Join us for our next Admissions Open House on Oct 6 at 5:30 pm.Reserve your spot

Designed for extraordinary minds

Hawai‘i’s only school for gifted children, grades K–6 (and adding a grade each year through 8th). Eight scholars to a teacher, and no speed limit on learning. Kaimukī, Honolulu

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Book WISC-V testing

A lab-coat ceremony in the science room: eleven scholars in white lab coats and safety goggles standing in a line, the Head of School in a lab coat behind them and a teacher at the right of the group, storage shelves and a physics poster on the wall behind.

Does this sound familiar?

The child whose understanding is years beyond grade level. The one who exhausts every book on a topic before moving to the next obsession, whose mind runs ahead of the rest of her, and who has already learned that the fastest way to fit in is to stop asking.

Is my child gifted?

Her understanding is years beyond grade level.
She exhausts every book on a topic before moving to the next obsession.
Her mind runs ahead of the rest of her.
She has already learned that the fastest way to fit in is to stop asking.

We raise the ceiling

Most schools are built to raise the floor. Your kid needs someone to raise the ceiling. Scholars here work at their developmental level rather than their age level: a second grader doing fourth grade mathematics sits beside a peer exploring geometry proofs. The school adds a grade each year through eighth, and the curriculum is a superset of the standard one, so a Tradewinds scholar can apply to the most rigorous high schools in Honolulu.

If they are ready to run with something, let them run.

Carl Sabatino, Founding Head of School

How the curriculum works

Three scholars at a work table with a tall tower of marshmallows and cocktail sticks between them, one steadying the top of it, a pile of spare marshmallows to the right and bins of materials on the shelves behind.

A room where nobody has to slow down

Gifted children often grow up as the odd one out. Here they walk into a room of scholars who laugh at the same jokes, ask the same relentless questions, and do not need anyone to wait for them. Their parents find each other here too.

It is a huge difference when you see two children who are thinking and speaking at a very high level, communicating with each other.

Carl Sabatino, Founding Head of School

What we believe

A week at Tradewinds, block by block

Morning circle at eight. Math at 8:30 for the whole school at once, in groups set by level rather than age. Then science, humanities, cooking, art, PE, two recesses, and a Friday enrichment cluster. Point at a block to see what it looks like, and where else it happens in the week.

See the whole week

Monday to Friday, 8:00 to 3:00

A whole-group gathering on the rug: a teacher seated on a stool holding an open picture book out toward the group, a second teacher at the whiteboard, scholars cross-legged on the rug and one on a sofa with a hand up.

Morning circle

The whole school starts the day in one room, so a scholar knows what the day holds before it begins.

Two scholars at the limeade stand, close in and grinning, one in a straw hat and mirrored sunglasses holding a green plush mascot, the other holding a fan of hand-drawn flyers, hand-lettered signs and families behind them.

The part of giftedness that is not academic

A gifted child often feels as intensely as they think. The mind that will chase one question for six hours also takes a small unfairness hard and remembers it. We treat that intensity as raw material rather than a problem to manage. A scholar learns to name what they are feeling, and sits next to children who feel the same way about the same things.

How we work with intensity

Cooking on induction hobs set along a counter by the windows: a scholar turning chopped onions in a pan with a wooden spatula, a second pan behind, four more scholars waiting their turn.

Taught by specialists

Carl Sabatino leads the school after more than thirty years in gifted education. Science, humanities, cooking, art and PE are separate named blocks on your child’s schedule rather than subjects one teacher fits in around the rest, and robotics after school is taught by a coach who runs a state championship programme.

Meet the team

One piece of technology, and we built it

Most technology for kids is built to entertain and engage. Ours is built to make things harder: a Socratic tutor called Rabbithole that finds each child’s edge and holds them there, pushes back rather than agrees, and lets a teacher be everywhere at once. It runs on a BunnyPad, which is iPad hardware with a full brain transplant that removes everything else.

See what it will not do We show our work

A scholar working at a table with a tablet open on a stand and a spiral notebook in front of him, pencil in hand, a teacher leaning in beside him to look at the screen, a whiteboard of fraction work behind them.

Is a virus alive?

You just heard from Ms. Hunckler about how viruses hijack the machinery of a cell, and you have your checklist for what counts as alive. Now here's a question — do viruses count as alive?

I don’t know

That's okay — let's test it against our list one at a time. Does a virus reproduce?

Yes

Right, it does reproduce. But HOW does it reproduce — can it do that all by itself, or does it need something else?

It needs something else

That's the catch, right there — it can't copy itself alone, it has to hijack a living cell to do it for it. So knowing that... does a virus still count as "alive" to you, or not?

To me, it doesn’t count as alive

Okay, but here's my pushback: it DOES reproduce — that's on our list of criteria, and reproducing is a pretty huge deal. Lots of things get partial credit in science. Why isn't "it can reproduce, even if it needs help" good enough to count as alive?

I don’t know. I was just thinking that I don’t think it uses energy

That's another sharp gap — sitting alone, a virus doesn't eat, breathe, or burn any fuel at all. So now it's failing reproduce-alone AND uses-energy. Does a virus even have cells, or is it built some other way?

I don’t think it has cells

Right — it's not made of cells either, it's just genetic material in a protein shell. So by our checklist, a virus is failing three out of five tests. Let me push you one more time though: doesn't the fact that it can still trick a cell into making thousands of copies of itself count for something — isn't that a kind of clever survival, even if it's not "alive" in the usual way?

I guess it is, but, living things are automatically made out of cells.

That's a strong line to draw — cells are non-negotiable, and a virus just doesn't have any. You've basically found the exact thing real scientists argue about: it copies itself, but only as a hijacker, never on its own. Here's the honest truth — scientists are genuinely split on this one. Many call viruses "not fully alive" for exactly the reason you found. On paper, try to design a test for what makes something alive. When you're done, hold it up for the camera.

Rabbithole has no feelings. It won’t miss you and can’t be your friend.

Try the demo

No gems. No streaks. No math Pokémon battles.
Nothing in our software is designed to keep your child hooked.

Andy Szybalski, board chair and product designer

The red schoolhouse and the smaller red cottage beside it, planted containers along both buildings and a hopscotch grid chalked on the yard. — Real exterior photo with AI generated landscaping (planned). Students shown are AI generated.

The yard under a spreading monkeypod: children at recess on the grass, a swing set, and the red schoolhouse standing behind the fence at the back of the lot.

A school on this corner since 1937

A blue brick building and a red schoolhouse on a Kaimukī corner where children have gone to school for eighty-nine years: Epiphany School starting in 1937, then Mid-Pacific Elementary, Cole Academy, and now Tradewinds. Six thousand eight hundred square feet of indoor space, a short drive from Kāhala, Mānoa and Hawai‘i Kai.

See the campus

1041 10th Avenue, Kaimukī, Honolulu

A scholar with the pencil down on his own labelled sketch of a wheeled build, the build itself sitting on the graph paper beside the drawing.

How admission works

The goal of our admissions process is getting to know your child. Three steps, in order, and a half day on campus for your child before anyone decides anything.

A consultation with Carl Sabatino about your child.
A cognitive assessment, WISC-V or WPPSI-IV, from 2023 or later.
A half-day discovery visit, then a conversation with the founders.

Tuition for 2026–2027 is $36,000. Tuition for 2027–2028 will be posted soon. About half of families qualify for financial aid.

Start an application See tuition and aid

The corridor between classes: scholars walking away down the hall in ones and twos, a teacher standing partway along, two scholars in the foreground carrying a sheet of paper, a subject noticeboard on the right.

See for yourself

Come to an open house

Tue, October 6, 2026 · 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM HST

Reserve a spot

Tue, November 10, 2026 · 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM HST

Reserve a spot

More dates

Talk to Carl Sabatino

Most families’ Tradewinds journey begins with a conversation with our head of school. He’s educated hundreds of gifted children of various learning profiles, and can help you better understand your child’s learning needs.

Apply

As part of applying, your child spends a half day on campus as a discovery visit, experiencing what it is to be a Tradewinds scholar.