Thanks for the flow of ideas.
I really like and agree with all the activities that have been recommended. Trip to a dark area, go to a sky party and/or club and such.
However when someone comes to me for this kind of advice they are usually set on buying something. If I don't offer some guidance I am pretty sure they are going to buy something anyway. So here are some that I might suggest that are within the budget of $100 to 150 US.
Meade Infinity 70 - if they really need to stay under $100
http://www.amazon.com/Meade-Instrume...e+under+%24200
Or get them to stretch a bit to one of these:
Meade Infinity 80 - $160
http://www.amazon.com/Meade-Instrume...e+under+%24200
Another short stretch
Meade Infinity 90 - $170
http://www.amazon.com/Meade-Instrume...e+under+%24200
I think any of these would be good enough to get a child started. I especially like the short FL 80 mm which has slow motion controls and will give wider views. This provides broader, more binocular like context while making it easier to find and track things. Yet it should support up to about 160X. If the interest passes the investment was not high. If the interest grows this will become the grab and go scope to some larger scope later.
My first scope upon returning to the hobby was a Meade ETX 80 400 mm refractor. Even though I have an 8" dob I still use the ETX 80 often.