Mathematical skills are an important factor in determining career success, income, and psychological well-being. However, mathematical competence varies widely not only in adults but even in young children prior to entering formal schooling. In this talk, I will describe how children’s intuitive number sense provides a foundation for their acquisition of formal math and how variability in children’s intuitive number sense and math abilities are related to their parents’. I will close by discussing how parents’ talk about math during play may provide a possible explanation for the observed intergenerational transmissions and how this work lays important foundations for future work.