Workaway 'holidays'

[breward]

Has anyone ever done one of these? We are looking at going to Germany. The thought being it was a good way to immerse the teenage children in German for a week. We thought a farm would be great fun.

Not sure about driving to Germany. How hard is it to drive in Europe if you have a good sense of direction but useless when it comes to knowing left from right!?

It's very easy to drive to Germany and I'm a nervous driver.
Get Sat Nav for the towns as they stop the panic and over thinking the lane changes etc. Roads are often dual carriageways rather than motorways and everyone has good lane management. All the roads we used were quiet compared to living in the South East.
Sounds like an interesting idea although how much actual help you'd be on farm is debatable!

Thanks for the reassurance.

Does Belgium/Germany have roundabouts?!

The workaway hosts are after various skills from, planting in the garden, feeding animals, working in the farm cafe, making evening meals to teaching their children English, piano etc

I read an interesting blog about a family who travelled round the world staying with workaway hosts. The helped fit solar panels in Costa Rica, painted buildings in Canada and house-sat in the USA.

It appealed because of the need to use the language if you are in rural Germany. A city break to Berlin just wouldn't give the same immersion in the language. Also your bed and board are free if you do 5 hours work a day. So it's a cheap holiday. DD is such a social creature so she can't wait to stay with a family with other children.

There are no other threads on mumsnet about this type of holiday. When I searched it only gave posts about OH who 'workaway'!

I stumbled across the workaway site when someone mentioned farm stay holidays in Germany. We did a fantastic farm stay holiday in Devon (Torridge House Cottages) a few years ago and we all loved it. Now DC are due to take GCSEs in German in 2 and a half years, I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone.