Children's Museum of South Dakota

The Children's Museum of South Dakota, where kids can pretend to be grownups and grownups can pretend to be kids, is an educational experience disguised as a fun house. The creators of the exhibits and activities put a lot of thought into making it fun. Kids can change tires on cars, pretend to be store clerks, run an ice cream shop or anchor a TV show -- just like adults. And rooms such as Our Prairie make it a definitively Midwestern experience. Whether they are climbing clouds to the sky, playing house inside a realistic sod home, standing in a nearly life-size tepee or harvesting potatoes from a realistic farmstead, the children come away with a better appreciation of prairie life and the working world. Outside, the museum offers more fun. In one exhibit, kids can pour buckets of water into rock-filled cylinders to learn about filtration. But the scary T. rex (which roars and flicks its tail whenever someone activates the motion sensors), the fountains, flowing water and tunnels are all about just having a good time. During our visit, we saw scores of children engaging in every exhibit. And some parents, who start out "helping" their kids, end up climbing, splashing, playing and building things themselves -- even after their children have moved on the next exhibit. The museum, which opened in September 2010, is a great way for families to spend a couple of hours. Admission charged.