Teri DeMarco

Teri DeMarco is an unschooling mom in the greater Boston area where she lives with her husband, Edwin and her kids, Wyatt, Cole (both 16) and Emily (14). A life-long learner, Teri chose to stay at home with her kids and set about raising confident, happy children who know and pursue their passions. Little did she know the Hero’s Journey she was about to embark would inform so many other choices in the ensuing years.

Teri’s family began unschooling in 2013, when she realized that one of the best school districts in MA was not serving her sons well. The thought that her boys would lose their love of learning so early on in their education career was a sobering reality. Fresh out of a New England based unschooling conference, Teri & Edwin made the decision to follow a different path and un-enroll their children from school.

What came next was a long, revelatory deschooling process that, while intense and encompassing for only the first few years, continues to this day. Every year presents new opportunities and new challenges for her family and each member embraces their choices, in their own time, in a supportive environment. This lifestyle required Teri and Edwin to reassess what “normal” meant to their family and they had to tweeze apart assumptions and personal biases in order to best support each individual child as they discovered and practiced the systems that best support their interests and learning.

The bulk of these years the kids have been avid gamers who fiercely protect their autonomy to define their daily process. Friends mostly exist on Skype and Discord, as there are few friends who live close enough to engage regularly. Sleep, food, personal hygiene and other important developmental requirements have evolved naturally to meet the needs of each child. And oh, so many lessons for mom and dad were learned along the way. Teri enjoys sharing the good, the bad and the interesting to others who are at different phases of their journey.