Unschooling: What It Is, How It Works and Whether It Fits Your Family

What is unschooling?

Unschooling is homeschooling without a fixed curriculum. Instead of following lessons by grade, children learn by doing things that matter to them: reading, building, asking questions, playing, cooking, gardening, coding, volunteering, taking classes they choose and spending time with adults who share their interests.

The parent's job changes from teacher to facilitator. You notice what your child is curious about, put books, tools and people in their path, and help them go deeper. If a 9-year-old is obsessed with sharks, that might turn into library books, a trip to an aquarium, a documentary, a drawing project, a fact sheet they write, and some math on how fast sharks swim.

Where unschooling came from

• Ivan Illich published Deschooling Society in 1971, arguing that institutional schooling could not deliver universal education.
• John Holt, a former teacher often called the father of unschooling, used the term in the 1970s and popularized it through his newsletter Growing Without Schooling, which was running by 1977.
• Sandra Dodd later popularized radical unschooling, which applies the same approach to all of family life, not just academics.
• Peter Gray, a research psychologist, prefers the term self-directed education.

Unschooling vs. homeschooling

Unschooling is a type of homeschooling, not something separate. Legally, an unschooler is a homeschooler. The difference is method.

What does an unschooling day look like?

No two look alike, which is the point. Here is a realistic Tuesday for a family with a 7-year-old and an 11-year-old:

Some days are packed. Others are slow. Over a year, unschooling families count on breadth adding up.

Is unschooling legal?

Yes, in every state, because it is homeschooling. But you must still meet your state's homeschool law, and that shapes how you unschool.

Two examples of how this plays out:

• Texas sets no notice or testing, but the law requires a bona fide curriculum in visual form (books, workbooks, video) that covers reading, spelling, grammar, math and good citizenship. Unschoolers there typically keep a list of books and materials used for each.
• New York requires an Individualized Home Instruction Plan, quarterly reports and a yearly assessment. Unschoolers there write plans broad enough to cover their real learning, then log what happened by subject.

Read your state's page in our homeschool laws by state hub before you start. Always meet the letter of the law, even if your style is relaxed.

What does the research say?

Research on unschooling is thin, and most of it relies on small, self-selected samples. Here's what exists:

• Gray and Riley survey (2013, published 2014): 75 adults who had been unschooled for at least two high-school-age years answered a detailed survey. 83% had pursued some higher education, and 44% had finished or were enrolled in a bachelor's program, many after starting at community college. 78% said they were financially self-supporting. 72 of 75 said the advantages outweighed the disadvantages. Common difficulties were criticism from others and some social isolation. The authors stress the sample was self-selected and skewed toward satisfied respondents.
• Martin-Chang and colleagues (2011): a small study of children ages 5 to 10 found unschooled children scored lower than structured homeschoolers on all seven academic measures studied, and lower than schooled children on four of seven.

The honest takeaway: unschooling can lead to good adult outcomes, especially for self-motivated kids with engaged parents, but young unschooled children may lag on standardized measures of early skills. Many families respond by keeping light structure for reading and math.

Unschooling pros and cons

How to start unschooling

1. Meet your state's legal requirements first. File notices and plan for any testing or evaluation.
2. Deschool. If your child is leaving school, give them time to rest and rediscover curiosity. Our deschooling guide explains how.
3. Strew. Leave interesting books, games, kits and tools around the house. Rotate them.
4. Say yes to questions. Look things up together. Follow tangents.
5. Use your community. Libraries, museums, makerspaces, nature centers, mentors, volunteering.
6. Offer classes, don't require them. Online class marketplaces let kids choose short courses on what they love.
7. Keep a simple log. Write down what happened each day and tag it by subject. It takes five minutes, satisfies most state rules and shows you how much learning is happening.
8. Revisit reading and math. If a child isn't reading by 8 or 9, or avoids numbers entirely, consider an evaluation or gentle structure. Unschooling doesn't mean ignoring a learning difference.

Unschooling a teenager

Teens can unschool high school, but think ahead. Keep records you can turn into a transcript, consider community college classes for credit, and know which tests your teen's goals might require. Our guides to homeschool high school and making a homeschool transcript show how to turn projects and interests into credits.

Unschooling compared with other approaches

• Charlotte Mason shares the love of real books and nature but uses short, planned lessons. See Charlotte Mason.
• Montessori is child-led within a carefully prepared environment and set materials. See Waldorf vs. Montessori.
• Self-directed microschools such as Acton Academy bring child-led learning into a small group. See microschools.

Programs that help

Unschoolers don't need curriculum, but good resources make strewing easy:

• Outschool: short live online classes on almost any interest, chosen by the child.
• Khan Academy: free, self-paced lessons for when a child wants to learn a skill formally.
• KiwiCo: monthly build-it-yourself project kits that spark hands-on science and engineering.
• Scratch: free block coding for making games and animations.
• Duolingo: free language practice for kids who get curious about a language.

Browse more in best online classes for kids and best educational websites for kids. Save what interests your child to a wishlist. In states with ESAs or homeschool grants, classes, kits and materials may be covered, so check homeschool funding for your state.