Homeschool Discounts in South Dakota (2026) — Mammoth Digs, Dinosaurs & Science Centers

South Dakota's homeschool deals are heavy on deep time. Hot Springs' Mammoth Site — the world's largest Columbian mammoth dig — runs school classes right over an active bonebed, and Rapid City stacks two more: the Journey Museum's dinosaur dig pit at $5 a student, and the Museum of Geology's $3 school tours past mounted dinosaurs and White River Badlands fossils. The free South Dakota Air & Space Museum adds F-16 simulators and an annual STEM Day.

Eastern and central South Dakota hold their own. Sioux Falls' Washington Pavilion runs $10 hands-on homeschool classes across its Kirby Science Center and CineDome, the Great Plains Zoo's seasonal Homeschool Day covers both its campuses for $15, and Mitchell's Indigenous Archaeological Site — the only active public dig in the state — admits students free. Pierre's Discovery Center is the value pick statewide at $4 a child with every chaperone free, and Brookings turns SDSU into a day's worth of stops: $9 field trips at the Children's Museum of South Dakota, and free guided tours of the Art Museum, the Agricultural Heritage Museum and McCrory Gardens.

Your South Dakota homeschool toolkit

Local resources worth bookmarking

Start here

South Dakota homeschool laws

Notice, recordkeeping & assessment rules — straight from the source.

Read South Dakota's requirements →

Check your local library

Free museum passes, classes, makerspaces & interlibrary loan — the cheapest field trips there are. Ask what they offer homeschoolers.

Find South Dakota libraries →

Always ask about homeschool rates

Many venues give 30–50% off (sometimes free) and never advertise it. Call ahead and ask for a homeschool, education, or co-op rate before you pay.

State parks & history

Free and cheap educational programming statewide — nature centers, historic sites, junior-ranger days.

State parks → · South Dakota history →

Free South Dakota homeschool printables

Print, pin & take along — no email needed

Free PDF worksheets to bring on any South Dakota field trip. Print as many copies as you like.

My South Dakota Study

A one-page state study your child fills in — capital, state symbols, flag, and a place to visit.

Download PDF →

Field trip scavenger hunt

A find-it checklist that works at any museum, park, or downtown outing. Reusable every trip.

Download PDF →

Nature journal

A draw-and-observe page for park, trail, and garden days — senses, sketches, and a leaf rubbing.

Download PDF →

Landmarks I want to see in South Dakota

A checklist to fill in — the parks and famous places in South Dakota you want to visit, with a box to tick off each one.

Download PDF →

See all our free printables →

Confirmed homeschool pricing

Published price on the venue's own homeschool page — most under $20 per child.

Offers

Field Trips

Tue–Sat · By reservation

per kid

The Journey Museum & Learning Center

Rapid City · All ages · Book a group visit in advance

Rapid City's flagship museum ties together the Black Hills' geology, paleontology, archaeology, and Native American and pioneer history under one roof. Interactive exhibits include a dinosaur dig pit and hands-on paleontology, and the $5 group rate covers a two-day admission.

Regular admission: $14 adults / $9 youth 6-17 / Free under 5 (gate) — $5 per student educational-group rate versus the $9 youth gate

Note: Educational groups pay $5 per student (all ages 18 and under), or $6 for college students. The museum also runs homeschool classes and summer camps, and individual admission is good for two consecutive days. Reserve group visits ahead.

Homeschool page at journeymuseum.org →

Offers

Field Trips

Weekdays · By reservation

per kid

Museum of Geology at SD Mines

Rapid City · All ages · Reserve a guided tour ahead

On the South Dakota Mines campus, this museum mounts skeletons of dinosaurs, marine reptiles, and Ice Age mammals alongside rare White River Badlands fossils and a Hall of South Dakota Minerals. A natural single-day field trip for any earth-science unit.

Regular admission: $10 adults / $5 children 6-15 / Free under 6 (gate) — $3 per student school-tour rate versus the $5 child gate

Note: School tours are $3 per student by reservation, exploring mounted dinosaur, marine-reptile, and mammal skeletons, White River Badlands fossils, meteorites, and a fluorescent-mineral room. Individual and group tours are by reservation only.

Homeschool page at sdsmt.edu →

Offers

Free Admission

Wed–Sat · By reservation

Free

per kid

South Dakota Air and Space Museum

Rapid City · All ages · Call ahead for a group visit

South Dakota's free aviation museum, at the gate of Ellsworth Air Force Base just east of Rapid City, with an outdoor air park of 30-plus military aircraft — WWII bombers to a B-1 — and four hangars of aerospace history. A paid bus tour adds a Minuteman missile silo.

Regular admission: Free — free admission plus free school programs at the Ellsworth AFB gate

Note: Admission and parking are free, and the museum runs school field trips and outreach including F-16 simulator sessions and an annual STEM Day with demonstrations from Ellsworth base units. Call ahead to arrange a guided group visit.

Homeschool page at travelsouthdakota.com →

Offers

Homeschool Classes

$10

per kid

Washington Pavilion & Kirby Science Center

Sioux Falls · All ages · Register through the education team

Sioux Falls' premier arts-and-science center pairs the Kirby Science Discovery Center's 100-plus interactive exhibits with the Wells Fargo CineDome theater and the Visual Arts Center galleries. Its homeschool classes invite kids and parents to explore, create, and learn together.

Regular admission: $16.25 adults / $13.50 youth 3-17 (Kirby gate) — $10 homeschool classes versus the $13.50 youth gate

Note: Homeschool Classes are $10 a child — hands-on art and science activities designed for homeschool families, exploring the Kirby Science Discovery Center, an educational CineDome film, and the Visual Arts Center. STEAM Days bundle the whole campus into one visit.

Homeschool page at washingtonpavilion.org →

Offers

Homeschool Day

Fall 2026: September 16 — advance registration

$10 half day

per kid · adult $10

Great Plains Zoo

Sioux Falls · Homeschool Day is pitched at grades PreK–8; the year-round package is K–12 · Register in advance — everyone attending must have a ticket

Sioux Falls' zoo runs a seasonal Homeschool Day built around a rotating theme — fall 2026 is Animal Communication — with animal encounters, activities, crafts, learning stations and keeper talks, plus take-home materials. The full-day ticket covers both Sioux Falls Zoo & Aquarium campuses. A separate year-round Homeschool Package books a private guided tour and ambassador-animal encounter onto any visit.

Regular admission: $16.95 adults / $12.95 youth 2-12 (online gate) — $10 buys the morning session versus $12.95 just to walk in — and it includes admission plus all the programming

Note: The full day is $15 and runs 9:30am–3pm, covering BOTH campuses — the Great Plains Zoo and the Butterfly House & Aquarium across town. The $10 half day is the zoo's morning session only, 9:30am–12:30pm. Zoo members pay $5 either way. Registration includes admission and activities, and every attendee must be registered, adults included — one adult may supervise up to five children. Separately, a year-round Homeschool Package is $55 per group of up to 10 ($50 members) for a 60-minute guided tour plus a 30-minute encounter with two ambassador animals; that price does NOT include zoo admission.

Homeschool page at greatzoo.org →

Offers

School Tours

Year-round — request a date with the online form

Free

per kid

Mitchell Indigenous Archaeological Site & Museum

Mitchell · All ages; the booking form asks for grade levels · Fill in the school-tour form on the site, or call (605) 996-5473

The only active archaeological site open to the public in South Dakota, where a 1,000-year-old Plains village is excavated indoors inside the Thomsen Center Archeodome. More than 4 million artifacts have come out of the ground here, and tours cover how the villagers processed bison bone, made pottery and traded over long distances.

Regular admission: $8 adults / Free 17 and under (gate) — Students are free at the gate too — the draw is a guided tour of a live excavation, plus free activity packets

Note: The site tours over 1,500 students a year and states the policy plainly: free of charge to all types of students and schools. Homeschoolers are named on the page alongside teachers, and no group-size minimum is posted. Packets of information and age-appropriate activities come with the tour — and if you can't get to Mitchell, you can request a packet by phone or email instead.

Homeschool page at mitchellindianvillage.org →

Offers

Field Trips

Year-round · By reservation

$3.30

per kid

The Mammoth Site

Hot Springs · K-12 · Groups of 10+; call (605) 745-6017

The world's largest concentration of mammoth remains, where a boardwalk runs above Columbian and woolly mammoth bones still in an ancient sinkhole and paleontologists excavate each summer. Grade-banded STEAM classes turn the active dig into a hands-on archaeology and paleontology field trip.

Regular admission: $15 adults / $13 ages 4-12 / Free under 3 (gate) — $3.30/student STEAM classes versus the $13 child gate

Note: Grade-banded STEAM curriculum classes are $3.30 per student (the Odontology tooth-casting class is $5.50), for groups of 10 or more booked by phone at (605) 745-6017. Lessons cover archaeology, absolute dating, extinction, and paleo-technology, and Mammoth-In-A-Trunk loaner kits bring the dig to your classroom.

Homeschool page at mammothsite.org →

Offers

Field Trips

Tue–Sat 10am–5pm · book 2 weeks ahead

per kid

Children's Museum of South Dakota

Brookings · All ages · Book at least two weeks ahead; dates are limited per day

Nine dollars a head instead of $12.50 for a full run of the museum's hands-on, child-led exhibits, from the life-size mammoth dig to the outdoor Prairie Play Space. The field-trip rate applies to every person in the group, adults included, and the museum asks for one adult per five children. No head-count minimum is published, so a co-op-sized group works.

Regular admission: $12.50 ages 1 and up / Free under 1 (gate) — $9 per person field-trip rate versus the $12.50 flat gate price

Homeschool page at prairieplay.org →

Offers

SDSU Explore Tours

Groups of 10+ · book 20 days ahead

Free

per kid

McCrory Gardens

Brookings · Youth and adult groups · SDSU Explore Tour request form, 20 days minimum

A free guided walk through 25 acres of formal gardens and a 45-acre arboretum, booked through SDSU's Explore Tours programme rather than the gardens' own gate. Tours run about 40–45 minutes and the university suggests, but does not require, up to $3 a person. The minimum booking is ten people and the ratio asked for is one adult per ten children.

Regular admission: $6 adults / $4 ages 6–17 / Free 5 and under (gate) — Guided tour is free versus a $4 youth gate; $3 a head suggested if your group can cover it

Homeschool page at sdstate.edu →

Offers

Field Trips

30, 60 or 90 minutes · by arrangement

Free

per kid

South Dakota Art Museum

Brookings · All ages; sessions align to any subject's content standards · Contact the education curator to schedule

The state art museum runs free field trips in three lengths: a 30-minute museum tour, a 60-minute Visual Thinking Strategies tour that teaches children to build arguments from what they see, and a 90-minute version that adds artmaking. Staff tailor the session to your group's interests and to content standards across subjects. Admission is free anyway, so book this for the structured session rather than the saving.

Regular admission: Free — the museum never charges admission — No price break to claim; the value is a free docent-led session, not a discount

Homeschool page at sdstate.edu →

Offers

SDSU Explore Tours

Groups of 10+ · book 20 days ahead

Free

per kid

South Dakota Agricultural Heritage Museum

Brookings · Youth tours are hands-on; adult groups get a gallery tour · SDSU Explore Tour request form, 20 days minimum

Youth groups booking through SDSU Explore Tours get hands-on activities alongside the galleries rather than the self-guided walk-through, and the museum suggests up to $3 a person only if your group can cover it. The same booking form lets you chain the visit to the Art Museum, McCrory Gardens, the Davis Dairy Plant, the equine and sheep units or the Dairy Bar in one day — each stop runs about 40–45 minutes.

Regular admission: Free — donations welcome (gate) — No price break; youth tours add hands-on activities the walk-in visit does not include

Homeschool page at sdstate.edu →

Offers

Group Visits

Mon–Sat 10am–5pm, Sun 1–5pm · book ahead

per kid · adult free

South Dakota Discovery Center

Pierre · All ages · Group visits must be booked and confirmed in advance

Four dollars a child on the school-group rate, half the $8 walk-in price, and chaperones do not pay at all — which is what makes this the best homeschool value in central South Dakota, since a family visit charges adults the same $8 as kids. Sixty-plus hands-on exhibits cover electricity, magnetism, physics and life sciences, and you can add a STEMventure programme or an exploration kit on top.

Regular admission: $8 per person / Free under 2 (gate) — Half the gate price and every chaperone is free

Homeschool page at sd-discovery.org →

Offers

History Explorers & Gallery Classes

Tue–Sat 10am–4:30pm, Sun 1–4:30pm

Free

per kid

South Dakota State Historical Society Museum

Pierre · History Explorers backpacks for preschool up; gallery classes pitched at grades 2–4 · Backpacks need no booking; call 605-773-6011 for a gallery class

Children under 17 are free every day, and the front desk lends History Explorers backpacks — preschool and school-age versions — at no extra charge, with no booking. Bookable gallery classes for grades 2 to 4 cover buffalo, South Dakota environments and the Lewis and Clark expedition inside the galleries: see the 1743 Verendrye lead plate, walk through a tipi, try milking a cow. Suitcase kits on fourteen South Dakota topics rent for $35 for two weeks anywhere in the state, return shipping included.

Regular admission: Free under 17; adult rate not published since the July 2026 reopening — Children are free at the gate too — the draw is the programme, not a discount

Homeschool page at history.sd.gov →

Offers

Self-Guided Tour & Scavenger Hunts

Open daily · guided tours for groups of 15+

Free

per kid

South Dakota State Capitol

Pierre · Scavenger hunts suit elementary and middle grades · Self-guided needs none; guided group tours want 48 hours' notice

South Dakota Public Broadcasting publishes two free Capitol scavenger hunts with matching teacher guides — print them and the 1910 building becomes a civics and architecture lesson instead of a walk-through. Self-guided tour brochures wait in a stand inside the north doors. Groups of 15 or more can book a guided tour on 48 hours' notice at 605-773-3688, and the legislature sits January to March if you want to watch a session.

Regular admission: Free — the Capitol never charges admission — No fee either way; the value is two free scavenger hunts with teacher guides

Homeschool page at sdpb.sd.gov →

When everything’s free

Big-ticket museums with a recurring free-admission day — open to everyone, no homeschool sign-up needed.

Year-round

15 museums

FREE

Admission days

Free-for-all guide

Free museum days across South Dakota

Sioux Falls · Rapid City · Deadwood · Mitchell · Rapid City (Box Elder) · Lead & more

No group minimums and no booking forms — just show up on the right day. From free weeknights and weekend days to resident-free museums, these are the recurring free-admission days at South Dakota’s major museums, each verified on the museum’s own site.

Why it’s here: the cheapest field trip there is — no per-kid ticket and no reservation.

See all South Dakota free museum days →

Gear up for your field trip

A few inexpensive things that turn a museum or nature day into a richer lesson — favorites from homeschooling families.

Kids' field journal

Sketch and note what they see at each stop

Shop on Amazon →

Compact binoculars for kids

Zoos, nature centers, living-history farms

Shop on Amazon →

Bug viewer & magnifier

Turn any nature trail into a science lesson

Shop on Amazon →

Kids' sketchbook

Art-museum and outdoor sketching days

Shop on Amazon →

Scavenger hunt cards

Keep little ones engaged on long visits

Shop on Amazon →

Junior ranger activity book

Pairs with park and museum trips

Shop on Amazon →

Homeschool resources we love

Homeschool curriculum Science experiment kits Kids' art supplies Educational workbooks

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Plus more free and cheap educational outings in South Dakota

Already on DiscoverCheapUS — free and low-cost South Dakota attractions homeschool families plan whole field-trip days around.

Rapid City

8 free or cheap

City of Presidents Walking TourFree
Mount Rushmore National MemorialFree admission / $10 parking per vehicle
Berlin Wall Exhibit at Memorial ParkFree
Art AlleyFree
Museum of Geology at South Dakota Mines$10 adults / $5 children 6-15 / Free under 6
Chapel in the HillsFree (donations welcomed)
The Journey Museum & Learning Center$14 adults / $9 youth 6-17 / Free 5 and under
South Dakota Air and Space MuseumFree (donations welcome)

See all Rapid City attractions →

Sioux Falls

10 free or cheap

Falls ParkFree
SculptureWalkFree
Pettigrew Home & MuseumFree
USS South Dakota Battleship MemorialFree (donations appreciated)
Old Courthouse MuseumFree
Terrace Park Japanese GardensFree
Cathedral of Saint JosephFree
Washington Pavilion & Kirby Science Center$16.25 adults / $13.50 youth 3-17 / Free under 3
Great Plains Zoo$16.95 adults / $12.95 youth 2–12 / Free under 2
Butterfly House & Aquarium$15 adults / $11 youth 2-17 / Free under 2

See all Sioux Falls attractions →

Deadwood

7 free or cheap

Historic Main Street Self-Guided Walking TourFree
Mount Moriah Cemetery$2 cash only
Adams MuseumFree (suggested $5 adults / $3 children)
Days of '76 Museum$10 adults / $5 children 6–12 / Free under 6
Saloon No. 10 & Free Wild Bill ReenactmentFree to enter
Sanford Lab Homestake Visitor Center & Open Cut OverlookFree
Broken Boot Gold Mine$12 adults / $10 students 6–17 / Free under 6

See all Deadwood attractions →

Hot Springs

4 free or cheap

The Mammoth Site$15 adults / $13 ages 4-12 / Free 3 and under
Fall River County Pioneer Museum$6 adults / Free under 12 / $15 family
Historic Sandstone DowntownFree
Wind Cave National ParkFree park entry / Cave tours $14-16 adults, $7-8 youth

See all Hot Springs attractions →

Mitchell

5 free or cheap

World's Only Corn PalaceFree
Mitchell Indigenous Archaeological Site & Museum$8 adults / Free 17 and under
Dakota Discovery Museum$7 adults / $3 youth 6-17 / Free under 6
Carnegie Resource CenterFree
George & Eleanor McGovern Legacy MuseumFree

See all Mitchell attractions →

Brookings

13 free or cheap

Children's Museum of South Dakota$12.50 ages 1 and up / Free under 1
South Dakota Art MuseumFree
South Dakota Agricultural Heritage MuseumFree (donations welcome)
McCrory Gardens & South Dakota State ArboretumFree 4th Wed May–Oct / $6 adults / $4 ages 6–17
Dakota Nature Park & Larson Nature CenterFree (kayak, bike & snowshoe rentals $10)
Coughlin CampanileFree
Downtown Urban CanvasFree
America's 250th Community Mosaic MuralFree
Downtown Brookings Historic DistrictFree
Brookings Summer Arts FestivalFree
Oakwood Lakes State Park$15 per vehicle nonresident / $10 resident
Centennial Pioneer CabinFree
Brookings County MuseumAdmission not posted — call to confirm

See all Brookings attractions →

Pierre

16 free or cheap

South Dakota State CapitolFree
Capitol Lake Memorials & Flaming FountainFree
Trail of GovernorsFree
South Dakota State Historical Society MuseumFree under 17 / adult rate not posted
South Dakota Discovery Center$8 per person / Free under 2
South Dakota National Guard MuseumFree (donations welcome)
Oahe Dam Visitor Center & OverlookFree
Oahe ChapelFree
LaFramboise Island Nature AreaFree
Farm Island Recreation Area$15 per vehicle nonresident / $10 resident
Oahe Downstream Recreation Area$15 per vehicle nonresident / $10 resident
Verendrye MonumentFree
Fort Pierre Chouteau SiteFree
Fischers Lilly ParkFree (RV pads $22/night)
Fort Pierre National GrasslandFree
Casey Tibbs South Dakota Rodeo Center$6 adults / Free 6 & under

See all Pierre attractions →

See all 78 South Dakota attractions on the directory →