Reddit mentions of ELEGOO UNO Project Basic Starter Kit with Tutorial and UNO R3 Compatible with Arduino IDE

Along the same lines as nudemonkey's suggestion, you could get a cheaper one such as:

https://www.amazon.com/Elegoo-Project-Tutorial-Prototype-Expansion/dp/B01D8KOZF4/

Or even https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DGD2GAO

Then buy whatever sensor kit you're most interested in https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Dcomputers&field-keywords=Sensor+module+kit

I wouldn't expect much tech support from the discount vendors on Amazon or eBay though so if you think you might vendor help then Sparkfun may be a better choice.

In any case the main suggestion I'd have is get yourself enough stuff to keep yourself occupied and then start ordering individual stuff from China using aliexpress with free (slow) shipping. That way you'll get a little "present" from China every few days.

Don't expect any help from the seller with anything ordered that way though.... You're pretty much stuck with just searching part numbers and reading data sheets, but someone has probably posted code for just about everything on a blog somewhere at this point.

Getting a resistor, capacitor, transistor, diode, led assortment pack is highly recommended. They can be extremely inexpensive if ordered from China. I also recommend ordering some extra breadboards and jumper wires.

I have two elegoo arduino unos, I got kits on amazon that came with all sorts of peripherals and it was a great deal, less than 20 bucks for the cheaper one. Have used these boards for all kinds of fun projects for about a year now.
I got this one:
https://www.amazon.com/Elegoo-EL-KIT-004-Project-Starter-Tutorial/dp/B01DGD2GAO
and then this one a little later:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01D8KOZF4/ref=sspa_dk_detail_0?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B01D8KOZF4&pd_rd_wg=nqNDZ&pd_rd_r=KJJDMWS7ZPRQ9FMJFJKZ&pd_rd_w=dl0ip
Elegoo, if you see this pls send advertiser money.

Not OP but I got here from /r/Arduino, the sub for the open-source control boards that OP uses in this clock. I would suggest getting an [Arduino starter kit](Elegoo UNO Project Basic Starter... https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01DGD2GAO?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share) and try teaching yourself from there - my background was literally those 2 lines of BASIC on a BBC Micro 30 years ago, the Arduino kits it would seem are designed to get you started on a programming language something like C++ (I'm not certain about that - I really am a total novice at coding). I only got my kit a couple of days ago and it's surprisingly easy to get started. There is an abundance of tutorials and whatnot on YouTube as well as what comes with the kit. Hope that helps.

Yes, this is the way I've done it! I'm new to this and just got my Arduino this past Saturday. My goal was to be able to manipulate the LED strip in a gift I received. I got this small cheap kit on Amazon and then bought the other parts I needed for following this Adafruit tutorial (plus the special bits I would need for my circumstance).

While I waited for the parts I needed to come, I played with the little LEDs in the kit and built up my understanding.

If it helps, I asked my questions for my project over here and I've been commenting anything I thought is worth noting in case it helps somebody else.

What's your budget? If you really want something decent, I'd recommend a breadboard, jumper cables, and some power source connector to put everything together. Electrical tape isn't an effective way to keep things together and solder isn't necessary if you want to disassemble it. A started kit might be a good idea too as it is much more useful if she doesn't have any/many electronics components.

All of these are under $20 (I think reasonable for a student) and would be a better fit:
https://www.amazon.com/Elegoo-Electronics-Potentiometer-tie-points-Breadboard/dp/B01ERPEMAC

https://www.amazon.com/Elegoo-EL-CK-002-Electronic-Breadboard-Potentiometer/dp/B01ERP6WL4

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DGD2GAO

This is definitely a nice project to start with.

You need a soldering iron, a PC running arduino IDE (free), silicone covered equipment wire (cheap on amazon), solder for the wire and that's about it beyond the materials already listed

A breadboard is helpful but you can get by without one - it's just convenient to mock it up. Without a breadboard you can simply dry connect things with wire directly.

Something like this basic starter kit https://www.amazon.co.uk/Elegoo-Project-Starter-Tutorial-Arduino/dp/B01DGD2GAO/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1549897987&sr=8-7&keywords=arduino+starter+kit contains an Arduino uno, various resistors and a breadboard and breadboard wire (has pins) which would be pretty much everything you need. You could use the Arduino instead of the Nano easily too (only real difference is the Uno has special pins for the RTC, nano used A4 and A5).