Local resident, business owner, and math extraordinaire Jennifer Wolverton says that she loves to frequently watch a lightbulb go off for so many parents when she compares the language of science to that of math.
“We would never give our kids a Spanish book and tell them to go work on it and teach it to themselves, so why do we do that so often with math? Math is a language and a solution to so many of our problems.”
Jennifer’s passion for math and a deep desire to teach it in a different way than most math curriculums is what led to her creating her business called Log Cabin Schoolhouse.
Log Cabin Schoolhouse is operated by Jennifer and her daughter Mercy who have a team of teachers that offer online learning opportunities for math, coding, Microsoft Office, and more.
Youth courses for math and coding though are the bread and butter of what makes Log Cabin Schoolhouse a slam-dunk success for so many local families who are all in with what Jennifer and Mercy provide.
Jennifer shares that Log Cabin Schoolhouse began organically when she left her engineering job more than a decade ago to homeschool her children. The name of their business is a nod to the log cabin their family lived in at the time in rural Pennsylvania.
She explains that she quickly fell in love with teaching math not only to her own children but also to their friends’ children as well.
While homeschooling her children, Jennifer discovered that her daughter is dyslexic, which sent her into overdrive to find a math curriculum that was different from the norm.
“My brain has always put math together in a way that was different from most curriculums, so when I was teaching math to all of these children, we had so much fun!”
She continues to share that having fun with math is what her children most vividly remember from their first few years of being homeschooled.
Jennifer and her family then relocated to north Alabama during the early days of the pandemic, which propelled Jennifer into offering online classes to students around the country. She quickly began reaching students globally too in countries as far away as Australia.
Jennifer is thrilled to offer math education classes for elementary students through a program called Beast Academy, which is described as an “engaging, rigorous math curriculum” that uses an online platform and “captivating comic-based storylines” where students “tackle tough challenges that move them to math mastery”.
Jennifer says that she will work with your child in a class format as she helps humanize math a bit more for each student and help him or her fall in love with the subject.
“When you raise a child’s confidence in math, you create a mathematician,” she shares.
Jennifer explains that working with her is much different from a math tutor in that she doesn’t take a child’s current math curriculum and work through it with them. Instead, she teaches each student a level-appropriate Beast Academy curriculum which she says is “so fun”.
At its core, Log Cabin Schoolhouse strives to shine joy into a child’s math education instead of just teaching them how to calculate.
Jennifer enjoys working with students who are both struggling or excelling in math and says that their education model remains the same: to create a community where children can love their math peers, talk math language together, and even get to know mathematicians who discovered the math knowledge they are hearing about and calculating.
She adds that they will even play games and “read the comic text aloud like reader’s theater”, which students always love.
Log Cabin Schoolhouse also teaches many technology skills along the way as well.
In addition to offering math education classes via the Beast Academy curriculum, Log Cabin Schoolhouse also offers one-on-one virtual coding classes from high school senior Mercy Wolverton and her team of high school coding whizzes.
Mercy says her coding classes are geared toward elementary and middle school students who have an interest in coding and want to grow their skills in an enjoyable, engaging way.
Like Jennifer’s math education programs, Mercy’s coding programs have also grown organically as the demand for her courses has continued to grow year after year with dozens of students now currently enrolled.
Mercy and her team use a program called “Code Combat” and then work on specific programs with projects that students complete on their own time. Most sessions are one-on-one and meet for one hour each week.
Classes are as affordable as just $15/hour, and Mercy says that as long as a student has a computer and the ability to download Microsoft Teams (and has a stable internet connection) that he or she has everything needed to get started with her classes as soon as possible!
Classes within Log Cabin Schoolhouse are available to students who are both homeschooled or not, and entire co-op classes are welcome to enroll as well!
To learn more about Log Cabin Schoolhouse, visit their website or send Jennifer or Mercy an email (linked below)! They’d be honored to enroll your children and begin increasing their love for math, coding, and technology as soon as possible.
Quick Links to Learn More about Log Cabin School House
More from Madison
New 25,000 Sq Ft Indoor Soccer Facility in Madison, Alabama Set to Open
Moving to Madison Mondays: #1 | 9 Reasons People Love Living in Madison, Alabama