I built a spaceship for my four-year-old's room. It has a control panel full of interesting displays and whiz-bang space sounds. A joystick controls lights and sounds for the engine and thrusters. The payload bay has a motorized hatch and and contains a robot arm for deploying payloads like toy satellites. Headsets provide an audio link between the spacecraft and the Mission Control desk in the other son's room.
Making a self-maintained, Arduino-based garden helped with instilling “grit,” the trait of not giving up when you hit obstacles.
Pulling a rabbit out of a hat is a neat trick. But how about wowing crowds of kids with an old suitcase that performs magic thanks to 18 synchronized, Arduino-powererd servos that whir about hidden from view?
In many respects Mario "the Magician" Marchese, with his narrow suspenders and pork pie hat, is an old-school magician. He performs on the sidewalks of New York City with with nothing but the power of his voice and a bag full of tricks that looks like old timey, slapstick gags — epaulets that unexpectedly pop up in the air, banners that "accidentally" fall behind him, and spinning ribbons on his lapel.
Arduino was conceived as an open source microcontroller for artists, designers, and others who aren't necessarily techie/programmer types. Of course, all sorts of makers have flocked to this technology because of its versatility. But in spite of its relative ease of use, there's still a barrier to entry for new users. Like kids. For that reason, BirdBrain Technologies' Hummingbird looks promising. They call it "pre-Arduino."