Reading came easily, math concepts came easily. Rote learning does not. I'll think some more about visual representations I think. I feel like she does better with abstract discussion than concrete materials. Like she needs to be told (probably with a visualization) how to think about these problems, not to spend endless time manipulating beads or some such.
Your DD sounds quite similar to mine. She loves playing with beads but if I try to get her to use them to do tedious calculation, she'd probably run away.
With rote learning, she's very selective. If she isn't interested then she won't remember. It's really extreme.
For her, DreamBox was quite helpful in improving the math fluency. They go over number bonds visually using different tools and things started clicking for her eventually. I use this abacus to help her get unstuck when she gets confused:
http://www.learningresources.com/product/2-color+desktop+abacus.do
