Today we’d like to introduce you to Brett Emch
Hi Brett, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
A pandemic…a Pod…a pig…and here we are four years later.
In 2020, Nature Meets Nurture was founded as a primarily outdoor Pod experience for children aged four to five years old. It was originally located on a private property in the Mount Washington area of Los Angeles and was created from the ground up (literally) by myself (Mr. Brett) and a group of parents who wanted a safe place for their children during the pandemic, where kids could still be free to be kids and socialize safely. After a successful school year it was determined that the school should continue on in the space so lovingly created by myself and those families. Nature Meets Nurture flourished over the next three years expanding not only the number of children the program would take, but also the age ranges it could serve, accepting children between two and six years of age. As the school flourished it became clear that something that once started as a means to an end during the isolation of the pandemic, had become not only a missing link in the mainstream idea of child care in Los Angeles, but a place where families truly wanted their children to play/grow/learn/love during those often overlooked and underestimated dawn of life years.
From the onset, Nature Meets Nurture was designed to be a preschool alternative for parents looking for childcare that thinks outside the box. We were driven to create a space for children where they can nurture that which comes freely to them; A place where curiosity and connections can spark naturally in an environment crafted just for them. Where trust in oneself and one’s community can be developed and imprinted the way it was meant to be during these milestone years.
In early 2023, the ethos behind the program became exceedingly personal to me as I discovered after years of trying and suffering multiple miscarriages that my co-parent was pregnant again. Wendy had been a friend of mine for years, and not only had she come on board the program as a business partner, she was also a woman who desired to have children while still in her twenties driving her to ask me, as a single gay man, to consider undergoing insemination procedures to become co-parents. After many, many long and grueling conversations and a great deal of soul searching on both of our parts, we decided to move forward with the process. That brought us to a fork in the road with the business when the latest pregnancy appeared to be healthy and we looked towards a future not only for the program itself, but now for our own child. We began to look for a more permanent location for the program in 2023 and found a property that allowed us to live/work from one location! So, seven months into our pregnancy, NMN made the move from Mount Washington into the Altadena area of greater Los Angeles. A few short months later, our daughter, Nell, became the newest enrollment at Nature Meets Nurture (grin).
In a nutshell, Nature Meets Nurture has been a work of love from the bottom up. It has been a community effort to create something new, meaningful, and always “playful”. We are a seedling village of families and caregivers who seek to build the strongest of foundations together now, with courage, determination, tolerance, and compassion for whatever is yet to come. Our program might not be for everyone, but we know, for the families we serve, we are a second home for their little ones.
Oh, and in case you are wondering where the pig comes in…..Tocino is our NMN mascot! He is a total ham.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I do not think starting any small business is a smooth road. In our case there was no preexisting framework in the arena of Early Childhood Education to fall back on or gain insight from. If anything we have had to find ways to circumvent the system in order to broaden some horizons. And as with a many fledging business, even at Nature Meets Nurture, money does not grow on trees and finding the funds and resources to invest into the program has been a struggle. I hope the old cliche’ that you have to spend money to make money stands true, because even at full enrollment, we are in the red and will be for the foreseeable future (exasperated face inserted here).
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Both myself and my business partner, Wendy, hold degrees in Early Child Education. My area of collegiate studies focused heavily on infant and toddler development. I have spent my entire “adult life” working in the field and have served in every role imaginable from classroom teacher, to staff trainer, Center Director, mentor, and everything in between. So I guess on paper, there is that…..but what I really think sets me apart, is this intense passion I have for this field. I am a staunch advocate for children and for childhood itself. At the end of the day, I will fight any misguided trend, have the hard conversations, and seek a better path forward in defense of children and the field of Early Childhood Education. I believe that is something you can see and feel in all that Nature Meets Nurture is.
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
Covid taught me that where there is a will, there is a way. One of my initial concerns with Covid, quite franklin, was the idea of children under the age of 5, in mask during the majority of their social interaction time. Children at that young age are not only picking up on queues given from caretakes, family, and friends in facial expressions but the movement of the mouth and face in others actually helps in language development. I knew mask were going to be a huge detriment to children at this incredible early stage and feared the combined affect of mask and the soul crushing isolation that Covid brought about. I am proud to say that the original group of families that helped bring Nature Meets Nurture to life, were able to find a way, safely, so that the children could attend the program mask free. It took sacrifice, compromise, and community trust, but we were able to make it happen during the worst of the pandemic.
Pricing:
- *$325.oo weekly/*$1300.oo monthly for full time
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.naturemeetsnurture.com
