Memorizing math facts help

Hello!

My kids struggle mightily with math. We’ve tried many different curricula over the years. Some have been better than others, but they continue to trail far behind grade level.

I think I’ve pinned the basic problem down: they haven’t memorized their math facts. Even when they understand the mechanics of how to do a problem, they get it wrong or take forever because of counting on their fingers to get the right answer or just guessing.

My oldest finally reached multiplication this year and it has been a complete disaster. She gets the concept, but has not been able to learn the times tables by heart, so almost every problem is wrong.

We’ve tried repeated listening to musical multiplication songs (she says the singers aren’t clear enough for her to hear the facts, which I do have to agree with), copying out the  times tables, repeating each fact three times when we use it… nothing I can think of helps. She knows most of the two’s but is lost after that.

It seems like nothing really causes the facts to stick. My kids are discouraged and feel like math is too hard. They get so much wrong because they just don’t know the facts.

Can anyone offer advice here? Over the past several years I’ve bought, tried, and re-sold or given away so many math programs already. One year we did “Learn Math Fast” which has the student stay on each chapter until he has learned it well and then move on. We spent the entire year on chapter one (addition facts) because even with daily work, they never learned the facts well enough to move forward. We have made more progress this past year with Math Mammoth, but are still handicapped by the facts problem.

I would appreciate any thoughts from anyone!