Reddit mentions of Raspberry Pi Projects

There's a lot of Raspberry Pi kits on Amazon that come with wires, a breadboard, some LEDs, and other electronic components. The CanaKit Ultimate is one such kit that's a good price for what it contains. In addition to the Pi kit get him some books with interesting projects.

• Getting Started with the Raspberry Pi
  
• Raspberry Pi Projects for the Evil Genius
  
• Raspberry Pi Projects
  
  These are all pretty good books and have interesting projects. If your son is actually interested in engineering don't let him just stick XBMC or RetroPi on the thing and call it a day. While those projects might be interesting in their own right you're not really learning much if you're just assembling a video player or video game emulator.
  
  If he puts together some interesting projects with the Pi get him a Radio Shack gift card for his birthday. They're trying to get back to being the electronic hobby retailer of choice so they're carrying Pis, Arduinos, and stocking more electronic components.
  
  What's nice about a good kit is a lot of the components will be useful in other types of projects. Breadboards and good wires work just as well on an Arduino as they do on a Raspberry Pi.

I have this one and it is actually great for beginners. Good for learning both Python and the GPIO hardware of the Pi.

Also if you're willing to spend a small amount of money to help I really found this book (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Raspberry-Pi-Projects-Sean-McManus/dp/1118555430/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1484694825&sr=8-10&keywords=Raspberry+pi++book) and the Raspberry Pi itself to be of immense help when trying to learn Python, especially when it came to things like embedded software in the board and the AI side of some of the wee games you came make

Anything you do, do not buy this book , or this one . Just a waste of money.