MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: Back to Nature

JEN LEGERE’S EARLY LEARNING CENTER “LEAVES NO CHILD INSIDE.”

Making a secret hideout under a giant lilac bush. Playing on the banks of a pond. Tracking deer through the woods. Identifying a woodpecker. Watering a garden.

That’s a normal warm-weather day for the children at A Place to Grow, a nature-based early learning center in Brentwood. “We spend almost the entire day outside,” says Jen Legere, founder and director of the center. “The kids come inside to nap. That’s about it.”

For rainy days, the center has rain suits for the kids that Legere says “make them look like rainbow marshmallows.” Even in winter, they’re outside twice a day with hats, boots and mittens. “There’s no weather that’s adverse for my kids. They just figure out how to adapt and make the most of whatever is out there.”

If that sounds like used-to-be childhoods, when kids mostly played outside, it is. And that’s exactly the point of what Legere has created on the center’s 13 acres of land.

When she bought the property in 2015, she had already spent years owning and operating a traditional childcare center. But, with 13 acres, she could pivot in a direction she had been wanting to go. Legere had discovered the work of Richard Louv, whose books inspired an international movement called “Leave No Child Inside.”

The movement is based on the belief that many of today’s children are suffering detrimental effects from what Louv calls “nature deficit disorders.” The cure, he says, is to reconnect to nature. Aside from simply being fun, it promotes health and wellness by increasing mental acuity and creativity, and reducing obesity and the incidence of depression.

Jen Legere, founder and director of A Place to Grow

The elements of the “Leave No Child Inside” movement have been incorporated into Legere’s A Place to Grow, where the children range in age from six months to six years. She started by creating two outdoor classroom spaces that were certified by Nature Explore, a national organization that uses researchbased, field-tested design principles for nature-based play and learning. “That allowed us to differentiate our school from others because no one else has done this,” she says. “We’re the only school in New Hampshire that has two Nature Explore outdoorcertified playground spaces.” They are also a certified Eco-Healthy Child Care facility and use solar energy.

In addition to lots of outside time, the school also teaches the usual academic subjects but with the added dimension of a “whole child” approach. “We spend a lot of time talking about social and emotional health,” Legere says. “It’s far more than the ABCs and numbers — it’s making sure that we’re nice people, that we’re good friends. It’s also about physical health, knowing how to care for ourselves.”

Changing the business model of her early learning center to a naturebased curriculum has created a surge in enrollment. The center started with 20 children. Now, it’s at full capacity at 39, with a multiyear waiting list. Its success inspired Legere to offer franchises in order to expand the mission of the center and to provide childcare to communities that don’t have it. One franchise is underway; four more are in the discussion phase.

Legere’s innovative work was recently recognized by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). It named A Place to Grow the SBA’s 2022 New Hampshire Woman Owned Business of the Year. Noted in the recognition description were “the pieces to begin her journey”—Legere’s background in science and math, as well as business management and early education. Also noted was the “great adversity along the way.”

Legere had started her first early learning center in Brentwood in 2005, and within three years it was fully enrolled and expanding. But seven years later, the owner of the building decided to sell and Legere had to quickly find a new space. The center was relocated in a church, a move that was supposed to be temporary but ended up lasting two years.

Twice in that time, pipes froze, and the space was flooded. There were also worries the roof could collapse under the weight of heavy snowfalls. Adding to the struggles, Legere got divorced, and she and her two children became homeless. A friend took them in. Many of their meals were supplied by church pantries. Those times were hard, Legere says, but she adds, “Sometimes you need those hard times to find the strength to rebound and grow.”

A turning point came when the owner of a 13-acre property Legere had been looking at listed the property for sale, and the insurance money from the flooding and frozen pipes meant she could afford it. Legere took the opportunity and created the business she has today. She’s looking forward to giving others the benefit of the knowledge she has gained, knowing that the franchise opportunities offered by A Place to Grow will give entrepreneurs the ability to provide quality childcare using a sustainable business model. “I’ve learned so much along the way, and I want to share it,” she says. “Passing it along, that’s the most important thing to me.”