A great way to get started with electronics is the TI MSP430 Launchpad.
http://www.ti.com/tool/msp-exp430g2You can download the programming software from TI for free, and the Launchpad includes the hardware portion of the programmer. You can wire things up to the launchpad itself, or you can pop out the chip and put it into a solderless breadboard or solder it to a protoboard. The chip does not have a fancy motor driver but software can be used to drive a DC motor.
Another option is the Tiva C launchpad, which is a very advanced 32-bit microcontroller that is still very inexpensive. It has fancy QAM motor drivers built into the hardware. The nice thing about the Tiva is there is a great course on electronics at edX, and they use this controller.
I have a book called
Practical Electronics for Inventors by Paul Scherz. It is an encyclopedic treatment of all the things you might do with electronics. As you might imagine, motor and lamp control are very common applications with lots of possible approaches. You can, of course, do these projects without any form of digital control, using timers and relays. The part of the book about the 555 timer can be really useful. When reading the book, be aware that the author often babbles about the difficult math that could be used, then he shows you how to simplify what you're doing. Once you have Ohm's law in your head, the rest is pretty easy to follow.
If you have a makerspace near you, you can hang out there and avoid buying a whole set of starter components. They will have breadboards, capacitors, resistors, timers, relays, etc., and test equipment like multimeters and often oscilloscopes. You'll also find people who can help you learn what you need to know.
