Good Housekeeping’s Guide To Raising a Kid Who Loves Math: Our Favorite Takeaways

Good Housekeeping recently published an article by Meg St-Esprit called “How to Raise a Kid Who Loves Math,” featuring insights from parents, educators, and Prodigy Education’s own Director of Educator Enablement, Dr. Joshua Prieur. 

If you’re a parent who’s ever said “I’m just not a math person,” this one hits close to home. The piece digs into how kids build confidence with numbers, why math anxiety shows up so early, and what you can do at home to help your child see math as something interesting, not intimidating.

We’ll break it down into a few key takeaways.

1. One caring grown-up can change how a child feels about math

It only takes one person to ignite a spark. For one Pittsburgh family, that person was a teacher who made math relevant by tying it to real issues, like voting and fairness. Suddenly, math was not just worksheets. It was part of conversations at the dinner table. 

Adults matter a lot here. A teacher, caregiver, or parent who talks about math with curiosity instead of dread can completely shift a child’s story from “I’m bad at math” to “I’m still learning this.”

2. Make math part of everyday life

The article highlights how powerful it is when kids see math in things they already enjoy, like baking, building, or playing board games. When children notice patterns in a song, count how many steps they climb, or compare prices at the grocery store, they start to see that math isn’t only for textbooks. It’s something they already use to make sense of the world.

Where Prodigy fits in:

Prodigy was built to make math feel like part of playtime. Instead of separate “math drills,” students answer standards-aligned questions while they explore a fantasy world, collect items, and battle characters. That playful context makes math feel more like an extension of the games they already love, and less like a chore. 

3. Focus on motivation that comes from the inside

The article highlights the “Three Cs” that support intrinsic motivation: confidence, competence, and connection. Kids are more likely to stay engaged when: 

• Confidence grows through encouragement and celebrating effort.
• Competence grows through practice that feels achievable, then increasingly challenging.
• Connection grows when math links to their interests, friendships, or real-world experiences.

How Prodigy helps with motivation:

In Prodigy, kids earn rewards designed to keep practice fun and celebrate their progress, while they build real skills behind the scenes. Our goal is to bring out feelings of “I want to keep playing” as well as “I can do this.”

4. Tackling fear of failure

Dr. Joshua Prieur explains that fear of failure is a major trigger for math anxiety, and that we need to remove as much of that fear as possible. That’s a big reason Prodigy uses a game-based format. Getting a question wrong feels more like losing a bit of health in a video game, rather than a failure. Kids can try again, adjust their strategy, and keep going. 

Normalizing mistakes helps kids see them as a natural part of learning, not a reason to shut down. 

5. Bond over “new math”

Finally, the article touches on something many caregivers feel. Modern math instruction often looks very different from what adults remember from school. That gap can be frustrating at first, especially when homework comes home in a format parents don’t recognize.

Instead of treating that difference as a barrier, the article suggests seeing it as an opportunity to learn alongside your child. Dr. Prieur notes that innovation in education is a good thing when it helps kids build deeper understanding, even if the methods feel unfamiliar at first. 

This shared learning can turn math from a source of tension into a chance to connect, problem-solve, and celebrate together.