I hated math minutes-- or whatever it was that they were called back in 1974-1978. I never actually "memorized" them. I memorized-- temporarily, anyway-- squares and cubes to some outrageously high value as a middle schooler for some purpose I can't quite recall now, but I remember sitting on the swings at the park with my best friend, singing them back and forth for hours for a few weeks.
I learned my "math facts" when I used them for something with an actual purpose. When I needed to have them memorized, it was nearly instantaneous. Same with information from the periodic table, neuroanatomy, pharmacology, protein biochemistry, metabolic pathways,you name it.
My brain refuses to memorize information without context or purpose. It's apparently just that simple.
DD is made along very similar lines. Oddly, both of us are excellent trivia hounds, and with near-eidectic memory, but it's contextual and usually spatial (at least in my case, though DD has a combination of mine and her dad's)-- DH has auditory eidectic memory, lucky thing.
DH and I both struggled with "math" in early elementary grades, fwiw.
Memorization is not our strong suit, let's just say.
