Influencers and flexischooling/homeschooling

[User65849]

I'm raising this as neutrally as possible as I understand that any family should just consider their own circumstances, their child's wellbeing and the options available to them and make a decision accordingly but I'm curious...

I'm increasingly seeing influencers I follow on Instagram opting to homeschool or requesting to flexi-school their child. Or if not, repeatedly raising it as a question and engaging views I suppose on their platforms. While I don't doubt that there are many issues with our education system, which are more prevalent in some schools than others, and that those youngest children starting school in the UK are very young, I'm curious as to whether this is a bit of a an echo chamber on social media among those who have the financial security and flexibility to consider it (and more cynically are seeing engagement with their platform on the topic) or if it is in fact a rising trend.

Fwiw I have an August born DC who is going into year 1. They were v excited to go back and we've fostered a great sense of school community at a nurturing school. I don't like the class sizes being 30 or that a lot of play based learning is lost in year 1 but overall they seem happy and settled - but I can see how in the same argument for a 4 day week for adults, there's an argument 5 days is a lot for some children.

Is it a trend you've noticed?

There's definitely a lot more noise about it than there ever has been. I also think it's massively unreasonable (dare I say it entitled) to expect state education to cater for your every whim. It's just not possible in the real world, with our current system and limitations, nor do I think budget should be spent on making it possible - and is there even any evidence suggesting it's a good thing for children and their educational outcomes? Much more pressing problems to address first.

It seems to be a trend for many people, not just influencers. If it can be managed at home, Flexischooling is a great option for a lot of kids.

If I was being very cynical, I'd say that family-focused influencers are going to get much more content if they have their kids at home with them every day rather than at school.

Separately there's an interesting theory about the pipeline of influencing towards right-wing politics which is fascinating - I wish I could find a diagram/graphic I've seen on it. It's basically says that there's an increasingly well-worn path for influencers (mainly US-based ones) along the lines of homeschooling>homesteading>fitness/gym/protein obsession>survivalist mentality>right-wing politics>Christian fundamentalism. This is of course a big generalisation and there are a lot of different variants even when it is in play, but fascinating nonetheless.

@EllatrixB, that's interesting. I wonder how much of it is the internet algorithm bringing up similar and more extreme views? Eg homeschooling becomes a lack of trust in social institutions becomes survivalist becomes each for themselves becomes not willing to support state institutions etc. Obviously that 100% doesn't apply to the majority of homeschooling and is an extreme view if a pattern - and extremes are seldom correct.

Some children are absolutely better off being homeschool. Generally, imo its much better to be exposed to a range of opinions, lifestyles, outlooks etc. You cant choose what you dont know exists. But those two things aren't mutually exclusive.

I dislike people using their children for youtube hits or influencer stuff.

Nail on the head I think @Saz12. I wish I could find the graphic I saw, it was so interesting!

I definitely don’t see any of this. I think you are engaging with it and therefore, it’s what you get. I only know a handful of people in real life who homeschool - one is an heiress who doesn’t need to work, they mostly seem to go on lots of cruises when they aren’t at a festival, the other is a farm worker and the kid works on the farm as child labour (I’m not sure how much schooling is going on with either). I can think of only one person who homeschooled who I follow on social media (but don’t know in real life) and it’s because she was on a book tour for the best part of a year, so took the kids with her. They are back to school this year.

My guess is that if your job is content creation, you need the supporting cast members around to create content to post. That’s hard to do if they are in school most of the day 5 days a week.

Well if the explosion in members on the Facebook Home Education Groups are anything to go by then I'd say, yes, the popularity growth is across the board, not simply the latest fad for influencers.

I've been a home educating parent for nearly 15 years and have seen it explode in numbers. From the days of Yahoo local groups circa 2008 to 80k strong Facebook groups in 2025.

It's simply becoming a more widespread realisation that school is not the only way.