Merrohawke Nature School
Merrohawke Nature School at iFarm / Boxford Forest & Farm Site, 55 Towne Rd, Boxford, MA 1921
About
Merrohawke Nature School offers year-round, 100% outdoor programs where children and teens take part in Homeschool Days, Forest School, Field School, Forest Kindergarten, Summer Camp, and B.O.A.T. C.A.M.P. Programs include time for unstructured outdoor play and play in nature, with activities such as building forts, racing hand-made driftwood boats, digging to China, searching for buried pirate treasure, climbing trees, catching frogs in swamps, painting themselves in charcoal, and doing penguin slides across mud flats. Summer programs serve youth ashore at a summer camp in Boxford and on the water in Newburyport through B.O.A.T. C.A.M.P.
• Ages: 3–18 years old
• Schedule: Forest School and Field School run one or two days per week, September through May, with Homeschool Days and Forest or Field School days for homeschooled children ages 6 to 14 throughout the school year; Summer 2026 registration opens online at 6 a.m. on November 7, 2025.
Merrohawke Nature School is a 501(c)3 nonprofit that runs on 70% tuition and 30% charitable giving. It was co-founded in November 2007 as BOAT CAMP by Captains Rob and Kate Yeomans, who now serve as Operations Director and Executive Director, respectively, and both are also teachers. The Boxford Summer Camp Director and Teacher is Sarah Sullivan. Merrohawke describes itself as an “invisible school” where curiosity, exploration, and play lead to deep wisdom by way of direct, personal experience, and it believes youth have a right to unstructured play outdoors, to get dirty, and to explore multi-sensory learning through place-based, naturalist, wilderness and maritime teachings.
Forest Kindergarten is an all-outdoor, nature-based, Waldorf-inspired early childhood preschool for ages 2.9–5, licensed by the Mass. Department of Early Education and Care, and Merrohawke is a Full Member of the Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America. Merrohawke’s core teaching staff are training in, and applying, principles and practices of Waldorf education into early childhood programs, and the teacher:student ratio is typically 1:4. Homeschool Days immerse children in hands-on, nature-based learning as a key component of their educational plan, and programs are intricately designed and customized for the ages and stages of youth in each unique natural setting.
Merrohawke provides nature-immersive outdoor programs for children and families living within a 50-mile radius of Newburyport, Massachusetts, including cities and towns across Essex and Middlesex counties, Cape Ann, and the lower Merrimack Valley. During the school year, upwards of 95 homeschooled children attend Forest School or Field School and 20 children attend Forest Kindergarten, and during the summer, upwards of 475 Essex County area children attend summer camp in Boxford and/or B.O.A.T. C.A.M.P. in Newburyport. Merrohawke collaborates with other schools, programs and nonprofit organizations in order to provide outcomes for the community. One testimonial shared by the program is a quote from David Sobel: “If we want children to flourish, to become truly empowered, then let us allow them to love the earth before we ask them to save it. Perhaps this is what Thoreau had in mind when he said, ‘the more slowly trees grow at first, the sounder they are at the core, and I think the same is true of human beings.’”
Last updated January 27, 2026.
• Ages: 3–18 years old
• Schedule: Forest School and Field School run one or two days per week, September through May, with Homeschool Days and Forest or Field School days for homeschooled children ages 6 to 14 throughout the school year; Summer 2026 registration opens online at 6 a.m. on November 7, 2025.
Merrohawke Nature School is a 501(c)3 nonprofit that runs on 70% tuition and 30% charitable giving. It was co-founded in November 2007 as BOAT CAMP by Captains Rob and Kate Yeomans, who now serve as Operations Director and Executive Director, respectively, and both are also teachers. The Boxford Summer Camp Director and Teacher is Sarah Sullivan. Merrohawke describes itself as an “invisible school” where curiosity, exploration, and play lead to deep wisdom by way of direct, personal experience, and it believes youth have a right to unstructured play outdoors, to get dirty, and to explore multi-sensory learning through place-based, naturalist, wilderness and maritime teachings.
Forest Kindergarten is an all-outdoor, nature-based, Waldorf-inspired early childhood preschool for ages 2.9–5, licensed by the Mass. Department of Early Education and Care, and Merrohawke is a Full Member of the Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America. Merrohawke’s core teaching staff are training in, and applying, principles and practices of Waldorf education into early childhood programs, and the teacher:student ratio is typically 1:4. Homeschool Days immerse children in hands-on, nature-based learning as a key component of their educational plan, and programs are intricately designed and customized for the ages and stages of youth in each unique natural setting.
Merrohawke provides nature-immersive outdoor programs for children and families living within a 50-mile radius of Newburyport, Massachusetts, including cities and towns across Essex and Middlesex counties, Cape Ann, and the lower Merrimack Valley. During the school year, upwards of 95 homeschooled children attend Forest School or Field School and 20 children attend Forest Kindergarten, and during the summer, upwards of 475 Essex County area children attend summer camp in Boxford and/or B.O.A.T. C.A.M.P. in Newburyport. Merrohawke collaborates with other schools, programs and nonprofit organizations in order to provide outcomes for the community. One testimonial shared by the program is a quote from David Sobel: “If we want children to flourish, to become truly empowered, then let us allow them to love the earth before we ask them to save it. Perhaps this is what Thoreau had in mind when he said, ‘the more slowly trees grow at first, the sounder they are at the core, and I think the same is true of human beings.’”
Last updated January 27, 2026.
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