Obviously, it's just a matter of practice and getting comfortable. I also have had several students go though this exact thing.

A lot of good ideas above.

What I do, is get the student to just to normal laps around the field about 100' up, no glide path, no idling down, no attempt to land just level laps. Just make the close side of the box pattern right over the runway. I call out "inside, outside" if necessary. Keep doing that, in both directions, then slowly come down and then start working in the throttle management. It quickly becomes easy to put the plane right where you want it, which is the key.

When I was taught, my instructor taught me to visualize a series of boxes or checkpoints, and fly the plane though those. It works if you are a visual thinker, and you know what a good approach should look like, but I've found is confusing to a lot of people, even though it worked for me.