We also tend to unschooling, though not completely. DS7 is very self-motivated in most areas and if he has something he wants to learn, it always trumps whatever I had planned. But, I do usually have something lined up for those times that he's not working on his own thing. Usually what happens is that I'll introduce a new topic and something about it will spark his interest and he'll run with it (which is part of the reason we're still not quite done with Story of the World Vol. 1 after over a year, lol). We tend to meander through topics and get lost on tangents.
But, there are some subjects that he just doesn't choose on his own with enough regularity for me to believe that he's really challenging himself- mainly math and writing. Those subjects I will schedule things for him to learn and work on. I try to keep them palatable, I try to incorporate them in ways that make them relevant to what he's interested in, but whether he enjoys them or not, they have to be done because working on things we don't enjoy or maybe aren't very good at is just as important as doing what we love.
We do very little or no workbook or textbook work. We tend to use "living books" (I really do love the Charlotte Mason description of books) and do unit studies. DS7 is very good at trivia-type knowledge, my goal is to give him context and deep understanding of the things he already knows. I don't want to drive *what* he learns, I want to help guide him in how he thinks about it and the connections he makes using what he already knows.
But, this is just what works for us and it has taken us some time to get here. We had a lot of mis-steps before I figured out that for the most part, DS just needs me to get out of his way and for DS to realize that if he wants me to give him space to learn what he wants, then he's going to have to appease me and learn the few things I think are important for him.
