Maybe let her practice sewing without thread, on coloring book pages? Just to get more used to the feel and handling of the machine.
Patterns that don't have matching seams are also nice, less for them to do and have a nice looking project. Especially since you are not there to help her with the pinning.
You can sew blocks together into a strip, then add a 1/2 block to the beginning of one end, then the end of the next strip, keep alternating in this fashion. This way the squares are off set, and she won't have to match the intersections. You can do the same kind of offset with many other blocks too.
