Just as an aside, if you have kids especially, the "BrainBox" kits are really cool for playing around. For instance http://www.cambridgebrainbox.com/Explorer2.html they come with a bunch of passive / active components to play with. I found I could demo a lot of principles to my son and we could play around with ideas. It's probably not going to last you more than a week in terms of learning electronics, but it makes playing with simple circuits super easy.
Just as an aside, if you have kids especially, the "BrainBox" kits are really cool for playing around. For instance http://www.cambridgebrainbox.com/Explorer2.html they come with a bunch of passive / active components to play with. I found I could demo a lot of principles to my son and we could play around with ideas. It's probably not going to last you more than a week in terms of learning electronics, but it makes playing with simple circuits super easy.