STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

It’s recess at Trinity School. But there are no jungle gyms for the youngsters to play on.

Instead, Lenox LaBaron is taking an axe to a log, creating a notch like those pioneers used to build log cabins.

Peter and Russell Nicoll are sitting on the deck of the yurt—their one-room schoolhouse--creating bowls from coiled clay.

And Cora Scott is finishing up a table she’s made out of logs to put in the fort that she, Remy Whitesell  and Henry Georgiades are building in the woods behind the school.

“This is one of the things I love about Trinity School,” said Kristal Georgiades, Henry’s mother. “Instead of being told, ‘This is the playground equipment we have to play on,’ the kids are designing their own. It’s a full body experience in which they work math equations at their desk then go outside and build things using the math they’ve learned.”

As school’s go, Trinity School is the valley’s youngest and smallest.

The Waldorf-inspired school was founded three years ago by Travis Scott, who taught in both the Mountain School and Syringa Mountain School. He started Trinity in the old Mountain School at the southern end of Eccles Ranch and then staged a two-day yurt raising this past summer on Lower Broadford Road.

He named the school Trinity to reflect that education involves a cooperative effort between family, school and child. And that it strives to develop and harmonize thinking, feeling and willing forces in a growing human being.

Come summer he will offer week-long camps on the property, teaching youngsters to build boats and shelters, create toys and tools and even help build a new addition to the site.

But for now he’s immersed in teaching botany and physics.

The school de-emphasizes standardized testing and minimizes children’s use of technology at an early age. Instead, it focuses on teaching life skills, along with a robust amount of art and music, and how to connect with one’s feelings.

“I love seeing children’s excitement when they learn to do something new and when they realize they’re capable of trying new things and doing them. And this is such a sensory rich environment out here,” said Scott.

“At the same time, I’m concerned about society’s use of technology and how it will affect our young people. When children are on screen, they’re not connecting with a real person. They’re not connecting with nature. They’re not using their hands or their bodies. And they’re not using their imagination. Eventually, technology will be part of their lives but it doesn’t need to be a big part at this age.”

The six children who make up Trinity School range from fourth-through sixth-grade. They study grade level math, reading and writing in the morning. Then they come together for hands-on learning.

Third-graders are studying different shelters and how both humans and animals adapt to different environment. They’re learning to use measurements and tools, learning how to grind and taste various grains.

“I want them to be able to look at a field as they’re driving down the road and say, ‘That’s wheat.’ Or, ‘That’s barley, or rye, or oats,’ ” Scott said. “I want those fields of grain to become familiar, like a friend.”

Fourth-graders studying local history are learning to use hatchets and other tools as they build garden planters using the notched logs with which pioneers built their cabins.

And fifth-graders studying ancient Greece are learning how to throw a discus and javelin as they study the ancient Olympic games.

In this case, the entire school is learning how to wrestle and long jump in preparation for an upcoming Olympiad held among similar schools in Salt Lake City.

“We’ll be competing with city states there,” Scott tells the kids.

Scott shows the youngsters how to finesse the disc.

“The disc is not just strength but grace. Muscle it and it will flop over,” he says.

“We wrestle as human beings, not bulls,” he adds later as he demonstrates an ancient method of wresting standing up. “If you corner me, get me to step out of the circle, you’re the winner.”

Once a day, the students sit in a circle holding baby chickens.

“We hold them to get them accustomed to us working with them,” said Cora Scott.

The children are also responsible for taking care of rabbits and two goats that like to sit atop stumps in a nearby pen. And they’re about to plant vegetables and herbs to line the walkway leading to the yurt.

The garden will help connect the youngsters to the rhythms of the year, as do festivals like Maypole.

The children will lead a Maypole dance on the front lawn during a Maypole Festival and potluck open to the public at 11 a.m. on Saturday, May 5.

“Spring feels different than fall,” explained Scott. “In fall you’re preoccupied with the harvest as you prepare for winter. Winter revolves around more of an inward nature as you look in and become more contemplative. Spring? Spring is pure joy as the flowers emerge and trees bud.”

The students record the things they’ve learned in oversized workbooks. One workbook, for instance, includes a hand drawn map of Idaho, art work based on angles, stories recounting Egyptian myths and a couple pieces of geometric art showing how a circle becomes a straight line. It shows examples of how interest is calculated. And if calculates when certain plants must be planted in a garden in order to ripen by a certain time.

“The students give me feedback on every assignment,” said Scott. “This method takes in to account that humans grow at different speeds. We’re able to tailor their work to how they are growing.”

Scott emphasizes that the skills the students learn are very much applicable to today’s modern society.

“I’m not trying to turn anyone into log cabin builders. My goal is simply to have them feel comfortable in the world we live and have the skills to do what needs to be done. We’re interested in learning such things as how light and heat and sound are created. And, when they’re older, we’ll take apart a computer and see how it works.”

Georgiades said her family makes an effort to practice in the home what her son is learning at school.

“For instance, we really restrict screen time. That way, Henry’s not dumbed down by TV. It’s just a very fluid upbringing.”

SUMMER IN THE WOODS

Travis Scott will lead eight summer camps featuring games, art, music, gardening, animal husbandry and traditional skills like shelter building, knot tying and woodworking.

June 11-14 Whittling Away—knife safety, creating toys and tools

June 18-21 Home Sweet Home—traditional shelters and skills

June 25-28 Builders Week—creating a new addition to the site

July 9-12 Wildcrafting—skills of the woods and rivers

July 23-26 Blossoms and Boats—Garden abundance and boat building

July 30-Aug. 2- Whittling Away

Aug. 6-9 Wildcrafting

Aug. 13-17 Builders Week

Camps run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and are designed for youth ages 7 through 13. They cost $240 a week. For information, call 208-720-8784 or email mrtwscott@gmail.com.