Dear Prairie Flower Community: Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Prairie Flower Children’s Center is closed from August 2020 through May 2021. This means we won’t be offering any of our regular programming during that time (preschool, parent-child group, afterschool clubs). We miss the community so much and look forward to a time when we can all be together again. 

UPDATE:  Prairie Flower is excited to be fully reopening Fall 2021! The preschool program is currently full; fill out an application at any time to be automatically put on the wait list.  We are now accepting applications for our Poemtree After School Nature programs for school-aged (K-12) youth, as well as for our Little Song Parent-Child Playgroup for ages 14 months to 3 years old with a caregiver. Stay tuned for many more website updates in June + July! 
Contact Us:
2807 Duff Ave.
Ames, IA
prairieflowercc@gmail.com
(515) 292-4312
Welcome to Prairie Flower Children's Center!

Prairie Flower is a nature-immersed and play-based early childhood education center based in Ames, Iowa, and the surrounding communities. Our programs are also BELONGING-BASED, which means we want to instill a sense in children that they belong unconditionally, and instill this sense of belonging  through love, joy, kindness and empathy. Nature is the crowning strength of our curriculum; we consider the natural world as a co-teacher. We strive to create a warm, nurturing environment based on meaningful work, play and connection to the natural world and its seasons. Our programs are based on empowering the child to feel capable and to find out who they are as a human being, and what they like.  Importantly, we seek to honor unpressured childhood as a critical time for healthy development.

In addition to the preschool/ mixed-age kindergarten, we offer a parent-child playgroup for 14-month- to 3-year-olds; two outdoor nature clubs, one for 5-to 12-year-olds and another for 11-18-year-olds; and many seasonal community events, celebrations, and parent education programs. 

We invite you to explore our site and learn about our unique vision for early childhood education. Please feel free to contact us with any questions!

Support Us!

Prairie Flower Children's Center is managed by the Ames Waldorf Education Association, a non-profit  501(c)(3) organization with tax-exempt status in the United States.

As a small non-profit education center, we depend on fundraising to keep our tuition rates low. Your contribution helps make it feasible for families to experience the beauty and wonder of Prairie Flower's programming.

Statement on Anti-Racism

Prairie Flower Children’s Center is committed to being an anti-racist and anti-bias organization; we also recognize that racism bias, and privilege are present in our community and in our school and we are working on identifying strategies and actions we must take to address these things in a real way (we will update the community with our action steps, and we welcome your ideas and thoughts).

We will be reviewing all curriculum we offer for racist and biased propensities, particularly Waldorf education, as  we recognize that the founder of the Waldorf early childhood educational philosophy, Rudolf Steiner, put forth racist and sexist ideas as well. We offer our full support for the Black Lives Matter movement and for all movements working towards social justice, equality and inclusion.  

We also recognize the incredible responsibilities that come with being early childhood educators and are committed to modelling empathetic, anti-racist, anti-bias behaviors -- behaviors that celebrate differences and don’t shy away from them -- with knowledge that children aged 3-6 learn primarily through imitation. We know that each of us has a part to play in this, as we are the village for our children, and that it is our responsibility to do this work with love and hope as our strengths. We believe a better world is possible for all of us.