i'm not sure if this will help, but i've used a river analogy very successfully with DD5.
me: let's think of this another way. you're going on a walk through the woods and you come to a river. how will you cross it?
DD5: i would jump.
me: ok, now let's say you walk a little further and you come to a river that is too wide to jump. how will you cross it?
DD5: i would swim.
me: ok - think about swimming for a minute. is that a single action? can you do it all in one step?
DD5: no. you need a lot of little strokes.
me: right - so [X thing] is like a wide river. you need to do all the steps and every one of them matters. they're all connected and they eventually add up to get you to the other side.
at this point, all i have to say is "River!" and she'll giggle and the mood will reset, which is pretty good for a kid who thought that taking a month to master 4 years of reading levels was evidence she was "bad at reading."
