Tony has summed things up well.
It really is about the type of photo you are taking. And time will let you and her learn what is best for each situation.
I'm into the birds so my camera is set to single centre spot for focus. I focus on the birds eye as this is the critical thing, move camera a fraction to get composure and take photo. Most times I don't really need to change composure because I'll be cropping later anyway.
I would not use this method if I was on the sidelines taking photos of the local netball team. They're not the birds I'm interested photographing. (mmm, I do need to expand my subject matter)
And since this seems like a good time to bring it up as your seem to be into learning.
The focus and recompose mentioned above is mostly based on the
shutter button. Half press button to gain focus, wait and full press button to take photo. With birds my finger on the
shutter button used to get so tired constantly resetting the focus and than I'd be pressing the button for photos I didn't want.
Then I found out about BBF. (Back Button Focus) You can set your camera up so the you can use your thumb pressing a button on the back of the camera to choose focus and simply use the
shutter button to take the photo.