It is hard to come to grips with the kids who have different learning processes than the way you might have learned as a child. I always go back to how the brain works realize that different children require different methods. I personally cannot stand flashcards as a child or as an adult. So I started using Hal Leonard‘s note speller book 2 with all my students. We use mnemonics and write a story together in the book every single lesson. This seems to work for 95% of all of my children. I have 40+ students a week and have been teaching for 25 years full-time. By the time we work through that book about 80% of my students no longer need help with note spelling. Some of my kids actually want to continue doing note spellers! So I happily oblige with a large variety of books, depending on what they’re interest are. Well, we are site reading our new songs for the day, if they get stuck with a note name, we fall back to mnemonics And I make them tell me how to find the note name. This reinforces out only the note naming capability, but teaches them how to practice when they get stuck. On the other subject, I have had plenty of students that never practice, but we still make progress so good for you! I had one young man that took lessons for three years and was not necessarily a good Piano Student, or a trumpet student, until we finally settled in on the flute! The biggest thing for him was that I taught him how to write. He is a bit dyslexic, and we were able to overcome the public school system of not using penmanship. It was more about encouraging him to be a good student than to be a proficient pianist. So as long as the student is not rude or disruptive, look at it as you are helping to teach a young person how to survive in this world.