EU009: Ten Questions with Amy Childs
Amy Childs is an unschooling mom to three lovable, and now adult, children. She’s also the producer of The Unschooling Life Podcast and a happiness consultant.
In today’s episode, I ask her ten questions about her unschooling experience.
Quote of the Week
“Raising children with an emphasis on intrinsic rewards is not a technique, a method or a trick to get them to do what the parent wants them to by subtler means, but a way of life, a way of living with children with real respect for their intelligence and for their being.” ~ Mary Van Doren
Ten Questions for Amy
1. First, can you share with us a bit about you and your family, and how you came to unschooling?
2. I really enjoy hearing about what unschooled young adults are up to. I love the amazingly wide range of things, and knowing that even if it looks like regular young adult stuff, they are approaching it with such a different mindset. Can you share what your children have been up to lately?
3. You’ve been running number of unschooling intro sessions in Philadelphia for local parents this year. That’s very cool! How have they been going?
4. What was one of the more challenging aspects of your journey to unschooling?
5. You produced 50 episodes of The Unschooling Life Podcast, congratulations! I’d like to ask you a couple of questions about the experience. Which was your favourite episode?
6. Which of the episodes did you feel you learned even more, either about unschooling or about yourself, by putting together?
7. You took a year off in 2011. I love how you described it on your blog at the time: “All three of my kids (ages 18, 20, 23) are in transitional times of life, and lately we’d been playing with various ideas for how to accommodate their various phases. When it hit me that if my son replaced me as “head of the household” everyone’s needs would be satisfied at once, it was just … voila! All I had to do was relinquish all acquired comforts, and head solo into the wild unknown. My specialty!” How did it go?
8. Almost 14 years ago when we first began unschooling, the pursuit of joy and happiness felt indulgent, like it should be a reward after the work of the day was done. I had no idea back then that pursuing joy would turn out to be the root of so much good in our lives—cultivating our curiosity, learning, creativity, even our mindset and how we approach our days. So I love that you describe yourself as a happiness consultant! How did you come to use that description?
9. I noticed you recently posted a couple of new episodes of your podcast, Whatever, Whatever, Amen. Can you tell us a bit about that project?
10. Looking back now, what, for you, has been the most valuable outcome from choosing unschooling?
Links to things mentioned in the show
Amy’s personal website: amychilds.com
Amy’s unschooling podcast: The Unschooling Life Podcast
Amy’s other podcast: Whatever Whatever Amen
