In article ,
raden writes:
In message , EricP
writes

As for the electronics what you want is one of those boxed electronics
kit things. A rectangular box with all the componenents on a board
inside and a large book with "experiments" to make. Some of them got
very sophisticated. Last one I saw was from Tandy and amused my kids
(and me for years). Sadly Tandy are defunct.

It's really Maplin or CPC nowadays

Another option is to buy one or two of the electronics magazines
like Practical Electronics or Elektor (or ETI if it still exists),
pick out one of the projects at a suitable skill level, and then buy
the bits yourself. Sometimes the advertisers in the magazines will
make up a kit for the projects, and circuit boards can be purchased
from the magazine publishers. Each project article will normally
fully explain the circuit design, so there's a bit more than just
solder this to that if you want to take things further.

This is exactly what my father did for me when I was age 10.
I carried on buying the magazines for probably some 20 years and
making up the projects (or more often, steeling ideas from them to
make something different). I still occasionally pick one up if
something on the cover grabs my attention.

--
Andrew Gabriel