I'm a musician, so my inroad to safely playing with electronics was circuit bending. You can buy kid's toy pianos and soundmakers and such for effectively $0 at

I'm a musician, so my inroad to safely playing with electronics was circuit bending. You can buy kid's toy pianos and soundmakers and such for effectively $0 at thrift stores. Unscrew the casing, crack it open, pop in fresh batteries, get the thing making some its sounds and then.... start bridging together different locations on the circuit board and see what the effect is! I've often been amazed what sort of beautiful, otherworldly tones you can pull out of something that would otherwise be seen as near-garbage. Because it's battery-powered, the risk of shock is really low. It's a way to play with circuitry without inhaling a bunch of solder fumes. It's fun to do with kids. You can do it with pretty much any circuit that makes sound (even those greeting cards that play music when you open them). Lastly, there are a ton of resources online if you aren't quite sure what to do — the term is "circuit bending", it's great, have fun!