Nurture And Nature Children's Center

I am the parent of a child who attended Nurture&Nature Children’s Center from 2016 until April 2019 when our contract was terminated effective immediately because we did not agree with the new and extreme outdoor curriculum imposed by the new center's director, Heather Hatada-Boyd. After 3 years of enrollment with this day care center, out child suddenly became “incompatible” with the school’s program/curriculum. The “incompatible” label was given to our child by the new director of the center, Heather, and represented the reason why our contract was terminated effective immediately.
Starting in March-April of 2019, the center moved towards “nature based” activities and children were being brought into the woods every morning from 9:30 to 12PM and back into the woods in the afternoon. We, the parents, were not aware of these sudden changes. We were not notified. We raised our concerns with Heather and Heidi (president of Board of Directors). Nothing was done to address our concerns. Heather presented us with two options: allow our child to join the wood walks or leave the center. We are a family of four with 2 full time jobs and could not leave the center as we could not find any day care spots available at other centers. We could not allow Heather to put our child in harm’s way either by bringing her into the woods.
Our child has significant hypersensitivity to insect bites. In an attempt to protect her, we presented the center’s director with a doctor’s note in which the pediatrician wrote “it is medically appropriate to minimize exposure to insects and insect bites by keeping her out of the woods as much as possible”. The director’s response upon receiving the doctor’s note was to terminate our contract saying that our child was no longer compatible with the program.

Please protect your child and do not consider Nurture&Nature for your child care needs! Please read the Google Reviews before enrolling. Please be aware that all the positive reviews are written by the staff, board’s members or were written before Heather Hatada became the director of this center.

UPDATE. On July 27, 2019 I brought by child to a birth party of one of her former classmates from Nurture&Nature. At the birthday party I was approached by Mike Bellamente, husband of Heidi Bellamente (president of Board Directors) who I never met before. Mike Bellamente told me he did not appreciate my posts on public media about his wife. I told him that the birthday party (of a common friend of our children) was not the place to talk about Heidi Bellamente and/or Nurture&Nature. Moreover, he was not an employee of Nurture&Nature and not a member of the Board of Directors, so we had nothing to discuss. Even though I told him I did not know him and we had nothing to discuss, he kept shouting that he knew I was from Romania and because of my origins, I was a Gypsy!!! I was appalled by the blunt Racism. Why was this person that I did not even know trying to verbally abuse me? We are originally from Eastern Europe, we came to US ~ 20 years ago both as Graduate Students, we've been US Citizens for a long time. We are highly educated people with a PhD in Physics and a Master Degree in Sociology. First, my child was discriminated because of her medical condition/sensitivity to insect bites by Nurture&Nature’s staff and now we are facing RACISM by family members of the Board of Directors. How disgusting and pathetic! I hope that parents of children currently going (or considering enrolling) to N&N are aware of the type of people involved directly or indirectly in the leadership of this daycare center!