Bubble gum basics

We don't eat gum or very rarely do. I don't like it so I don't buy it. I don't let the children have it because it either gets swallowed, spit out on the carpet, or winds up in their hair. So the long and short of it is my girls are clueless as to how to blow bubbles. E had "Camp Cowabunga" this week where part of the time they had a bubblegum blowing contest. Being fairly competitive I never want my kids to feel like they can't do something compared to others so the day before I bought two packs of gum at the store. One for E to take and one for practice. That night we practiced. We practiced for a long time. We started at the basics--chewing and learning how to flatten a piece of gum. We then moved on to how to cover your tongue in gum and finally how to blow. Teaching how to blow a bubble is hard work. E, T, and M all had their gum and were so ready and anxious to blow a bubble no matter how small or how big. They liked practicing in front of the mirror so we went into the bathroom. Gum kept flying out of their mouths when trying to blow (we were still trying to learn how to cover our tongues). T was the funniest in how many times the gum kept flying out of her mouth. M just liked chewing and sticking weird gum creations out of her mouth pretending they were bubbles. E was eventually successful in creating a few bubbles and sincerely thanked me for teaching her. E didn't win the contest but she said that she did blow a bubble--one of her biggest in fact about the size of a lime. I'm mighty proud.