Climbing in a Giant Toilet at Kidscommons

 

Did you know that there is a children’s museum featuring a giant toilet in Indiana? Well, there is and it’s as hilarious as you’re imagining! Kidscommons is a children’s museum in the artsy city of Columbus, Indiana.

There is an entire mock house set-up inside the museum on the second floor. The idea behind this area is to explore the things that go on behind the scenes at your own house. Kids get to explore the crawl spaces, plumbing, power, and other fun concepts within the house. You can climb down the toilet to follow the plumbing. There’s an area in the basement with normal-sized PVC pipes for kids to piece together.

There is a sliding bookcase shelf in the living room that leads to a climbing area kids can take to the second floor. It’s quite tight which we found out after Octavia went in and got too scared to get back out. Ivy went in after her, almost getting stuck!

The second floor is also home to a rock climbing wall, many building items, and a bubble-blowing area. The rock climbing wall requires an additional fee. My kids weren’t interested because there was too much else to do but it did appear to be very popular. They did spend some time building at each of the various stations.

They spent at least an hour in the bubble room. There were multiple bubble areas including a giant ring that allows you to put yourself in a bubble! Even Octavia was able to pull the rope to make a big bubble. This appeared to be the highlight of the area and there was often a short line to try it. There are giant bubble wands to make large bubbles. There’s an area to build your own bubble wand too. With all the soap in here, this was definitely good clean fun!

The third floor included sporting equipment (jump ropes, basketball hoops), a grocery store, diner, building items including giant blocks, books, and a huge chess set. It was fairly busy on this floor, especially as the day went on.

The girls built a house out of the giant blocks. They played basketball. They had a step-up for little kids to play too. Octavia had a good time with this. There was a large beanbag style chair in the corner to relax or read in.  Isabella worked on the STEM pipe table. I love these extra educational moments as a homeschooler.

After spending the early day on the second and third floor, we went to lunch across the street at The Commons. We had read online that there were a couple of restaurants and a really neat playground there. We decided to do a very easy lunch at Subway. The playground looked amazing! We looked at the closing times on Kidscommons and The Commons while we ate. We decided to go back to Kidscommons until they closed and come back to the free playground at The Commons after.

We spent the afternoon checking out the completely cool first floor of Kidscommons. There is an area set-up to look like a camper and campground. Considering our upcoming plans to live in a camper, we thought this area was a ton of fun! The girls climbed in the half bunks, made fake food, and checked out the area.

There is a Japanese house set up at the front of the first floor. They have a room at the door to take off your shoes and put on slippers. There’s a kitchen on one side after you enter and a dress-up/toy area on the other. The girls had fun dressing up before having pretend tea in the tatami room. There was a table set up with a teapot, cups, and Japanese inspired fake food like sushi. There were toys, games, and posters decorating the walls. Isabella has taken beginner Japanese classes for years and really enjoyed this area.

Next, we went to a backroom behind the stairs on the first floor. There were light boards and Magna-Tiles in here. There was a game about setting up a town. It started with an area of land with natural features. You had to lay the roadwork and decide on the placement of all the needed town items, including power, water, sewer, schools, public buildings like libraries and museums, housing, factories, stores, a doctor office, a dentist office, parking, bus stops, etc. Ivy and I really enjoyed this game and ended up playing three times. Octavia had a blast playing with the Magna-Tiles with Isabella. It was extra enjoyable because we were the only people in this area.

In the same area as the camper is a large wooden flower bed. The flowers are removable so that kids can replant them. It is set up like a shape puzzle which is great for preschoolers learning shapes. Octavia loved this area but it was too “little kiddy” for Isabella. She chose to go back upstairs to the fake house and play with kids her age while Octavia played in the garden area. There is also a nice craft area but my girls didn’t spend much time there. If we lived nearby, they would be much more likely to use this area.

When the museum closed for the day, we went back across the street to The Commons. The girls couldn’t wait to play on the amazing, free indoor playground. This place is seriously cool! They ran and climbed to their heart’s content. They have a smaller play area for younger kids that was perfect for Octavia. Isabella spent most of her time in the giant climbing, play structure.

I decided that this day warranted some frozen yogurt from the Orange Leaf next to the play area. We have ice cream or dessert dinner a couple of times a year on special days. We normally do this on our beach vacations but we chose not to take one this year since we leave for our big trip next year. We had such a wonderful day in Columbus, Indiana at Kidscommons and The Commons. If you ever have the chance, stop by!

Location: 309 Washington st. Columbus, Indiana

Price: Kidscommons – $7 per person, The Commons Playground – Free

Website – https://www.kidscommons.org/

Happy Travels!