🎙️How to Know When Unschooling Is — and Isn’t — Working

What if the homeschooling philosophy everyone praises… isn’t actually the right fit for your child?

Hello everyone, I’m Dr. Claire Honeycutt of ClarifiEd, and this is Tried & True Homeschooling — where we talk with real parents who have actually graduated their kids. They are filled with the most incredible wisdom.

Today I’m speaking with Larissa Phillips — writer, adult literacy advocate, farmer, and veteran homeschooling mom. After leaving the city for rural farm life, her family embraced an idyllic unschooling life: raising animals, building projects, and riding horses under the moonlight.

But over time, Larissa realized something difficult.

What worked beautifully for one child was quietly failing another — specifically her quirky, gifted son who struggled both inside and outside traditional school.

In this deeply honest conversation, we explore the strengths and limitations of unschooling, why some children need more structure than others, the hidden social challenges of homeschooling, and how to recognize when it’s time to pivot.

This episode isn’t our usual super upbeat fair, but it’s deeply important. Larissa brings rare humility and wisdom to one of the hardest questions in education.

How do we balance freedom and formation for the unique child in front of us?

Larissa is one of the bravest moms I know, and I hope you’ll enjoy learning from her as much as I did.

If you’d like to connect more with Larissa, you can find her on her substack Larissa’s Substack.

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Your support means the world to me – and without which this podcast would not exist. Your help allows me to pay for equipment, editing software, and my time creating new content every week.