Look! We Made Our Own All-Natural Gum!

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The boys and I had a lot of fun trying our hand at making bubble gum.  My boys have a special affection for the stuff, but I have to admit that sometimes I look at the list of ingredients in the gum and just cringe…

I remember seeing my friend, Kiara post about how she discovered a gum without artificial sweeteners – Glee Gum.  I even printed off the coupon that she linked too and then forgot to go buy some.  So when we had the opportunity to try making some of our own Glee Gum, I asked Xander if he wanted to try his hand at making gum.  His face lit up and he was practically dancing around the house.  He would ask every day if our gum kit had arrived yet.

We love bubble gum, we LOVE making things ourselves and I felt better being able to pronounce each and every one of the ingredients going into it!

The kit comes with everything you need except a knife to stir (in hindsight, we recommend using a plastic knife), a rolling pin or bottle and something to cut the gum with (we enjoyed using our pizza wheel).

The directions were easy to follow and the boys zipped right through the process. The kneading and rolling part took some muscle. Treyton was quite insistent that he was strong enough to handle it and proceeded to show off his muscles. Naturally, in a home of 3 boys, they all detoured for a bit to flex and impress their mama. He had fun trying to roll out the gum, but didn’t quite have the strength to effectively do it.

Tree to Glee > Learning Resources from Glee Gum

We were all impressed with the educational resources that came with our kit and those available on the Glee Gum site.  This sure would have come in handy a few years ago when we learned about the rainforest during our geography unit.  We discovered that harvesting chicle is a great way to support families living in the rainforests in Guatemala and Mexico.  We loved the Tree to Glee picture slide show with the little Glee guy ‘telling us’ about each picture.  The boys loved the idea of climbing trees with machete’s.  I was horrified to discover that the gum we usually chew, in addition to containing all of the artificial sweeteners, is chemically produced ‘gum’.  What we chew doesn’t have any roots in nature. Ick.

I will say that Rich and I found the chicle a little dense and hard to chew since we grew up used to the other ‘fake’ stuff.  But the kids loved it.  They took great pride in showing off their handiwork and sampling both flavers included in the kit.

GLEE GUM KITS

Glee Gum actually sells 3 ‘make your own’ kits with educational resources and lesson plans to go with them.

Make Your Own Gum {and learn about the rainforest and chicle}

Available from Glee Gum or Amazon

Make Your Own Chocolate {and learn about the link between cacao and the ancient Aztecs}

Available from Glee Gum or Amazon

Make Your Own Gummis {and learn about the importance of the seaweed, Carrageenan}

Available from Glee Gum or Amazon

And now for the fun part! Glee Gum would like to send a kit to one of you!  One winner will get to select the kit of their choice! This giveaway is open to residents of the U.S. only.  See the Rafflecopter for how to enter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway