How long does it take to fly?
Make it your goal to solo in 6 good weekends and you probably will. Assuming the Kinestetic Method (is that a book by Ron L Hubbard?), or the buddy box sucessfully rescues your plane when you mess up, you will keep flying and learning.
The main factor in learning is what you do when you are flying. Do you just nervously watch the plane fly straight for as long as posible, then fumble your way thru a turnaround to let it fly straight again? If so it will take a while. If you want to get the hang of it fast, try some simple excersizes.
A good one to start with -- Wagging Wings. While flying a straight line, just nudge the ailerons a bit left and a bit right to lean the wing 10 degrees left then 10 degrees right. Do this over and over between turnarounds. Start slow, plan on 3 or 4 wags between turnarounds, and work your way up as you begin to get comfortable and the connection between what you see, and what your thumb is doing begins to build. If you lean the wings too far to the left, no problem, just gently lean them to the right and keep trying till you get the swing of it. Once you get up to 10 wags between turns you will be getting 10 times the experience at the first and last steps of making a turn, than you would otherwise. You will also become really fluent with making corrections.
Other good ones: do loops and rolls early in training maybe even your first flight. Beware: trainers aren't built for these kind of manuvers so it will probably misbehave a little, rolls will be slow and you may loose a lot of altitude, maybe even start to dive if your roll rate is really slow. Start high so you have plenty of room, and your instructor has plenty of time to rescue the plane if the need arises. Ask about tip stall, maybe your instructor can demostrate. being able to recognize a tip stall when you see it will probably save a plane or two. Do figure eights. lots of them, once you have that down you are ready to start buzzing the runway. Practice lining up over the runway from the right and left. start high, and gradually work your way down. landings are the hardest part, but if you master the excersizes the only thing you have to learn for good landings is managing the throtle and elevator to get a little flair going as you touch down. Simulators are great for this!
best of luck, and a pleasant adventure to you!
Shmo