Solar Toys!

Hi!
I was at Kid-O the other day (in Greenwich Village) and I saw this Solar Powered Rainbow Maker:

I realized how oblivious I have been to the great toys out there for kids, to show them the power of the sun. It is one thing to explain the idea of alternative energy to kids, but how fun would it be to build things that actually work.

I just came across this, which looks like a rad gift if you have an older child, niece, nephew or friend (it is for kids 12+):

"The Power House Experiment Manual is organized around the story of a group of island dwellers who must learn to live sustainably using the resources available to them on their small island. As you read their journal entries and learn of their projects and experiments, you build models of the same projects and conduct the same experiments alongside them."

These are all the things the kit includes:

"The Heat Trap: Construct and experiment with a greenhouse
The Sun Collector: Collect the sun's rays to heat water
The Sun Burners: Make a solar cooker while learning about the principles of light before you cook rice and bake bread
The Water Vampire: Desalinate water, plant watercress, produce sauerkraut and make chewing gum
The Heat Absorbers: Learn how heat of evaporation provides cooling, conduct experiments about air humidity, build a hygrometer and test a refrigerator
Power Plants: Grow beans, make a potted plant feed a candle, harvest sunflower energy, build an oil press, and assemble an oil lamp
The Energy Converters: Extract electric current from sunlight and metals in acid, build a light telephone, galvanize a nail and split water into hydrogen and oxygen
The Forces of Magnetism: Generate electric current with magnetic fields. Build a current indicator, electric and solar motors, a transfer switch, and a crane. Lift pencils with the sun and learn about levers. Build an electric car
Wings in the Wind: Build a sail car and learn how wings and sails transform energy. Learn to sail with the wind, by the wind, and against the wind and examine a mixed energy vehicle"

Fat Brain Toys has a bunch of neat toys in the Solar Powered/Alternative Energy category.
Check them out...

Happy Playing!
Niki