Teaching a child how to count and relate numbers to their physical groups of objects they represent can have a drastic effect on their math skills.
Math is like any spoken language. It requires frequent use and practice and when done correctly can provide great encouragement to young learners.
My wife makes fun of me all the time, but I love going around and finding math to perform. Like if I am shopping, then I'll calculate how much the price is on sales items (Even if I have no interest in buying them). I also perform math in several different ways. I'll start with an estimation and then improve my results. Sometimes I'll just do straight multiplication, other times I'll setup an algebraic equation and solve it. I also like trying to relate numbers to each other, so I'll find the prime factorization and see how different two numbers really are (Just off by a factor of 2 or 0.5 or whatever). All this helps keep my math skills sharp and I have an intuitive understanding of things like how much items should cost when I check out at the grocery store or something because I have been adding the values in my head. Math has surprisingly many applications in everyday life. I agree with Malcolmshaw's comment that Math is like a language and must be practiced daily to maintain and improve our conversational ability in it.