Charleston: The Charleston Explorer Program
Charleston Explorer Goodies
Since we go to Charleston a few times every year we signed the kids up for their Charleston Explorers Club a little over a year ago. It was a great way to explore the Charleston area, learn pieces of history or science and more plus earn a few prizes along the way. We have always enjoy our trips to Charleston and every time we try to go to a new place which made the Charleston Explorers a great program for our kids.
You could pick up a Charleston Explorer passport at any of the Charleston Area Visitors Centers. It was free for any kid under 18 to sign up for the club. When the kids enrolled they each received a passport, prize, a list of more than 30 participating locations, and information about how the program worked. Each time the kids visited one of the locations they would get a stamp specific to that location and enter the “stamp code” into their online profile and rate the place they visited. Every 5 stamps they would earn a prize that was mailed directly to our house. We never knew what the prizes would be and the kids were always very happy with the neat items that came in the mail.
Some of the places where you got the stamps were free while others required paid admission. Several of the places you could buy discounted tickets if you bundled them together. The program started back in April 2011 and recently ended. It is probably one of the best travel programs we have participated in, it was ran well, the prizes were amazing, and we had a blast doing the Charleston Explorers with the kids. We would love to see them do another program for the kids in the future!
I would encourage you to check out any of these types of explorers programs in your local area or another area where you visit frequently. These are programs can provide great learning opportunities for your kids. It was a wonderful experience for our whole family. I wish more places had kids programs like this one.
Some of the items we received:
- Charleston Explorers Water Bottles
- Charleston Explorers Magnetic Keychains with Flashlights
- Charleston Explorers Binoculars
- Charleston Explorers Pens
- Charleston Explorers Stickers
- Charleston Explorers Bag
- Charleston Explorers Clips
- $25 Wonder Works Toy Store Gift Cards
- iPod Touch
The highlighted places on our brochure are the ones we have visited since we started the Charleston Explorers program! Great places to visit and wonderful times exploring with the kids!
The girls passport books! Here is what two of their pages look like with the Fort Sumter, Patriots Point, Heyward Washington House, Nathaniel Russell House, Edmonston Alston House, and Aiken Rhett House stamps on these two pages. We filled their passport books up. The girls loved getting their stamps at the end of their tours.
One of the prizes they earned was a $25 Gift Card each from Wonder Works a Toy Store in Charleston. The girls can’t wait for our next trip to Charleston so they can use their gift cards!
The girls were so excited when FedEx dropped off a package at our “Google only” household! Guess, we now need to include another platform…. Their final Charleston Explorers prize was an iPod Touch! They were so very EXCITED to receive the iPod! Wow!!! Thanks Charleston for making our trips so enjoyable and for the amazing prizes! It has been a awesome exploring with the family and we look forward to our next visit! We still have several more locations we want to see on our list!
Charleston: Historic Heyward-Washington House
The girls hanging out by the kitchen at the Heyward-Washington House. The kitchen house contained all the cooking, washing, and upstairs it has a servants quarters.
The girls and I visited The Heyward-Washington House when we were in Charleston recently. We got there a few moments before the tour so we were able to spend some time walking through the Heyward-Washington House kitchen and gardens. It was nice to take a walk through the gardens first thing in the morning. We were so excited to explore we didn’t get a picture of the front of the house.
Thomas Heyward, Jr was the owner of this house. He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and was in the militia during the American Revolution. During President George Washington’s stay in Charleston he stayed at the Heyward-Washington House. In the late 1700’s the house sold to John F. Grimke. Grimke served in the Revolutionary War and the father of Sarah and Angeline Grimke. Sarah and Angeline were known for speaking out against slavery and were asked to leave Charleston. Earlier this year the Brina had done a research project on Angeline Grimke so that was really neat to find out her family lived in this house. It was Charleston’s first historic home that was turned into a museum.
Girls in the kitchen. It must have been a super busy kitchen many years ago.
Touring the gardens of the Heyward-Washington House.
Walking through the gardens checking out all the plants.
Brina in the garden. She is very concerned we are going to miss the tour because we are walking through the gardens! She was good about keeping track of our time!
Beautiful purple flowers in the garden.
Touring the Heyward-Washington House! The girls were the only kids and the tour guide had them do a scavenger hunt looking for various items throughout the house. It made the tour a little more of an adventure for the girls and they earned a free gift at the end!
A neat house to explore! The Heyward-Washington House part of Historic Charleston!
