT brick is the computer and powersupply for robots you build. You write the programs in NXT-G on your computer and then via a cable or wireless bluetooth, you transfer the program to the NXT brick. You then press RUN on the NXT brick, and your robot behaves as you have programmed it to. It can run about the room on it's own etc. The WeDo, from my understanding, is either using NXT-G or a similar software but there is no brick. You write your program, press RUN on the computer screen, and through a cable which is powering your contraption, the motors and sensors will do what you've programmed them to do. But since it has to be tethered to the computer to receive instructions and power, you can't make robot cars for example that will go around the room.

Here's the link for WeDo robotics http://www.legoeducation.com/store/...y=20&ID=1573&c=0&t=0&l=0

Here is the link for the software http://www.legoeducation.com/store/...y=20&ID=1650&c=0&t=0&l=0 it sounds like NXT-G but I can't say how different it will be. Obviously, the sensor blocks will be different but I imagine navigation etc is very, very similar to NXT-G for MINDSTORMS.