For strumming, the D chord only uses 4 strings. D, G, B and E. Strumming D and U just play the 4 strings. The C chord uses A, D, G, B and E. Only play the 5 strings. After some time start switching between C and D strumming accordingly.

Ways to get familiar with the locations of the strings and build good habits.
Play the E down, then D up and the B down. After that gets a little easy A down, G up and E down. Feel free to make up your own patterns.

When that gets easy E down A up D down G up B down and E up. That will do two things, 1 start your learning of double picking and 2 build good habits from the start.

From what I have seen over the years it takes most people 6 months to get good enough to enjoy being In the same room as yourself when playing. About 1 year for others to enjoy being in the same room as you when playing. Like anything else that is worthwhile it takes a lot of time. You do not want to cheat. It can take far longer to unlearn a bad habit than to learn correctly in the first place.

The F chord is the hardest for most people to learn. Be ready for that.

Hope you find something useful trying the things above. It would be interesting to see how you are doing 8 months from now.