My DD sounds like yours but she's older. I think we started lessons at 8 and she's now 10. She has progressed slowly because many weeks we did not do the lessons or she did not practice at all. I know it drives the teacher a little nuts because they don't really move through the books if the teacher has to go through the exercises with her when she should have done it at home. So in our case saying "don't worry, you don't have to practice" would kind of be ilke saying "don't worry, you don't need to do your math homework". It's kind of disrespectful to the instructor. Same thing happened w/ cello which she did through the school, except she was worse w/ cello. She practiced maybe 5 times the entire year but the teacher wanted something like 30 min. per day! I think the only reason she didn't look obviously behind the other kids was because she was using natural talent and cognitive ability to compensate. It's frustrating when you think of how good they would probably be if they actually put effort into it. We switched DD to a wind instrument/band and I'm praying she shows more interest in it than the cello. I think her main issue has been that she's somewhat of a perfectionist and avoids anything that is challenging in the beginning. With piano, she has become less resistant to practice as it becomes easier so I don't want to give up yet. Esp. since SHE wants to stay in the lessons. Good luck. I think you just have to find a balance. Practicing instruments is one of the things DD can do to earn screen time, and the instruments are preferable to things like loading the dishwasher.
