Miranda, Mason and I have been learning so much while having fun in this review of the Picture Book Explorer Pack Paddington Bear Literature Based Unit Study from Branch Out World.

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Product Review of Branch Out World – Paddington Bear Literature Based Unit Study

About this Paddington Bear Literature Based Unit Study

I received this Picture Book Explorers Series Paddington Bear study in the form of a digital download that I downloaded onto my computer. With 69 pages total, there were more than 30 activities to choose from to help the children understand migration and the culture of London and Darkest Peru. There are even suggestions if you watch the film to help the study to best fit your child. Mason is age 5 and Miranda is age 7 and this was their first time to hear the Paddington Bear story.

How We Used It

We read the picture book during the daytime and the longer chapter book, A Bear Called Paddington in the evenings, about a chapter per night. At various times during the day, since it is summer and we don't do much as far as homeschooling at this time, I would take something from the unit study and read it to them, ask them questions, do some activities, etc. When we finished reading the chapter book, we watched the movie, Paddington Bear. The children noticed that some things were different in the movie. I know there are other Paddington Bear chapter books that we have not read yet, so it is possible that there are some things in the movie that came from a different book. We also noticed that there is a Paddington Bear 2 movie, but we have not seen that one yet.

Learning About The Countries

I really liked that there were some pages that described different facts about Peru and England and I enjoyed reading these to the children as they colored the flag of each country.

Homemade Passports

In the chapter book, when deciding to keep Paddington, Mr. Brown reasons that if they turned him into the authorities, there would be the whole question of a passport, which he did not have. My children knew about passports because their adult sister had just gone on a mission trip with our church and showed them her passport. We made them outside on a beautiful summer day.

They were thrilled to make their very own passport! They played with them throughout the week and pretended they were traveling and pretended they lost their passport and had to find it, etc. Here is Mason playing with his passport inside on a rainy day.

Talking About Migrating

My children didn't understand migration and had a lot of questions about it. I think the packing worksheet was helpful for my children to understand that sometimes a person can't take all of their belongings and you have to fit in your suitcase what you can carry. Mason was kind of silly with his and did it quickly putting pictures of chickens and Legos on it. When I asked him if he would need clothing, he said no, he would just wear what he had on! Yes, I do have to remind the boy to dress and change his clothes frequently! Miranda really thought about this and had a hard time finding magazine photos to cut out for some of the things she wanted to bring. She spent over an hour on this project.

Making Marmalade

Okay, I have to admit it, when I found out there was a recipe for marmalade in this study, I went a little overboard and decided to make a lot of it! Well, I am a mom of seven children all living in my house. I figured someone will eat it! I was really excited about this because, living in Wisconsin, USA, I had never tried marmalade before and after reading the book was curious as to what this stuff was. Was it supposed to be like jelly preserves? But the movie mentioned you could drink it? We had to try it. I could not find Seville oranges where I live, but I used what I could find. I cleaned the oranges, Miranda filled the bowls of water and Mason put the clean oranges in the water to soak overnight as suggested. This is one bowl of them.

Mason and I peeled the oranges and lemon and took the seeds out. They went into a pan of water. Miranda and I cut the orange peel into small bits with a kitchen scissors and added them to the water. We simmered them about half the day.

We added sugar (SO MUCH SUGAR!) and stirred until it dissolved. We brought it to a boil waiting for the “setting point”, which I am still not 100% sure if I got that part right.

The jars were warming in the oven while waiting for the setting point. When we thought we had the setting point, I removed the pot from heat and let it cool about ten minutes. Then I added it to the jars.

We let them refrigerate a few hours before trying it. I decided to try mine on a toaster waffle with peanut butter. I was concerned about how runny it is, but I reasoned, “the movie said you could drink it”. But I wondered if I had the setting point right too. I had never tried this before in my life so I just don't know. I would love to try someone else's to compare. The orange bits were VERY sweet, the rest reminded me of a flavored syrup. It was very good.

Miranda tried hers on a small piece of hot dog bun with peanut butter. She liked it!

Mason tried his on a small piece of hot dog bun with nothing else on it. He didn't like it and didn't ask for it again.

There were a few other people in my family that took a liking to it. My adult child likes to have it on tortillas! I don't like it runny so I keep the jar I am using in the freezer so it is thickened when I spread it.

(Update: In 2019, we added another girl to the family, named Megan.)

Mason's Opinion

“I have a passport like Marissa now! I liked the books and the movie and it was fun to color and make stuff. The chapter book should have more pictures.”

Miranda's Opinion

“It was great, I liked it very much! My favorite parts were making marmalade, watching the movie and packing the suitcase.”

My Opinion

The unit study was overwhelming to me at first with 69 pages for a little picture book. I thought I must have done something wrong with getting the little book and got the chapter book too. You don't need the chapter book or the movie, but I am glad we did those too. I realized that you don't have to do everything in the unit study. You can choose what is best for your family and have fun learning together. We did have fun, and learned a lot, but didn't do every item suggested. Even though it took A LOT OF TIME, I am glad we made marmalade. Now my kids know what it is. Now if only we could get people in other cultures to eat Wisconsin Cheese Curds!