I'm a Canon guy myself, so I'm biased. Sony's tend to not have much in the way of manual settings (at least the two or three I've used over the years). The Canon modes you'd want are P, Tv, Av, and M (Program, Time Variable, Aperature Variable and Manual modes). P, Tv, Av will all set the exposure time and aperature automatically, but will use whatever ISO speed you have set. The full Manual mode requires that you set the time & aperature manually, but will tell you if you're going to be over or under-exposed, and by how many stops.

I don't know how the other camera manufacurers label their modes, but these four types of mode are pretty common across camera manufacturers.

One trick you might suggest for her: to reduce camera shake, use the auto-timer. It'll reduce the wiggle (and subsequent fuzzy focus) you get when you manually press the button. Not as good as mirror-lockup mode on a DSLR, but much better than by hand - especially with an inexpensive tripod which will probably be a bit on the lighter/less rigid side.

-Zeke