Arithmetic is interesting on its own if you look at it right, but you still have to learn it the boring way first. The same thing happens in college, where you get 4 semesters of mindnumbing calculus classes, then you get to take analysis and see all the cool stuff that got glossed over in favor of tables of antiderivatives and computational tricks.
I recently saw a video by a mathematician who earned the MacArthur Genius Grant. He said that the way math is currently taught can be related to how much is taught. Currently, 1st year math is like learning a C major scale. 2nd year, G major. 3rd year D major and so on and so forth. You get no where that way, there's no application. The man who won the award is working toward revamping how it's taught.