Don't laugh at me...but here is what I've done.
My daughter, 11 years old was interested in electronics. So I found radio shack had this kit called snap circuits:
Snap Circuits
It cost $90 for the grand kit, and she's already put together the AM radio circuit in less than 2 weeks. Granted....she's doesn't KNOW what everything is doing....that's where dad kicks in with a multi meter and explains when you measure across this resister in series you should expect to see this voltage drop....and teaching the basics of ohm's law.
However, I am a firm believer the best way to learn is you have to get your hands on it, reading stuff online or books is for the birds, getting your soldering pencil out is the way to learn but costly....the rat shack kit above is the good solution for hands on training, even for my 11 year old. By the time she's old enough to be in FIRST robotics, I hope to have half my brain in hers.
I really wish we all had download ports in our brains, we could reprogram are kids or even our wives, er uh...well download and share information with others.