I was asked recently if I could help parents who home educate, link up with other parents who home educate.
After a bit of research I found various places offering activities for Home Educators in Doncaster, such as YWT Potteric Carr’s Forest School, but the best way to find out what was going on was to speak with someone who home educates themselves and get a bit of advice.
I caught up with David and Donetta, from the blog and YouTube channel strategically named…David and Donetta, who currently home educate their 6 year old and were happy to pass on some tips!
Here is their story and some useful advice.
We spent 12 months researching home education before finally making the decision, the day before our now 6 year old was about to start nursery!
We fell in love with the idea of being able to tailor our child’s education to suit his needs and the freedom we would have to offer him so many different opportunities that schools simply can’t.
A huge part of our research was to find out exactly what materials, support and activities were available on our doorstep. If you’re in Doncaster, or even Yorkshire then you’re very lucky because the Home Education community is huge. There’s so much on offer and it’s all extremely accessible. It’s almost like we’ve unlocked a secret world that’s always been right in front of us, but was only revealed once we went looking for it.
If you’re home educating or thinking of home educating in Doncaster, then Facebook is your new best friend! If you’re on it, great, if you’re not then you need to be.
Facebook groups are a necessity for us home educators. There’s the bigger UK wide groups where you can ask questions, get ideas and generally cypher the vastly knowledgeable home educators that hang around such groups, then there’s the smaller local groups where all the practical action and meet-ups are arranged.
There are several groups we use and for different reasons as mentioned above. We’d look to the bigger UK wide groups for ideas and inspiration and the smaller local groups to arrange meet-ups and find out what activities are available. There’s literally something happening EVERY SINGLE DAY in the home education community. These things range from casual meet-ups at the park for the children to see their friends and build those social skills everyone seems to worry about (said sarcastically), to actual lessons such as Spanish, STEM and everything else you can think of.
Getting specific for you lot reading this, who are likely to be from Doncaster, here’s the links to a couple of local groups we recommend if you’re home educating in our area.
Home Education Doncaster Group (HEDG)
These three tend to be our go-to groups but we do often look to get involved in others around Doncaster too. That’s another thing we’ve found over the last 3 years of home educating, broaden your search for activities if possible dependant on your travel arrangements. We have a car and often find ourselves in and around Rotherham where we now have several good friends.
I’ll be honest, Facebook is the best resource and everything stems from it. Other notable things we’ve done to enhance our home educating experience is join the English Heritage membership which allows even more room for exploration and it’s so cheap it’s an absolute no-brainer. It’s also worth asking anywhere you visit that involves paying to get in, if they do an annual pass, you’ll be surprised how many places offer this.
The obvious places like Yorkshire Wildlife Park do but also, The Deep in Hull and Magna in Rotherham offer free entry for a year once you’ve paid only once! Its an incredible deal.
In summary, if you’re home educating or thinking of home educating in Doncaster then get yourself into the groups I’ve mentioned above, chat with people, engage and have a look around to find what’s available. Get out and try all the different activities and remember to ask about home educators offers and annual memberships.
We’re more than happy to talk home education anytime, our social media inboxes are always open so feel free to DM us with any questions you have…
Thanks to David & Donetta for their advice and recommendations!
I have added a ‘Home Education section to the Doncaster Mumbler website, which has links to these groups and others in Doncaster. If you attend any groups or classes or hold any sessions suitable for Home Educators during the week, please let me know via the contact form and I will add them to the listings – Contact Form
