Tunakid 3, just nine, wants a Sphero. I learned this after buying this guy for $40 on sale:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SK5RUQY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
A sphero is many more dollars. A sphero mini is not, but I am not sure what I am giving up.
I want him to learn as he plays. Which is the better bet?
Danged if I know. A few years back, I was looking at the Lego Education stuff and other robotics sets from Lego, but that's probably even more dollars.
The Makeblock thing looks like a good value and reviews very well.
Sphero looks more gimicky to me, but it reviews well also.
Good luck!
My kids have a Wonder Workshop Dash robot and a WowWee Chip robot dog. They tired of trying to program both after a about an hour, then for a while used the default commands built into the apps, then eventually just interacted with them via the very basic tapping and voice commands.
It seemed that without structured play with specific objectives or adult intervention the robots quickly become just another toy on the shelf. YMMV.
I guess kids are a little more advanced these days, I was a kid of the '80s & '90s. Santa Claus had a habit of bringing me techy, educational-ish, toys from RadioShack. Remember RadioShack?
One of my favorite "robots," quite pedestrian by today's standards was the Armatron robot arm. Not even slightly programmable, so I guess not really a robot, but I learned a lot about motions, joints, and dexterity with that thing. Tortured a lot of my sister's Barbies too. Not sure if there's a modern equivalent, but there's quite a few on eBay.
https://www.ebay.com/b/Armatron/19198/bn_7023250053
I also had RadioShacks version of this thing, 100+ in 1 Electronic Playground. Really learned a lot about electronics from it, I remember making a really low power AM radio, and blowing my mind when it worked.
Of course Legos, tons of Legos, Constructs, and K'nex, I even had some battery powered stuff, cogs, gears, belts, maybe chains, again nothing programmable, not sure that was a thing yet.
Similarly I had a handful of Capsela sets. Anyone remember Capsela? Again, I don't think anything I had was programmable, but I had a few different things I could power, wheels, propellors, etc. Looks like there's still some vintage sets available.
It appears that Capsela lives again, as IQ Key, might be worth looking into.
http://www.iq-key.com/en/intro_en.html
None of that probably helped, but I thoroughly enjoyed that little trip down memory lane, so thanks. 
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