I received this product free of charge for review purposes. All opinions expressed in this post are my own and I was not required to post a positive review of the product.
Confession time…I rarely ever give my kids gum. With that said, can you begin to imagine the squeals of “glee” when I told them that we were going to MAKE our own gum! Needless to say, my kids were VERY surprised and incredibly excited! Here is what was included in the Make Your Own Chewing Gum educational activity kit that we reviewed:
Making Chewing Gum:
The instructions included in the kit were very easy to follow. After reading a few other reviews, I decided to cook the gum base on the stove as opposed to the microwave and our gum turned out perfect! Below are a few specific steps in the cooking process! (Be sure to read the pamphlet included in the kit for complete instructions!)
We placed the chicle gum base into the plastic pan and the placed the pan in a pot of water.
We boiled the water until the gum base melted!
Melting the gum base over the stove took about 15 minutes. I used this time to read the included educational pamphlet to the kids!
Once the gum base was ready, we mixed it with the corn syrup. SUPER STICKY!! I opted to use a craft stick so that I could discard everything once our gum was made!
Once mixed well, we placed the sticky mixture onto the powdered sugar.
The kids took turns kneading, rolling, and flattening! It took some effort to mix the sugar in with chicle gum base, but with five helpful kiddos the process took no time at all!
Using the remaining sugar and the yummy flavor packets (peppermint and cherry), the kids kneaded, rolled, and flattened some more.
And some more!
…Until we were left with lots of yummy tasting gum! The instructions state to use a rolling pin to make thin sticks of gum. However, we opted to make gum balls!
The kids absolutely loved making the gum and we were quite impressed with the taste as well! We took a survey and of the seven of us, three prefer cherry, two prefer peppermint, and two could not decide, “because they both taste so good!” We had so much left over that we wrapped our gum balls in wax paper to save for later and to share with friends! The entire process only took us about an hour!
Learning about Gum & the Rainforest:
I used the time it took to melt the gum base on the stove to read the educational pamphlet to the kids! It answered the question:
“What does the Make Your Own Chewing Gum Kit have to do with the Rainforest?”
The kids and I learned SO MUCH about the process of making gum! We learned about the Sapodilla trees which grow wild in the rainforests of Guatemala! We learned that a “chiclero” is one who collects sap from Sapodilla trees to make gum! The kids and I were totally amazed and intrigued!
If the education pamphlet wasn’t enough, I discovered that the website also contains loads of additional FREE educational material (including supplements, lesson plans, stories, and more) about the gum making process! There is even a photo slide show showing the process of making Glee gum, literally taking you “from the tree to Glee!”
My kids LOVED seeing the photos and reading about the process of making Glee gum! They also enjoyed seeing the Glee Guy jump around the screen!
More Thoughts on the Chewing Gum Kit:
Like I said, I rarely let my kids chew gum! However, I felt surprisingly GOOD about my kids chewing the gum that we made! There is just something special about making things from scratch! I love that it is eco-friendly and that it’s made with natural ingredients! I was truly impressed with the chewing gum kit!
In fact, I am thinking about ordering the refill kit so that we can experiment a bit with the gum! We want to play with colors and flavors using food coloring and other powdered flavoring like Kool-Aid or Jell-o. Who knows, the kids may decide to start a little business selling homemade gum to the neighbors! {grins}
We enjoyed the Make Your Own Chewing Gum Kit so much so, that I am also thinking about purchasing the other educational candy kits to use with my kids! Learning should be sweet, right?! {grins}
For more Information, be sure to check out the following links:
-
The Make Your Own Candy Kits webpage
-
Glee Gum on Facebook
-
@gleeguy on Twitter
Purchase the Make Your Own Candy Kits:
Want to make your own sweet treats and learn a lot in the process? The Make Your Own Candy Kits are available on the Glee website for $13.95 and also on Amazon!
