Does Unschooling Really Work?

Written By: The Good and the Beautiful Published On: June 10, 2026

What is unschooling, and does it work? Many homeschool families ask this question, especially families new to homeschooling. Jenny Phillips has devoted an extensive amount of time to studying the effectiveness of both structured homeschooling and unschooling. In this blog post, she shares stories of successful unschooling, but she also offers seven considerations to think about when deciding how structured or unstructured your homeschool should be.

What should I know before I start unschooling?

Know that success can be found with many homeschooling methods.
Curriculum can be an incredible blessing. It doesn’t have to be the enemy!
Unschooling might seem “easier;” however, for it to be successful, unschooling requires work and planning.
All children (and families) have different needs—an unschooling approach might work well for your child, or it might not.
Most children need intentional structure in their learning and routines. Intentional guidance leads children to success.
“Trusting the unschooling method” might not lead to the results you desire. Having requirements and expectations of children helps children grow to be responsible and sensible.
As with many things in life, avoiding extremes and finding balance is important in homeschooling.
Everyone has gaps in their education, but it is best to guard against these gaps!
You, as a parent, are more mature and wise than your child. Lead your child’s education, but allow them to make age-appropriate choices.
God will direct you in your homeschooling journey as you let Him!

8 Frequently Asked Questions About Unschooling

1. Does Unschooling Work?

Does unschooling really work? I hope this blog post will give some eye-opening insights into this homeschool philosophy. Abigail Adams said, “Learning is not attained by chance; it must be sought for with ardor and diligence.” I believe in intentional homeschooling, and I believe in certain forms of unschooling. I believe both traditional and unschooling methods can be effective, but only if they are sought for with ardor and diligence. If parents give up on structure and formal learning in homeschooling, and the only desire is to find an easier path, giving up diligence in homeschooling, that is when problems set in.

“Learning is not attained by chance; it must be sought for with ardor and diligence.”

— Abigail Adams

My Research

During the past 12 years, I have done hundreds of hours of research on homeschooling and learning methods, and I have talked with hundreds of homeschooling families using many different methods. I find homeschooling methods a fascinating subject, and I have come to a conclusion:

“There is more than one method of homeschooling that will create a love of learning and a strong mind and heart. Unschooling can sometimes be touted as the way to gain a love of learning, but I would say that, done correctly, it is one way. Both unschooling and structured homeschooling can work, and they both can fail.”

– Jenny Phillips

The message of this blog post is focused on unschooling. Does it really work? My personal observation and professional perspective is that unschooling, in a way that rejects all or most of structured learning, can work really well for some people, but it is usually the exception. And it is often not effective for many families.

2. What is Unschooling?
It is difficult to give an accurate definition of unschooling that works for everyone because unschooling means different things for different people.
Some define it as a child directing all the learning; others define it as not following the structure of a traditional education; and some define it as not following a public-school philosophy of education. In that last sense, I would consider myself an unschooler—and yet I use curriculum and have a lot of structure and a lot of flexibility in my homeschool.
Some people who call themselves unschoolers are adamant that to be an unschooler, you don’t use any curriculum, while others do use some curriculum. So I am not going to try to define unschooling in this blog post or speculate on what types of unschooling are effective or not; rather, I want to give some principles that I feel apply to everyone.

3. Is Unschooling Successful?

As with anything in life, deciding whether or not unschooling is right for your child shouldn’t be based on the success stories of other people using extreme methods. What works for one family may not work well for your family. It can be really risky to base your homeschool philosophy on what a talented, persuasive author wrote in a book or a mother presented in a video about a method that may not have actually worked that well for that person’s family. That method might actually not truly be working as well as you think, or down the road, they may realize it didn’t work as well as they had wanted it to. Plus, what works for one family or child may not work for yours.

Success Can Be Found in Many Homeschooling Methods

Everyone wants their children to have wonder, love of learning, deeper faith, love of literature, and improved family relationships. Unschooling, if done right, can bring these things. These things can also be found through a structured homeschool, using curriculum that is meaningful and well planned. My family and hundreds of thousands of others are a testimony to that. How can both methods achieve the same results? Because we are all different.

Different Methods, Same Success

For example, one mother said online, “I’ve seen the positive impact unschooling and mindful parenting has had on my son, such as going from a ‘non-reader’ and one who hates to write, to a child who willingly and passionately does both. I’ve seen our parent-child relationship go from one filled with power struggles, yelling, stress . . . to a home filled with respect, love, and kindness.”

Here is a similar comment from someone who has used the more structured curriculum of The Good and the Beautiful: “My child had no motivation to do work or learn [before doing The Good and the Beautiful language arts course], and he was ornery to the extreme. I’ve marveled many times about how quickly and eagerly he has learned to read with this course, but it’s impacted his character just as deeply, as well as his confidence and initiative.”

Curriculum Can Be an Incredible Blessing

Some philosophies claim that you should never or rarely use curriculum and that even well-planned, meaningful curriculum kills creativity and love of learning in children. Such an absolute statement is a red flag, and you should have caution about what is being said. It is not a true universal principle that well-planned, meaningful curriculum kills creativity and love of learning. We know this because tens of thousands of homeschool parents have commented on how a curriculum brought love of learning and joy into their homeschool.

4. Is Unschooling Easier?

Successful unschooling doesn’t mean no schooling. Often, I have seen parents trying to follow an unschooling approach where they have little to no structure or required learning, and it doesn’t go well. They find that without a solid plan and routine guiding them, they just don’t end up doing much. They feel guilty because they know their children need more than what they’re getting. If you are wanting to unschool because it seems easier, that is a warning flag. In my experience, those who excel at unschooling are the parents who devote continuous and copious amounts of work and planning to make it intentional and successful.

5. Does Unschooling Meet My Child's Needs?
Even if you put in all the work needed for unschooling and create a great environment for your children, my personal and professional observation is that not all children thrive or progress with unschooling. It’s only certain types of children that thrive in unschooling, I believe. Children are all different, and some don’t respond well to unschooling. They need intentional teaching and more guidance and structure for their education.

Most Children Need Intentional Structure

“Intentional” is a beautiful word and can be an important principle in learning. The International Reading Organization wrote, “The ability to read and write does not develop naturally, without careful planning and instruction.” Opposites of intentional are “accidental,” “random,” and “haphazard.” People who achieve great things in life and excel in learning rarely do it unintentionally.

“People who achieve great things in life and excel in learning rarely do it unintentionally.”

— Jenny Phillips

For example, imagine taking an approach of losing weight without any intentional planning, goal setting, tracking, or accountability to someone else. All of these things have proven to greatly increase the success of losing weight. Even things like improving Bible study need intentional planning. The more you make a plan of exactly when and how you read and where you will study, the greater the chance that it will actually happen.

Intentional Guidance Leads Children to Success

Intentional guidance, goals, planning, and structure can be extremely positive tools for growth in every area of life and are almost always needed to find success. Without these tools some children will always take the easy, lazy path if their education is left up to them. Some kids absolutely won’t come to you and say they want to learn eventually. Some kids will. But I guarantee you that some kids will not.

“Trust the Unschooling Method”

Some unschoolers give the counsel to parents to just trust the unschooling method, but I have personally seen unschooling, especially extreme methods of unschooling, completely fail children academically, and it actually did not even create a love of learning or positive character traits in the children. So please be careful. I am not saying that unschooling can’t work, but I am saying that it can be dangerous to trust in an extreme method that goes against principles of intentional living and learning. All homeschooling methods and philosophies can be made to sound appealing, but if the methods are extreme, I urge you to be cautious.

6. Does Unschooling Offer a Complete Education?

Be careful about letting your child focus only on subjects that interest them now and that are easy for them. For example, one mom said, “My son was obsessed with paleontology and archaeology as a child. We were able to nurture that, but he also received a strong education in all subjects, including language arts and writing, which were definitely not his favorite subjects at the time. As an adult, when he really understood what a profession in paleontology would be like, he completely lost interest in that subject pretty quickly. Blessedly, his education in every subject left the world wide open to him so that he could excel in every single college class that he has taken, and it allowed him to pursue a totally different career path than he was interested in as a child. And he actually became an incredible academic writer and really enjoyed it.”

A young girl sitting at a table with her hands over her face and elbows on the table with paper and pencils in from of her | The Good and the Beautiful

Setting Expectations Is Good for Children

Some people are really averse to requiring a child to do something they don’t like just because we think it will be good for them. But we do require our children to brush their teeth just because it is good for them, even when they don’t want to. Not all kids will do the things they need to do to thrive in learning without being pushed and, at times, required to do the things they don’t want to do. Some will, but some won’t.

I also use the principle of not requiring. Sometimes I require; sometimes I don’t, but it’s just like this mom who wrote this example: “My nine-year-old son was complaining every day about piano practice. After prayer and pondering, I decided to sit down with him and tell him that piano was a privilege and that I was no longer going to require him to practice, but if he wanted to keep getting the opportunity for lessons, he would have to start practicing every day without complaining. He did. But if I would have taken that approach a year ago, I’m sure he would have just quit.” Timing and inspiration are so important.

7. How Do I Balance Interests and Structure in Homeschooling?

In so many areas of life, we are blessed by avoiding extremes and having balance. I believe the same is true with homeschool. In order to nurture your child's interests, you don’t have to go to the extreme of dumping all curriculum or having no structure at all, or almost no structure. On the other extreme, in order to help your child succeed academically, you don’t have to have a rigid schedule and continue using and doing things that are too overwhelming or too intense.

Worrying About Gaps in Education

I recently heard a homeschool mom teaching others to not worry about large gaps in your child’s education, saying that God would fill in the gaps. There is a balance between not worrying about gaps and being over-concerned about the gaps. It’s not one or the other.

It can be dangerous to let go of caring about the gaps. It might be easier at first, yes, but I have found that one of the most important things for my children is me praying over those gaps daily and evaluating them and asking what I need to do and finding that God largely fills the gaps in my child's lives by giving me revelation on how to guide them, help them, and provide educational opportunities to fill the gaps.

There is a beautiful balance in the middle where we give the worry to God, yes, but we are also seeking, praying, pleading for His guidance in filling those large gaps and then listening for His guidance and being willing to do the work and go to the effort needed.

8. Should My Child Lead Their Education?
Some parents wonder if it is more of a beautiful, heart-led approach to let the child be in charge of their education and not require anything from them.
My personal advice is to be very careful with living only by that philosophy, and here is why: Children do not have the life experience, discernment, critical-thinking skills, and wisdom that a parent has.

Allow Children Age-Appropriate Choices

Children love choices and thrive on making them, and you can give your child so many choices in homeschool, but it is important to remember that children have not yet developed the maturity, ability to discern, and critical-thinking skills that parents have. Also consider that while choices can be fun for children, many get overwhelmed by having too many choices, having open-ended decisions without guidance, or having to make too many choices themselves.

Beauty and Balance in Children Conquering Challenges

I am witness to the fact that you can require children to do hard things, and it ends up being a huge life-changing blessing to them. At other times, I have seen blessings when I didn't require things that were too difficult and instead offered grace and flexibility. Don't be ruled by a set philosophy. Be ruled by the spirit of God guiding you. I strongly believe that sometimes requiring certain schoolwork is so helpful and needed, and sometimes not requiring things is so helpful and needed, but never requiring hard work or helping kids gain grit can be dangerous.

One of our employees said, “My son is very gifted, and since he is so ahead in grade levels, I usually let him do more interest-led topics. However, I started noticing that he would follow his interest until it got hard. He stopped and moved on to something else. When I noticed this, I began requiring certain schoolwork, and he would cry and break down and just COULDN’T handle the hard work part. Everything came so easily for him that he hardly ever learned that grit is needed to do hard things. I realized that my child wasn’t gaining grit or the ability to do hard work.”

We worry that if a child isn’t smiling and loving every moment of homeschooling, or if we push our children to do hard things, they won’t love learning, and that is not the case. There is a balance, for sure, between pushing and not pushing. All kids are going to be different in how much pushing they need or shouldn’t have.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I have heard some really inspiring stories of unschooling. I think that all homeschoolers can learn some beautiful things from the unschooling philosophy that can be applied to your homeschool, whether you unschool or not.

We have a lot of unschoolers that use our products, and I am inspired by so many of them and the precious, amazing children they are raising, and how committed and successful they are in their homeschool journey.

Allow God to Direct Your Family’s Homeschooling Journey

Let me end with this: There is a lot of homeschooling advice out there, and we need help from each other. We can learn from the experiences and insights of others, but the truth is, we are all different. What works for some people might not work for you.

"One thing I do know is true for all homeschoolers is that God will give you the guidance you need if you seek it."

– Jenny Phillips

Learn what you can from the advice of experienced people who are genuine, and then consider your own personality, your own strengths and weaknesses, and your own children and their needs. Then seek God’s guidance. One thing I do know is true for all homeschoolers is that God will give you the guidance you need if you seek it.

If you’re looking to start homeschooling, check out our How to Start Homeschooling page. If you’re looking for more beautiful and enriching curriculum for your child, check out our curriculum shop.