EdVenture, Columbia, South Carolina

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.”

Dr. Seuss

“Oh the places you’ll go! There is fun to be done! There are points to be scored. There are games to be won. And the magical things you can do with that ball will make you the winning-est winner of all.”

Dr. Seuss 

Presidents Day. It’s a day off of school for Jeannine’s crew so we decided to take them to do something fun. When we picked EdVenture in Columbia, South Carolina, we choose right. If you have young children, this is the place to go. There is 92,000 square feet of hands on exhibits, resource centers, and galleries to explore. This is the largest children's museum in the southeast United States and has been open since 2003. Their mission: to inspire children to experience the joy of learning.

Eddie

When we entered the building, the first thing you see is a humongous statue of Eddie, the worlds largest child sitting in the atrium. This statue of a 10 year old boy is fascinating to see and the children got a kick out of just looking at him. To give you an idea of how large Eddie actually is; he stands 40 feet tall, weighs 35,000 pounds, and his foot alone is the size of a compact car at 12.5 feet long. He is twice the size of the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC. Oh my.

Flutter

Inside of Eddie

Eddie's Heart

Eddies brain and skull

Mary going down slide in Eddie's Intestines

Eddie's Spine

The neatest thing about Eddie is he is not just a statue, but an interactive play center where you can explore him, climb up his vertebrae, and see his working brain, stomach, intestines, and heart. There are things to jump on and slide down. The dragonfly sitting on his hand is named “Flutter” and it is said he flew in and sat on his hand during the construction of this building and they immortalized him. Oh, how the children were were fascinated by him.

Rocket Elevator

Toddler's playground

Toddlers playground

Recycle room projects

There is an awesome toddler playground for the young children. The younger ones in our group didn’t want to leave they were having so much fun. While the younger ones were playing, I took the older ones to an area where they could make projects out of recyclable items. They loved that and I was amazed watching each child’s creativity in what they designed. I believe they could have stayed right there all day.

Space Talk

Space tent to see the Moon movie

Inside the moon movie tent.

To the Moon and Back film. 

An announcement came saying there was a short space film about going to the moon and back, so we all went to see that. The show was in a dome tent that was totally black where the children could lay on the floor on their backs to watch and there were chairs around the edge of the tent for the adults to sit. It was a fascinating 360 degree film for both the adults and the children.

The cock pit of the Boeing 757.

There was a large aeronautical section for the children to experience flight. The could sit in a cockpit and pretend to fly Boeing 757. There were flight outfits for the children to put on while flying, which thrilled them. They were fascinated by this set up and didn’t want to leave. The cockpit of the plane actually sticks out of the building. Behind the cockpit are real airplane seats with a movie showing above of what you would see from the airplane while flying.

The children loved the flight simulators

There were also flight simulators so you could test your skills at flying a Boeing 777. They all enjoyed their flying experience there and throughout the day, kept wanting to go back there. That was a real hit.

Lego Room

Magnetic board

There was a building section with large Lego's and another area called the Tinker Tech where they could design and build with other materials. There was also a magnetic board with different colored magnets where you could make shapes and pictures. The Engineer section was fun for the kids to design an engineering project out of cardboard, tape, rubber bands, Popsicle sticks, string, and cloth. There were so many hands on projects for the children to make that could keep them busy for hours.

Ice Hockey

Dre and Legend enjoying an ice hockey game. 

Tubing on the snow slide

We went down to the first floor so the kids could go to the Snowville. There is no real snow there but they figured out how to make a 25 foot long slippery slope for the children to tube down. Our Mary, went down at least 15 times she loved it so much. They also had an ice hockey ring for them to play in and a game where they could blast a ball (snow) at each other.

Tire climbing room

Fun at the grocery store

Miss carbohydrate stocking up on pies.

Prince is shopping.

Fire safety class 

The fire detector spoke when the red light went on. 

A 24’ real firetruck was parked at the Dalmatian Station where the kids could put on firemen gear, sit behind the drivers wheel and pretend to drive the truck, and even slide down a fire men's pole. There was a little dinner where they could pretend to serve you a meal, a library with puppets and a puppet theater to put on shows, and a farm with a statue of a cow and chickens where they showed you how to milk a cow and get eggs from the chickens, and even a real John Deere tractor sit on and “drive”. There was a Spark car to sit in, and a supermarket where they had shopping carts. The children could pick out what kind of foods they wanted and check them out at the registers. Mary, “Miss carbohydrate” cracked us up by loading her cart with fake bread and pies and leaving all the healthy items on the shelves. They also had a fire safety demonstration showing the children how to get out of a house safe during a fire and how to make an escape plan.

The hands on diner. 

The puppet stage and they are real children behind it.  

 Kid playground

Bella controlling the space ship.

Cafeteria

Personal hygiene class 

Mr. Dinosaur need a cone to protect him. 

Walk on Video game.

Animals treated and resting

The game room had a playground with a slide, a small miniature golf course, large sized Othello game, large floor model chess board, climbing wall, and an interactive action game where you step on the video game to get points. There was even a Vet Clinic called Wags and Whiskers where the children could put on a lab coats, look at x-rays, give injections to the stuffed animals, put protective cones on them, and learn how to care for animals.

I walked outside into a garden section but there was no demonstration that day. It looked nice and I imagine during nice weather, there would be demonstrations on gardening. When I went to come back in, I realized I had locked myself out of the building. Luckily, I made eye contact with Jeannine who came to my rescue and let me back inside.

Mary and Azzy are ready for take off. 

Before we left, we headed to another outside section, where after I verified we wouldn’t be locked out, let the children check out the Cessna plane in the front of the building. They loved sitting in it pretending to pilots flying. There was also different sizes of tricycles to drive around, and a water play set up.

We had a wonderful day at EdVenture and the children went home exhausted and well educated. This is a great place to let your child run off that extra steam, learn something new, and enjoy themselves. I would thoroughly recommend this place and I know our children would. Check in your area and see if there is one nearby. EdVenture is open seven days a week from 9 am to 5 pm. Check them out at their link: www.edventure.org. They are located at 211 Gervais Street, Columbia, South Carolina. There phone number is: 803-779-3100.

See you next time Eddie and Flutter.  

Mission complete. EdVenture succeeded in every way. Thank you for a great day. We had a blast. Till next time. Bye for now.