First - please understand a lot of this is like a second language to me
Last year I purchased the arduino starter kit for my husband as a gift. He loved it. He went through it fairly past but has not gone past that.
I would like to get him other useful things and project starters kits and such. Is there a robot kit? Or perhaps a kit for "the next level up"? I've searched and it all seems so confusing to me.
I would appreciate any help, or advice.
There is a robot kit; or look at e.g. polulu robot kits. No experience with any of them!
Or buy some additional components; it's the way I went (I also started last year). Shop at e.g. Adafruit, look what there is and might be of interest. RTC module, SD card reader, extra components like LEDs, resistors, extra buttons etc.
If you pick stuff, post it here and some somebody can check if it will work or not; yo might at occasion encounter some incompatible stuff (e.g. the Arduino Uno runs on 5V and some boards work on 3.3V; or some boards are poorly designed (certain RTC modules)).
To get him to the next step, you can also think of a nice little project for the house. Kitchen timer with LCD; it can be made with what you currently have. If your husband is a bit of a handyman, he can build a housing for it. If you add a RTC module, he can add clock functionality to it as well.
I would say go to the RobotShop web site they have lots of robots and arduino stuff and a great place to deal with lots of support and forums....imagination has no bounds start there
There are a bunch of arduino kits on Amazon that have more items than the official starter kit, e.g. "RIAspire MEGA 2560 Master Starter Kit for Arduino". There will be some overlap with any of these, but it's an easy option.
You can go to sparkfun or adafruit or the like and buy components - buy a bunch of sensors of different types. Easiest if they're mounted on a breakout board so you don't need to worry about needing additional items to get them to work. Spark fun in particular has a number that look entertaining. Note to self, why don't I have a Geiger counter.
Or you can go project based: think of something you would like done and buy the parts for it. Weather station, automatic plant watering, Aquarium management system, water detection for the basement, low heating oil alarm, text message for low house temperature, etc. etc. etc.
This last option would likely need more advice on a component list of course.