Natural, parent and child led

Today I met with a new to homeschooling mom. She's just pulled her two boys (5th and 3rd grade) out of public school and wants some help planning her homeschool. I offered to help so today we sat down and talked. We talked about what I do, what she wants to do, what different curricula are like, the different schooling philosophies and I have to say, I'm amazed at what I learnt about myself. Particularly this bit of our talk:
M: "So, what's your homeschool like, I mean, what's you teaching method."
Me: "We're classical homeschoolers, inspired by the Well - Trained Mind."
M: "Classical? Does that mean school at home?"
Me: "No, or rather, yes and no. We do bookwork but I don't try to duplicate school. I believe in a more natural, parent and child driven approach."
Whoa! Where did that come from? "I believe in a more natural, parent and child driven approach." We aren't school at home people, we have a schoolroom and do bookwork but I've never wanted to educate in the same manner as the school, I've wanted to avoid it! But the more I think the more I realize that we are a parent and child driven homeschool, despite my previous thoughts.
1. Custom curricula
I always consider which child I'm choosing a curriculum for before buying. While Douglas is doing great with Saxon Math Megan couldn't stand it. But Megan excels with Miquon Math and Douglas "looses" all his math knowledge when a Miquon book is placed in front of him.
Chelsea is happy to write about anything but David can only do writing in moderation. I'm working on making a plan of our curriculum for K-12th if I can but I know that it won't be what each child uses.

2. Asking DC
Before I make a firm decision about a child's curriculum I tend to check to make sure that it looks good with them. I am the mother, I have the last word, if they say "I don't want to do any math this year." too bad, they're doing math. If I say "Chelsea, would you like me to order Classical Writing Aesop for you?" and Chelsea says "Mom! I'm halfway through Homer A, I need Homer B, not Aesop!" I'll consider buying Homer B instead of Aesop. I'll take their input seriously, this is after all their schooling, but I won't let their every whim dominate my decision.

3. This is boring, I don't like this
If a child says "Spelling is boring." or "I don't like spelling." I will ask why. Sometimes they're just trying to get out of doing a subject but usually there really is something wrong. My kids are pretty honest they know that lying is wrong and bad and that I don't except lazily done work.
When DC is having a problem we try a different approach, games or some time off have often helped put the cheeriness back in school.

4. Letting them discover
I have decided to take a discovery approach to science. This means creating our own science library so that my kids have access to books and other resources when they feel in a science mood. I am also making a discovery based science curriculum because I need some structure.
I feel that a discovery approach makes sense for science because that is how science has come about, through discoveries.
I am also going for a more natural approach to spelling, no more "learn" to spell this list of words curriculum. Instead I am thinking of taking words from our reading and writing and having those be our spelling words. That way, DC will be using the words we are spelling and I will choose words that DC has trouble spelling instead of words that are in the curriculum but they already can spell.

I'm tiered and starting to make less and less sense so I think I'll go to bed. :D