I teach Photoshop Elements classes. There is so much newer technology in Elements 2020 that makes things easier and appreciably better than what you have. I highly recommend that you replace your current version of Elements. The $10 monthly subscription to Photoshop and Lightroom is for people who are really into post processing their images.

Use Shutter Priority for freezing or blurring motion. Your aperture will automatically adjust to give you a good exposure when you change your shutter speed. Use Aperture priority when depth of field is most important.

I recommend that you stick with a Windows laptop. Consider an Intel i7 microprocessor or nothing lower than an i5. 16 Gb of RAM, a separate video card with 4 Gb of video ram, and a solid state hard drive Someone talked about an IPS screen -- this will give you truer colors and is only a few dollars more than other LED screens. Windows PCs are appreciably lower in cost than MAC and most software is made for PCs.
I've worked with PCs back in the DOS days and through Windows 10. Windows 10 is more stable than older versions of Windows.
Our photo club has 10 student PCs and 3 MAC computers. We ran dual boot software on the MACs and found that Windows 10 operates much slower in the new MACs and so does Photoshop, Photoshop Elements and Lightroom in that mode. Our club computer tech took off Windows 10 because of how slow our software ran and frequent crashes. Now our MACs only run in MAC mode and that resolved our problems except we now have 3 less computers that can be used as PCs.

My fife had the same problem and it was the IS/VR noise that was recorded.

The SK 70HS is currently being sold by Canon USA. Check the Canon site.

Elements 20920 has many enhancements versus your old version. Check B & H Photo and Amazon for special pricing this week. Otherwise, list price is $99.99.

Goo Gone or other similar products may attack the label side of the disk. If you scratch or damage the label side of the disk you have destroyed the disk and cannot read the data. A scratch on the label side of the disk is much worse that a scratch on the data side. Plus, do not use Magic Markers on the label side of any disks. I have seen disks within our office fail to be readable within one year because the acid in the Magic Markers ate into the label side of the disks. Only use archivable felt pens to write on a disk with.

I recommend ProShow Gold. It is a Windows program, been around for years, fairly easy to use, lots of videos on the web and produces excellent results. Easy rearrange pictures, easy to have a music background and voice-overs for narration. I've used it for years with great success. For more info go to: http://www.photodex.com/proshow/gold

I teach Elements classes and highly recommend that you keep 2020 because of the much newer technology and new things. I teach all beginners in the "Expert" Mode because it gives you the most flexibility. I then spend about 5 minutes talking about the Guided which has some great tricks. Keep 2020 since your version of Elements is so old.

PSA (Photographic Society of America) has on-line courses and one of them that I took is The History of Photography and uses the book "The History of Photography" by Beaumont Newhall. PSA's free course is 6 months long and has assignments that try to duplicate some of the things experienced with older cameras. I found this course fascinating! PSA is a worldwide organization. If you became a PSA member and took that on-line class I am sure that it would give you some excellent ideas for you on what you want to create.

There is a great PC software program called CameraSim and it lets you practice with Aperture and Shutter Priority and Manual Mode. You can zoom and change aperture to see depth of field, etc. IF she is interested enough in working with CameraSim she is on her way to use other than point and shoot. I use CameraSim as a teaching tool in my ISO, Aperture and Shutter Speed lectures.

Costco has not sold Elements for at least 2 years now. Costco was the best bargain for Elements. They used to have it on sale starting sometime in mid to late November.

Many photo clubs use Canon because they have a large selection and give the best natural and brightest projections. Give them a call and they will help you select. We had an older projection unit replaced with a new and brighter Canon projector. What a difference it made in our community theater for their movies and a vast improvement in showing our digital completion images. Plus, professional photographer presenters love our new projector.

P mode will give better results than Automatic and you can change ISO, if you need to, in P mode. Many professional photographers will use P mode in crowds or large groups.

Make sure you get a solid state hard drive. Your computer will boot up within 15-20 seconds. I took a 5 year old laptop with lots of memory, separate video card and an I-7 microprocessor. I had the original hard drive replaced and it just flys with speed. Solid state hard drives are a must!