I’m back with more beachy fun from our trip at the end of July. If you missed our first few days, be sure to go check them out!!

When we realized it was going to rain all day on Tuesday, we started thinking/scrambling for things to do with the kids. The condo we stay in is perfect for the beach, but it gets a little tight when we are all trapped in those 837 square feet for the whole day. Luckily, Jack and Luke’s second grade teacher, Wendy, who is also my friend was at the beach too. She took her family to a brand new spot that looked perfect for a rainy day. After texting with Wendy, we knew the kids would love it and we wanted to go. Another family wanted to go with us, so we made reservations for noon and were ready to go.

We headed to The Great STEMporium!! This place was AMAZING!! It was perfect for our kiddos, and the grown ups had a great time too. It just opened the first weekend in July in Lewes, Delaware. It is about 30 minutes from Ocean City, except when it’s raining and everyone is headed to the outlets. Then it takes about an hour, which it did for us. It is designed for kids ages 5 and up. Everything is designed for kids to learn and solve problems using STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) while having a bunch of fun. They have a Great Smile Guarantee, ensuring that everyone has a great time by allowing you to switch activities if you aren’t thrilled.
It is set up like a restaurant so you pick your table, order your appetizers, main course, dessert, and you can take doggie bags to do at home if you’d like. This image from The Great STEMporium website explains it perfectly.

Ok, now onto our fun! We were a little late because of the traffic mentioned above and they were so accommodating. The staff seated our group at two tables as soon as we arrived. Our waitress brought us a bread basket of fidgets to play with while we looked through the menu and waited for our orders to arrive.

We ordered 4 appetizers for the 8 of us. We ordered the materials to make a fart molecule and a slime molecule, inertia beads, and sound wave utensils. The boys constructed the molecules and you can see the bread basket on the table.

They were all pretty cool, but the inertia beads kept our attention for a long time. These were a long strand of beads in a cup and you pulled them with different forces or to different heights to see which would go faster, how the differences affected the beads coming out of the cup, and how inertia works.

The sound wave utensils were pretty awesome too. We used strings and different utensils to hear the different tones created by hitting each utensil in different places or with different materials.

For the main course, my boys decided to do the 30 minute free play. There are 16 options to choose from during the 30 minutes. They picked erupting a volcano (twice), making a lie detector, and a laser maze. The lie detector was a snap circuit board and Jack got into it. He was excited to get his circuit board out and try to replicate it at home.

Luke loved the laser maze and he played with Jeff for most of his 30 minutes.

The erupting volcano was classic baking soda and vinegar but I was thrilled that the mess happened on their table and not mine! Our waitress explained all the parts of a volcano and gave a good lesson on the science behind it before we did the experiment.

We also ordered owl pellets for the kids to dissect. The kids had fun, and the adults got into it too! We found a bunch of skulls, pelvises, scapulas, and vertebrae. It was definitely cool to see! They offered us a bone bag to bring all of our bones home, but we opted to leave them behind.

While the grown ups were finishing up the owl pellets, the kids made some slime. There are bunches of choices of slime colors and add ins.

All of our activities had thought provoking questions and possible career connections to each activity. We had a great discussions about real life applications and what everyone wants to be when they grow up.

We decided to skip dessert and the make and takes, but they looked pretty fun too!

When we got home, I couldn’t find my credit card. I called The Great STEMporium and they were so wonderful! They searched our table area, the gift shop/checkout area, and the parking lot in the pouring rain! They called me back to check in to see if I found it and were so gracious when I told them we found it in the car. The staff anticipated our every need and were so helpful!!

The Great STEMporium was the perfect way to spend a rainy day at the beach!! Our kids LOVED it, the grown ups were entertained, and we all learned a bit. I hope that word spreads about this fabulous children’s activity and they do well!! After perusing their website, it looks like you could have birthday parties, scout troop outings, and field trips here.

Come on back Wednesday for the rest of our beach trip. We tried two new activities and 3 more themes! I hope you have a great day full of sunshine and books. But if it rains and you’re at the beach, head to to The Great STEMporium!!