Nice shots, I like the high contrast or midnight sepia type feel of them... mixed with a little softening perhaps? Soft images with heavy contrast are kind of appealing I see now.
Anyway, good job.
About metering, it's difficult at first, but it's really easy once you change your thinking.
You have a dial for exposure compensation. This is shown in Av mode with a little marker usually set at 0 (in the middle).
This tells the camera to expose the image to a neutral grey. If you set the marker to +2 (or anything above 0) your image will be over exposed. Anything below 0 will underexpose the image.
Now, if you change your metering mode to partial, you can fill the circle in your viewfinder with a certain brightness (ie sky or skin on face) and press the * button to lock the exposure.
Now, when using the * button, you're telling the camera that whatever fills that circle (in partial mode) should be exposed to whatever is marked on your exposure meter in camera.
SO... if you have your meter set to 0 and you aim at the bright sky, press the * button... the sky will be exposed to neutral which is far darker than you want. As a result, your daughter would be underexposed.
Now, if you have the camera set to 0EC and you fill the circle in the viewfinder (in partial metering) with your daughter's face... and press the * button, the exposure will be closer to perfect.
Another trick is to meter off of the bright spots to avoid blowouts. If you set your meter to +2 or +1 2/3 stops and then press the * button while looking up at the sky, the camera will lock settings so that the sky will be exposed to those settings. Since it's within your camera's meter, your sky won't be underexposed.
As a result, your daughter could be underexposed... because the sky is so bright. The camera will have to adjust the settings so the sky will show up (clouds etc...) but that will also darken the rest of the image.
This is where fill flash can come in handy. When your camera is set in Av mode, the flash will automatically work in fill mode. The camera won't adjust the settings when the flash is active... it'll just add a flash fire.
Instead, dial in -2 stops (or somewhere between -1 and -2 stops) of flash exposure compensation and take another shot. The flash will fire softly and will add some light to your close subjects... while leaving the exposure for the background alone.
This is a technique that you can use to take pictures of people in front of sunsets or backlight. (although reflecting the same light is better)
NOTE: when using the on camera flash for fill light, the fastest shutter speed that's allowed is limited (1/250 for 30D - probably same for 20D). If your shutter speed is faster than that, the camera will automatically drop down to 1/250 and as a result your image will start to blow out.
With a speedlight, you can enable high speed sync which allows you to use speeds faster than 1/250 (max sync rate). I'm not sure if there's a custom function to change the on camera flash.
Anyway, if you're learning about exposure, make sure to use the * button. Dial in a setting on the meter (for Av) and press the * button while looking at what you want to expose to that level. EASY!
You can also use evaluative metering mode, but you'll have to fill the entire frame.
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