Jr. scientist A was playing with a brain puzzle we have (yes, we have a brain puzzle). I picked up a piece and said "here's the cerebellum." Jr. scientist A picked up a different part of the cerebellum and said to me, "no, this is the cerebellum, it looks like a tree." I have no idea how he knew that!
What a difference a week makes. When we first got the circuit kit a week ago I was a little concerned that it would be too difficult for Jr scientist A to do much on his own (after all, it was marketed for kids twice his age). But after a few days of playing with it, not only is he able to manipulate all the pieces, but he's started making working circuits all on his own (he made the one in the picture without any help - note that he only put down the pieces necessary for the circuit). He's even starting to learn to use the diagrams in the manual to make circuits. He's still having trouble identifying short circuits, but it's been amazing to see how quickly he's picked up everything.
We got Jr. scientist A a snap circuit kit where we can put together different electrical experiments (the different parts of the circuits snap onto a board like Legos). He had lots of fun trying to put every piece of the kit on the board but I was eventually able to convince him to separate out the pieces needed for the "flying saucer" experiment (the little island of circuits in the middle of the board). After a little fiddling we launched the flying saucer by putting it on the motor, getting it going fast, and then cutting the power. The little disk flew up in the sky - it was pretty cool. Bedtime got pushed back quite a bit as we played with the new toy.
